Autograph Manuscript in Hebrew [on Kabbalistic topics]

MENACHEM MENDEL OF SHKLOV.

(Jerusalem)

c. 1824

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 and subsequently published (Kithvei HaGrM”M Za”L). R. Menachem Mendel of Shklov was singularly responsible for obtaining from the Ottoman authorities, the property rights to Jerusalem’s famed Churvah Synagogue. 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.”