Responsa על ויקרא 19:17
Teshuvot Maharshal
"My beloved Rabbi Joseph Josel, greetings!
As yet you have given only evasive answers to my letters. You have scolded your friends who reminded you that you left a family behind. You have shown great animosity to those who reprimanded you therefor. But the biblical law (Leviticus 19:17) 'Thou shalt surely rebuke thy neighbor' obliges me to write to you again. Moreover, I could not refrain from seeing the grief, tears, and broken-down condition of your chaste wife. Is she to wait for you all her life? And as far as you are concerned, is this to be the life of a scholar? Furthermore, no scholar is allowed to separate from his wife for more than three years; and may God save you from that! How much blood have you shed, your own and your children's!
As yet you have given only evasive answers to my letters. You have scolded your friends who reminded you that you left a family behind. You have shown great animosity to those who reprimanded you therefor. But the biblical law (Leviticus 19:17) 'Thou shalt surely rebuke thy neighbor' obliges me to write to you again. Moreover, I could not refrain from seeing the grief, tears, and broken-down condition of your chaste wife. Is she to wait for you all her life? And as far as you are concerned, is this to be the life of a scholar? Furthermore, no scholar is allowed to separate from his wife for more than three years; and may God save you from that! How much blood have you shed, your own and your children's!
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