Goral Kodesh al Kethivath Sepher Torah…LeBeth Hamidrash… R. Shimon Bar Yochai.

(ISRAEL, LAND OF)

Safed

1894

Title-page in large calligraphic square letters in gold. Opening leaf with thirteen signatures of the Aschkenazic communal leaders of Safed, including Nathan Turhavitz (Trowitz), Naphtali Chaneles and Joseph Schapira (with his stamp a number of times throughout).

A raffle-book for a charity organized under the supervision of the Beth Din of Safed, seeking to raise funds for the composition of a new Torah Scroll to be placed at the tomb of R. Shimon Bar Yochai. With well over a hundred names of buyers on receipts numbered 16-249, with comments concerning methods of payment. In addition to personal names, identification of occupation and town of origin also recorded. Tipped in: Two page letter (dated 1897) written to the Chassidic Rabbi Moshe Hager, presently in Haifa, from the Chevrah Zohar, Shas, Mishnayoth, VeShulchan Aruch BeBeth Hamidrash Rashb’i of Safed, containing a list of 37 names of women and the amounts of charitable pledges. Important for record of names of those living in the Safed area at the end of the 19th-century.