Igereth HaSheluchah MeChachmei V’Rabbanei HaAschkenazim Sheb’Eretz Yisrael L’B'nei Moshe Rabbeinu V’Asereth HaShevatim [“Letter sent from the Aschkenazic sages and rabbis in the Land of Israel to the descendants of Moses and the Ten Tribes.”]

(TEN LOST TRIBES)

for Hirschel Lehren

Amsterdam

1830

Printed without a title-page.

Vinograd, Amsterdam 2554.

An extraordinary letter written by the renowned leader of the Old Yishuv, Israel of Schklow, on behalf of Baruch b. Samuel of Pinsk in his search for the remnants of the Ten Tribes. This published version details the development of the Oral Law, the bitter history of Exilic Israel, the struggle to resettle the Holy Land, and concludes with requests for prayer, charity and an increase in the number of righteous scholars resident in the Holy Land. In his search, R. Baruch traveled across Syria, Mesopotamia and Kurdistan, reaching Yemen in 1833. It was there, in San’a, he was executed under suspicion of espionage. See Yaari, Sheluchei Eretz Yisrael pp.147-48, 779-80; L. Jung, Men of the Spirit (1964) pp.75-6.