Shadar Document signed, in praise of the emissary R. Isaac Motro signed by the leaders of the Ashkenazic (Perushim), Chassidic and Sephardic communities of Jerusalem. Addressed to the Jewish communities of Italy

(ISRAEL, LAND OF).

(Jerusalem)

ca. 1855

Manuscript on paper in Hebrew and Italian in a variety of Ashkenazic and Sephardic cursive scripts. Plus one leaf containing a shortened printed version in Italian with some Hebrew words

This document contains the signatures of eleven important leaders of all three communities residing in Jerusalem. Included are the leaders of the Aschkenazic (Perushim) community: R. Isaiah bar Yissachar Bardaki (d.1862), the son-in-law of R. Israel of Shklov (signed twice); R. Uri Shabbethi ben Chaim, Dayan in Jerusalem, the son-in-law of R. Zundel Salant; R. Moshe ben R. Yitzchak (Cheshin) of Chaslawitz; and R. Menachem Mendel Segal. The signatories from the Chassidic community include: R. Nissan Bak and R. Shomo Pinchas of Haisin. The signatories from the Sephardic community include: Chief Rabbi Chaim Nissan Aboulafia; Dayan Chaim Moshe Pisanti; and Chaim David Chazan. Shelucha de-Rachmana (“Shadar”) was the title given rabbinical emissaries who were sent on missions from the Holy Land into the lands of the Diaspora. These men were scholars of the highest repute and greatest dedication whose task it was to deepen ties, as well as collect funds needed to support the Jews of Eretz Israel. Abraham Ya’ari writes of the tremendous importance of these missions in his voluminous Sheluchei Eretz Yisrael (Jerusalem, 1951). Regarding the emissary of the present document, Rabbi Isaac Motro, see Yaari, Shluchei Eretz Yisrael, p. 692