Interesting letter of appointment as gabai, for Rabbi David Tebeli Berlin, signed by Rabbi Chaim Nachman Parnass, Rabbi Yitzchak Yisrael, Rabbi Zalman [Chaim?] and Rabbi Abraham David Strashun. Vilna, Tishrei 1850.
The letter is written in a poetic and hidden language, "To be a faithful treasurer and oversee all the details of the matters…and anything spoken against your honor do not heed because your reward will be doubled from Heaven…".
Rabbi Chaim Nachman Parnass, Torah genius and tzaddik, before coming to Vilna was the son-in-law of Rabbi Efraim Zalman Margaliot of Brod. After the death of his first wife in 1809, he married the daughter of Rabbi Leib Pesels, one of the leading Vilna Torah scholars called "Shel Rabbi Leibli R' Beresh" and immediately upon arriving in Vilna, due to his incredible personality, became a "cornerstone" of the Vilna community. Served as head gabai of the great synagogue of Vilna and head of the gaba'im of Eretz Israel, a position held only by the greatest Torah scholars in Lithuania. Written about him in the book Ir Vilna: "Besides his Torah wisdom he was wise in the ways of the world and all the most honored figures of his generation would come to him to seek counsel. His answer was as if it came from a man of G-d and they would not swerve right or left from his words".
The second gabai Rabbi Yitzchak Yisrael, son of Rabbi Zalman ben Uri a leading Vilna rabbi. Tzaddik and very esteemed in his city as written in Ir Vilna, "He was one of the figures of the first tzaddikim that constantly felt Hashem's presence".
Rabbi Abraham David Strashun (1788-1855), outstanding Torah scholar who would write his words with Talmudic clues as evident in this letter and apparently in other letters concerning the matters of the Eretz Israel administrators. His father, Rabbi Yehuda ben Mattityahu Strashun ascended to Eretz Israel and died there in 1828. He was a relative of the well-known Torah genius Rabbi Shmuel Strashun of Vilna, author of Hagahot HaRashash.
The recipient of the letter is Rabbi David Tebele Berlin, son of Rabbi Shlomo Hirshel Berlin Av Beit Din of Prenzlau and London, and grandson of Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Av Beit Din of Berlin. Immigrated in his later years to Jerusalem in the late 1740s. [Rabbi Tebele's son-in-law is Rabbi Yochanan Zvi Schlank of Jerusalem, disciple of the Chatam Sofer, also a member of the Organization of Officials and Administrators of Amsterdam in Jerusalem].
26 cm. Good-fair condition, few creases, wear and minor stains.