Letter From Rabbi Shmuel Salant, Rabbi Yosef Zundel Salant and Reb Shaya Bardaki to Sir Moses Montefiore ...

Letter From Rabbi Shmuel Salant, Rabbi Yosef Zundel Salant and Reb Shaya Bardaki to Sir Moses Montefiore, Jerusalem 1859.

Rabbi Yeshaya Bardaki (1790 - 1863) was a disciple of Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin, son-in-law of Rabbi Yisrael of Shklov, author of Pe'as Hashulchan. He worked tirelessly and accomplished much for the sake of Jewish settlement in Jerusalem.

Rabbi Shmuel Salant (1806-1909), studied Torah in Salant and Volozhin, son-in-law of Rabbi Yosef Zundel Salant and settled in Yerushalayim in 1841, where he became Av Beth Din of the Ashkenazi community.

R. Zundel of Salant (1786–1866), was born in Salantai, Lithuania. In his youth he learned in the great Volozhin Yeshiva under R. Chaim Volozhiner. Following R. Chaim’s passing in 1821, he travelled to learn under R. Akiva Eiger. Although he was famous as a prodigious Talmid Chochom, he refused to accept a rabbinical position, instead supporting himself by running a small business. He spent most of his time involved in Torah and Mussar and provided the spiritual inspiration for his most famous student, R. Yisroel Salanter, founder of the Mussar movement. As a follower of the Vilna Gaon, R. Zundel longed to settle in Eretz Yisroel. Despite the enormous hardships involved in such an undertaking, in 1839 he moved to Yerusholayim. The small Ashkenazic community in Yerusholayim at that time was under the leadership and financial support of the Kollel Vilna, whose headquarters were in Amsterdam with a committee headed by the distinguished Dutch Jewish banker, R. Avrahom Tzvi Hirsch Lehren (1784–1853).

Although R. Zundel was an extremely unpretentious individual, R. Lehren was keenly aware of his greatness and had tremendous respect for him. R. Lehren prevailed upon R. Zundel to found a Beis Din for the Ashkenazim, who up until then were entirely dependent on the established Sephardic Rabbinate. R. Zundel agreed on the condition that he would not be paid a salary. He also stipulated that as soon as he could find a suitable replacement, he would resign this position. In 1841, when his son-in-law R. Shmuel Salant arrived in Yerusholayim, R. Zundel asked him to join the Beis Din. Not long afterwards, R. Zundel appointed R. Shmuel Salant as Rosh Beis Din, a position that R. Shmuel held for almost seventy years until his death in 1909.

R. Yisroel Salanter, the founder of Mussar movement and prime student of R. Zundel, is recorded as having said: “I have not known a true servant of G-d like my mentor R. Zundel!”

 

Size: 23 x 21.5 cm

Condition: Overall in fine condition, small hole, few small tears, folding marks.