Auction 34
Lot 135:
Letter with an official logo in Hebrew and Arabic, nice Sefardi handwriting—the writing and signature of the Chief Egyptian rabbi, Haim Nahum, addressed to the dayan Rabbi Baruch Markus of Haifa, in which the rabbi describes a woman, “Reg’na bat Eliyahu, who came before him crying that her husband had left her four years ago … and she had two daughters with him and one son, and she could no longer handle the expenses of raising the children alone, so she decided to look for him and convince him to return to his family, or to send them the necessary money to survive, or if he refuses to do both those things then to do the things that must be done [i.e. divorce].” The rav suggests that perhaps he disguised himself and went there, so he sends a photograph of him to the dayan and ends with his respect for the dayan, and places his official stamp in Hebrew, Arabic, and another local language. Size: 21x27cm. Folding creases, stains from rust of the staples, file holes (one of which damages the text), generally good condition.
The writer: Haim Nahum Afandi (1873-1960), son of Rabbi Bechor Yosef. He was a dayan, posek, linguist, historian, and Jewish learned person, born in Manisa, who served as the last Chacham Bashi of the Ottoman Empire from 1906-1920, and the Chief Egyptian Rabbi from 1925 until he died. For his service to the Ottoman Empire he received the honorary degree “Afandi”, added to his name. He was also a member of the Turkish delegation for peace negotiations at Paris ending in the Lausanne agreemtn. From 1920-1922 he served as unofficial representative of Turkey in Washington, USA. He was among the founders of the Arabic Language Academy in Cairo.
The receiver: dayan Rabbi Baruch Markus of Haifa, the Imrei Baruch (1870-1961), son of Rabbi Meir Falk. He was a student of the yeshivot in Chelm and Slobodka, he arrived in Israel in 1891 as a delegation on behalf of his grandfather, Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv, to establish batei mussar in Israel, so he was a pioneer of the Mussar movement in Israel. He served for a time as Ram in Yafo, founded and managed yeshivat Or Chadash with Rabbi Yosef Chaim Zonenfeld. He moved to Haifa in 1906, where at the time there were only around 50 Jewish families. He served as Rabbi of Haifa for around 55 years. He published articles in Or Torah (Jerusalem 1897), Kol Torah (Jerusalem 1930-1947).
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