El Harei Hamor Givoth HaLevonah [“To the ‘High Moutains’ (i.e communal leaders)...An Appeal for Funds for the Jewish community of Lublin.]

(POLAND).

(Lublin)

1708-1710

Manuscript on paper. Two leaves in a magnificent calligraphic Aschkenazic scribal hand. Salutatory paragraph and panel on verso are addressed in a general manner to Jewish communal leaders and Rabbis. Another panel on the verso is addressed to Aaron Abrahams Beer

Important manuscript pertaining to the communal history of Lublin. In flowery language, the first page of the document details the trials and tribulations of the Lublin community due to the travails of war, heavy taxes, deteriorating economic conditions and the fact that a number of communal leaders were falsely arrested. Two esteemed emissaries were sent to visi Jewish communities abroad, in order to raise funds to liberate the community in Lublin from its strife: Rabbi Faivush b. Yoseph, the Rabbi of Shidlovtza and R. Leib b. Yaakov, former Rabbi in Nikolsburg. The second page contains letters of support attesting to the sad situation (written in the same scribal hand) from: R. Gavriel b. Mahril (Eskeles) of Cracow, Rabbi of Nikolsburg; R. Naftali HaKohen of Frankfurt (author of Semichath Chachamim); and R. Tzvi Hirsch b. Yaakov, Rabbi of Amsterdam (author of Chacham Tzvi). R. Gavriel Eskeles' responsa are cited in Teshuvoth Panim Meiroth and a letter from him to the Chacham Tzvi accusing the controversial Nechemia Chiya Chayun of forging his signature and approbation to Chayun's works was published in Amsterdam, 1714