(ISRAEL, LAND OF).

(Tzefath)

1888

Pictorial view of the City of Tzefath (Safed) Manuscript in Hebrew depicting the Burial-Sites of the Righteous in Safed. Single manuscript leaf. Aschkenazic cursive Hebrew script, black ink on paper. Composed for one Elijah Tzvi by Isaac Botishan, noting within which hillside caverns it was customary to pray. Captioned in Aschkenazic cursive script

A combined diagrammatic portrayal of the city of Tzefath and its environs with artistic embellishments such as trees and hillocks. The artist Yitzchak Botishan writes at top to his the esteemed Torah scholar Eliyah Tzvi: "I have executed his request and am sending a well-explained picture of Tzefath with the sacred cemetery and the graves of the tzaddikim; also Meron and the vicinity of R. Shimon ben Yochai, and the other tanna'im residing in the caves on the mountains surrounding Tzefath that the holy AR"I revealed to us. We are wont to go pray at their gravesites. As of yet, I have visited only R. Shimon ben Yochai and his son R. El'azar; R. Yitzchak Napacha; R. Yochanan HaSandlar and R. Yehudah bar Ila'i." It would appear the composer of this manuscript, Yitzchak Botishan, was a Chassidic Jew from Botoshan (Botosani), Rumania, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This would explain the prominence given to the grave of R. Chaim Chernovitser, as well as to the "Austrian consul[ate]." The portrayal is reasonably accurate. At top, we have the mountain of Tzefath divided into "the City of the Ishmaelites" [i.e., Arabs] at right, and "the City of the Jews" front and center. Singled out for mention are the historic synagogues: R. Isaac Luria, R. Isaac Aboab; R. Isaac HaLavan ("Weisser Tzaddik"). Coming down the slope of the mountain, we arrive at the ancient cemetery containing the graves of: AR"I, Alsheich HaKadosh, "the holy Avritcher" [i.e. R. Dov Baer of Avrutch, author Bath Ayin]; R. Chaim Chernovitser, Beth Joseph [i.e. R. Joseph Karo], Recanati, et al. Directly below the cemetery at right is a postscript: "Regards to his modest wife Gittel. I prayed at the graves of the righteous that you should merit children, and that you be inscribed and sealed for a good year…and that you merit to come to the Holy Land in peace and success. My wife and daughter also send their regards.