Autograph Manuscript in Hebrew

R. Menachem Mendel of Shklov (d. 1827) was the senior disciple of Elijah, the Gaon of Vilna. He emigrated to Eretz Israel in 1808 where he led the community of the Vilna Gaon's followers. The present manuscript was unearthed among R. Menachem Mendel's Kabbalistic writings recently discovered in Jerusalem. Subsequenly published (Kithvei HaGrM"M Za"L), this prayer is reproduced in facsimile and the handwriting is confirmed as being R. Menachem Mendel's own. R. Menachem Mendel of Shklov was singularly responsible in obtaining from the Ottoman authorities, the property rights to Jerusalem's famed Churvah Synagogue. In the course of his efforts, enormous funds were employed and in this manuscript, R. Menachem Mendel besseches God in a most emotive style to find a solution to his monetary debts without being forced to leave the Holy Land. Unusually, for a personal prayer, the Tetragrammaton is spelld out in full. See Kithvei Ha-GrM"M Za"L, Vol I pp. (6-7) and 11-12. See also A.L. Frumkin, Toldoth Chachmei Yerushalayim, Part III, p. 158, who cites a manuscript in his possession, wherein R. Menachem Mendel states: "With God's help, I have rescued the Churvah of Jerusalem from their hands." A distinctive, historically important and unusually personal and emotive document