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Letter by Rabbi Shabtai Sheftil Ha’Levi Av Beit Din of Setshin, to Rabbi Shlomo Rosenthal (Mahr) from Pest. Setshin, 1836.
In the handwritten letter signed “Shabtai Sheftil son of the great rabbi and Av Beit Din and Rosh Metivta of the congregation of Setshin”, Rabbi Shabtai Sheftil requests Rabbi Shlomo’s assistance through his connections and influence, to receive a rabbinic position after leaving the Setshin Rabbinate. A large portion of the letter consists of a Jewish philosophical discussion. “…and this is the opinion from Shpinoza… and the answer to it was… and indeed regarding the question of the Chacham Kant on Moshe Mendelson I have said…”.
The Ga’on Rabbi Shabtai Sheftil Ha’Levi Margaliot (Encyclopedia of the Scholars of Galicia, 3, page 948; personalities in the responsa of the Chatam Sofer, page 364), son of Rabbi Gershon from Tronopol, was a prominent disciple of Rabbi Yehoshua Heshil from Tronopol author of “Sefer Yehoshua”. He served as Av Beit Din of Kastoli from the year 1828 and left due to a dispute with the members of his congregation following his appointment as rabbi of Setshin. Also in Setshin certain people embittered his life and in a desperate gesture he approached Rabbi Shlomo Rosenthal for assistance (see attached material). As it appears from this letter, Rabbi Shabtai Sheftil was forced to leave the Setshin Rabbinate: “Because I am deprived of livelihood, nevertheless, I will thank the Almighty for ridding me of these evil people…”.
The recipient of the letter, Rabbi Shlomo Rosenthal-Mahr from Pest, was a rabbi and one of the most prominent and influential leaders of Hungary during that period. Many great Torah leaders of the generation corresponded with him regularly. See items 389, 395.
On the other side of the letter two lines were written by someone else: “Rabbi Sheftil latched onto fundamentals of religion but did not know the difference between right and left”. [Perhaps written by one of the deliverers of the letter, by a resident of the city who opposed him…].
[3] pages, 24 cm. Good condition. Tear upon third page [slightly defecting the text], near the wax stamp. Folding marks. Upon back page an address in a foreign language and in Hebrew as well as a wax stamp of Rabbi Shabtai.