Letter Written by Rabbi Eliezer Silver in 1956 to Rabbi Yudel Grodner on Certain Halachos of Korban

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By the grace of G-d, Sunday of the Torah portion of Shemos 5716 (1956)
 
To my soul-friend and son-in-law the scholarly genius Rabbi Yudel Grodner, may he live and be well. Shalom.
My beloved son (?), having perused all of the various editions of Rambam (Maimonides) that are in my possession and also a number of his super-commentaries, [I have found] the wording [to be the same] in all of them: “on this altar [one may offer up] all sacrifices, even though the temple is not extant”. The meaning of ‘This altar’ is [notwithstanding] that the place (measurement?) of the altar varied from sanctuary to sanctuary. For in the Temple of Solomon they expanded the area of the pyre from 1 cubit x 1 cubit (as it had been in the tabernacle) to 20 x 20. The [returning] exiles further expanded it to 24 x 24, for we are permitted to expand it under Rabbinic instruction…

1. According to the opinion he (i.e. you) quote that the evening services were established in place of the burning of the animal limbs (on the altar. The fats and limbs of the daily sacrifices that had not been burned by day were allowed to be burned at night.) and not by our forefathers, it follows then that since the fats of weekday sacrifices may not be offered up on Shabbat eve – nor on Yom Tov or Yom Kippur – evening services should not be held on those nights!

1. In his discussion of whether a blessing is to be made over the performance of a Minhag (custom) he ought to have mentioned the debate over whether one makes a blessing on lighting the Yom Kippur candle as discussed in Ros”h (R. Asher b. Jacob), Radva”z (R. David b. Zimra), Machzik Beracha, and others. Also, whether one is to make a blessing over immersion during the “days of pure blood” (biblically, any blood that a woman encounters from 8 to 40 days after having given birth to a boy and 15 to 80 days after having given birth to a girl, is rendered pure. Nowadays however, all blood is rendered impure, requiring the woman to immerse in the Mikvah even for blood encountered during the “days of pure blood”) which [is a matter of contention among] many Halachic authorities.

1. In his list of questions regarding Hallel I think he should have included why is it that the word "היתה" – “was (or perhaps “became” – in the context of the verse   "אבן מאסו וגו'  " – “the stone etc.”) is in the feminine – a difficulty which is well resolved in the context of his exposition. “There is grace in the words of the wise man’s mouth”.