Moses ben Tzvi Chaim. She’elah [“Query”: Propaganda by the emissary of Safed and Tiberias against the newly-appointed Chabad emissary of Hebron]

(ISRAEL, LAND OF)

Cartallier

Venice

1821

Addressed by hand to R. Elijah Aaron Lattes, Chief Rabbi of Venice. Printer’s device on final page

Vinograd, Venice 2174

Propaganda Against the Chabad Emissary of Hebron By 1819 relations between the Chabad (Lubavitch) faction of Chassidim and the other Chassidim (as well as the Perushim or Mithnagdim) in Safed and Tiberias had so deteriorated that fifteen Chabad families set out for the southern city of Hebron to found there a new community of their own. The communities of Safed and Tiberias felt financially threatened by this declaration of independence. In order to block the fundraising activities of the newly-appointed Chabad ermissary on behalf of the community of Hebron, Moses ben Tzvi Chaim, representative of Safed and Tiberias, published in Venice what purports to be an innocent “She’elah” or question of Jewish law. In reality, it is a diatribe against the Hebronites, accusing them of unjustly violating the status quo. Ya’ari writes that the Chabad Chassidim continued to successfully fundraise in their native Russia, as well as in the Middle and Far East in conjunction with the Sephardic community of Hebron. Italy too remained within the range of Hebronite fundraising - despite the “She’elah.” See Ya’ari, Shluchei Eretz Yisrael (1977), pp. 679-682, 885