The Halitzah shoe of Rabbi Yosef Eliyahu Henkin

This past week, I acquired much from the remaining contents of the former offices of Ezras Torah, which were located for many decades on the upper floors of 235 E Broadway, on the Lower East Side, sharing the building with Agudas Harabonim of America and Canada. The highlight for me of my finds there, alongside many other items of historical importance, was a Halitzah Shoe, found in the room used as an office by Rabbi Yosef Eliyahu Henkin (1881–1973), during his many decades as director of Ezras Torah, a position he held from 1925 until his death in 1973.

Rav Henkin's grandson, R. Eitam Henkin hy"d wrote of his grandfather, that for many decades, despite all the difficulties and obstacles he encountered, Rav Henkin would work 6 days a week and climb the stairs up to the third floor to this office. In the late 1960s, when his health deteriorated, he would work on the first floor, in the offices of the Agudas Harabonim and in the last period of his life, when his health limited his mobility, he would continue his work on behalf of the Jewish People from his home. 

This shoe, which appears to be 100-150 years old is a fascinating memento from the illustrious career of R. Henkin and particularly the post-war years in which R. Henkin served as the ultimate Rabbinic authority in the United States. Already in 1928, Rav Henkin published articles regarding the issues of Halitzah in America, where women who needed a Halitzah to allow them remarry, often led to Agunot issues, if the brothers of her late husband lived in the old world. Visas were very hard to obtain, even if the brother was willing to come to America for the ceremony. Prior to R. Henkin, the Agudath HaRabbanim dealt with this issue as well and sent a letter to its membership in 1922 alerting them to this situation and offering assistance in helping these women acquire temporary visas to the United States thereby allowing these women to obtain a halitzah and to remarry.

Following the Holocaust, many surviving agunot, had their status complicated if they were married before the war and none of the brothers of their late husband were known to have survived. Under the Biblical system of levirate marriage known as yibbum, the process by which a childless widow and a brother of her deceased husband avoid getting married entails the ceremony of Halitzah. R. Henkin was instrumental in releasing many of these women from marriage as well as the many other Halitzah ceremonies which he performed.

The Halitzah shoe is unique in many ways, and to satisfy the multitude of different opinions as to how it should be made and how the ceremony is performed, the shoe has many peculiarities. This handmade shoe is made from leather from a kosher animal, the sole is sewn in from the outside with leather threads and the straps are leather as well. The straps are unusually long, to enable them to be wrapped around the leg several times, including on the back of the shoe, where holes are cut out, to enable the straps to be inserted. The shoe is not made in pairs, rather is a right foot shoe only.