The bill was given to Rabbi Shaul Shimon Deutsch, who wrote in the margins (in pen): “from the Admor shlita for Research proving that the Shpola Zeda and Reb Leib Soras were 2 people. I gave the Rebbe a Yizkor Book from Shpola with a picture of the tombstone and article in Hamlitz of Reb Leib Sora’s tombstone in Iasi.”
In the last hisvaadus of Pesach, 1970, the Rebbe said that the known facts about the Shpola Zeda and Reb Leib Soras were few, and that the number of similarities between them were great (both bore the name Aryeh Leib, both were students of the Maggid of Mastrich and had a connection with the Besht, both were “nistarim” and both had miracles happen to them). The Rebbe suggested that they might have “been the same person.” At the same time, he said that this case would only be true until someone came: “and says to me that he saw two gravestones and two graves in different places…and that he will be a trustworthy person” (Sichot Kodesh, 1970, part 2, p. 99, Yiddish).
This bill was given by the Rebbe in Winter 1990 in exchange for various pieces of evidence presented to him by Rabbi Deutsch proving that the Shpola Zeda and Reb Leib Soras were in fact two different people. Included is a signed certificate from Rabbi Shaul Shimon Deutsch in which he describes the event at length and ends with: “the Rebbe sent me a $100 bill and a bottle of alcohol for a le’chayim at a melaveh Malka with the descendants of the Shpola Zeda. Rabbi Chadkov (the Rebbe’s secretary) said that the Rebbe now agrees that the Shpola Zeda and Reb Leib Soras were in fact two different people.” Good condition, light wear.
