Lot 254
Letter of Recommendation by Rabbi Aryeh Leib Karo, Av Beit Din of Krotoszyn, Author of Eil HaMilu'im
Autograph letter signed by Rabbi Aryeh Leib Karo. Nachod (Bohemia), [ca. 1780].
Letter of recommendation for Hachnasat Kalla, "for the important great man… R' Aryeh Leib son-in-law of the deceased R' Moshe Shapira". At the end of the letter he signs: "…Aryeh Leib Karo Av Beit Din of Krotoszyn, here at the Nachod community and its region".
The renowned Rabbi Aryeh Leib Karo (died 1797), Av Beit Din of Krotoszyn, Nachod and Leslau (today Włocławek, Poland), son of Rabbi Chaim Karo Av Beit Din of Łęczyca, son of Rabbi Yitzchak Zelig Karo Av Beit Din of Hanover and its region. The family decended from the Karo family of Prague and Spain [Rabbi Yosef Karo, author of the Shulchan Aruch descended from this illustrious family]. Rabbi Aryeh Leib was one of the most famous Torah scholars of his times. He served as Av Beit Din of the city of Krotoszyn, from which he fled with his family to Nachod, Bohemia, following a blood libel which spread on Erev Pesach. After a short term in the Nachod rabbinate [he would still sign "Av Beit Din of the Krotoszyn community" - as apparent in this letter], he was accepted to the Leslau rabbinate, a position he held until his death. Maharal Tzinz mentions in his book Mayanei HaChochma of his meeting with "the late great Rabbi Aryeh Leib Karo" in the city of Leslau. He left behind a number of halachic and aggadic works and only 50 years after his death, some of his teachings were printed in the book Eil Milu'im (Krotoszyn 1845), which he himself described in his testament as "wonder of wonders of the truth of Torah".
19X27 cm. 9 long handwritten lines. Good-fair condition. Wear and tears to folds and margins.
