Letter from Rabbi Shmuel Salant of Jerusalem to donors. Jerusalem, [1889].
Specifications: [1] leaf, paper. 14×22 cm. With Rabbi Salant’s signature and stamp.
Unique features: Letter regarding funds he received for sick people and their distribution: “… now that the money has reached my hands, I can distribute it with integrity and give two thirds to the Ashkenazim and a third to the Sephardim, not because I have more affinity for the Ashkenazim, but because it is b’ezrat Hashem closer to the truth ….”
Background: Rabbi Shmuel Salant (1816-1909) was known in his youth as the prodigy from Keidan. He studied in the Volozhin yeshiva and received rabbinical ordination from Rabbi Avraham Abba Pasvaller and Rabbi Yaakov Bruchin, rabbi of Karlin. When he immigrated to Jerusalem in Adar of 1841, he served as Av Beit Din of the Ashkenazic beit din in the city. After the death of his father-in-law, Rabbi Yosef Zundel of Salant, he was appointed to succeed him as rabbi of Jerusalem. He was a famed leader and adjudcator who led the community for about fifty years until his passing.
Condition: Very fine.