Bidspirit auction | “To Develop the Soil of

“To Develop the Soil of the Holy Land of Israel” – Rare Mission Letter from the Great Sages of Eretz Israel - Rare Mission Letter Regarding the “Actual Settlement of the Land, ” bearing the holy signatures of twenty leaders of the Aliyah of the disciples of the Vilna Gaon in Eretz Israel, including the saintly rabbis R. David Beharan and R. Yosef Tzvi Salant. Jerusalem, 9 Adar 5673 [1913]. In this letter, the great sages of Jerusalem appoint the emissaries R. Yaakov Stein, ritual slaughterer, and R. Yitzchak David Lewin as their personal representatives and agents in Jaffa, empowered to act in the name of the association “Achuzat Nachala, ” whose purpose was “to cultivate and develop our land – the soil of the Holy Land.” It is commonly assumed that only the leaders of the secular public were involved in redeeming lands in Eretz Israel, while the strictly Orthodox leadership concerned itself primarily with safeguarding the observance of Torah. The historic document presented here demonstrates that long before the establishment of the “Tower and Stockade” settlements, the heads of the Perushim–Ashkenazic community were already actively engaged in the redemption of land in the Land of Israel. [1] Single paper sheet, 27×40 cm. Condition: Good. Fold marks. Stains of age.