Lot 117:

Letter Handwritten by and with the stamp of Rabbi David Ben-Shimon, Abd of the HaMa'aravim Community of Jerusalem. To the Shadar Rabbi Chaim Ben Walid. Jerusalem [1878]

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A letter by Rabbi David Ben Shimon to the Shadar (fundraiser) in Tunis Rabbi Chaim Walid, with a description of the economic distress of the HaMa’aravim Community of Jerusalem. Jerusalem, [1878]

[1] leaf, 13X30 cm. Sephardic script, with the handwritten signature and stamp of Rabbi David Ben Shimon, ‘הצב"י מע"ט דב"ש’

Rabbi David Ben Shimon (1826-1879), Tzaddik, Gaon and a man of action who was born in Rabat, Morocco, served as a Rabbi in several communities in Morocco and had many disciples who were Gedolei Torah. Around 1854, he immigrated to Jerusalem with a small group of disciples. There he established the institutions of the ‘HaMa’aravim’ community. Among the reasons for the establishment of the HaMa’aravim community and the detachment from the Sephardic one was the increasing numbers of North African immigrants, many poor among them, who did not receive sufficient financial support from the Sephardic community although the emissaries of the Rabbis (Shadarim) raised funds in North Africa as well. Rabbi David Ben Shimon built the first synagogue of the HaMa’aravim community and became its Rabbi: he set regulations for the community, gave Piskei Halacha, established the Beit Din of the community and headed it. He built Talmudei Torah and housing for the poor and took part in the establishment of the ‘Mishkenot Sha’ananim’ (1869) and ‘Machaneh Israel’ (1866) neighborhoods. He authored the sefarim ‘Sha’arei Tzeddek’, ‘Sha’ar HaMatarah’, ‘Sha’ar HaKadim’, ‘Sha’ar HaMifkad’ about the virtue of the Land of Israel, its laws and customs and additional books including the ‘Shirei Tehilah’ sefer of poems. His son Rabbi Raphael Aharon Ben Shimon presented his father’s responses in his sefer Shu"t ‘Mitzur Devash’. He passed away after a severe illness and was buried on the Mount of Olives.

Rabbi Chaim Ben Walid – a great scholar from the Jerusalem scholars and one of the Shadarim of the HaMa’aravim community and Kollelot Hebron. In 1877, the number of North African immigrants in Jerusalem reached more than a thousand people and Rabbi Chaim was sent for the first time as a Shadar – fundraiser of the community to Tunis. His mission was successful and led to the establishment of a fund for establishing a yeshiva in his house in Jerusalem and for supporting its students. In 1893, he went on a mission to Portugal, Morocco and elsewhere and helped support the Jewish community of Hebron.

Fold marks, tears along the fold marks, glued on the back of the page, minor stains. General good condition.

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