Rare emissary’s letter to Samarkand (Uzbekistan) appointing the city’s resident R’ Reuven Gabrioloff as emissary on behalf of the Ahavat Re’im society and study hall in Tiberias. Signed with the illustrated signatures of five Sephardic sages in Tiberias: Rabbi Moshe Dwech, Rabbi Moshe Yifrach, Rabbi Nissim Eliyahu Mamman, Rabbi Pinchas Raphael Toledano and Rabbi Aharon HaKohen Skali. Tiberias, 1910.
This emissary’s letter was written in scribal script, in professional Oriental penmanship, on a large sheet together with the signatures of the Tiberias sages and the Chevrat Ahavat Re’im stamp in the margins. Decorations appear around the written text [Azriel Press, Jerusalem] with psukim , ma’amarei Chaza”l , the form of Beit Midrash Ahavat Re’im and additional graphic designs. Many unknown details can be gleaned from this lengthy and detailed manuscript about Chevrat Ahavat Re’im. [It was established in 1890; its goal was to settle Tiberias. It maintained a yeshivah with seventeen Torah scholars and a Talmud Torah, as well as supporting the poor and orphans.]
The Ahavat Re’im Society – We did not find much material in history books about the Ahavat Re’im Society in Tiberias. In the book Mayim Amukim Galei Amikta – Shoshanat HaAmakim (Jerusalem, 1978), it states that the Agudah ran a yeshivah “among the magnificent yeshivahs established during that period in the sacred city of Tiberias, the yeshivah of the Ahavat Re’im society by the young rabbis of Tiberias, and it was called Yeshivah Keter Torah. It was founded in 1898 by young rabbis. In the first years they were joined by other rabbis who consistently studied Shas with its major commentaries. Rabbi Yaakov Chai Berdugo was appointed to the administration of the yeshivah. Together with others, he helped it advance to the point that it was considered one of the best yeshivahs in the city.”
Rabbi Shlomo Miara in his book Geonei Mishpachat Abuchatzera (Part 4, Elad 2014) writes about the Ahavat Re’im society: “An association founded in the year 1895 by approximately twenty residents of Tiberias who gathered into one association. This group purchased the second floor of a building in the center of the market in the old city and opened in the large room on this second floor under the name Ahavat Re’im. The synagogue was led by Chacham Moshe Yifrach and Chacham Yitzchak Nattan. On weekdays, about three minyanim prayed there, and more people joined them on Shabbat and on Yom Tov, approximately another minyan. This synagogue was destroyed by Arab rioters in the pogroms of 1936-1939.
Refer to the Hebrew catalog text for brief biographies of Chacham Moshe Yifrach , Rabbi Nissim Eliyahu Mamman , Rabbi Pinchas Raphael Toledano and Rabbi Aharon HaKohen Skali .
[1] sheet paper, 41 cm.
Moderate condition. Aging stains. Tears with a blemish in the margins of the border and in a few words. Partially restored with pasted-on paper.