Polemic text in response to the “Mitzvos Trichos Kavana” (Mitzvot Require Intention) article printed in the HaTzvi newspaper, and on their war against the Jerusalem kollels and the division of donation assets.
Background: Eliezer Ben Yehuda, reviver of the Hebrew language, immigrated to Israel in 1881. Shortly after his arrival, Ben Yehuda founded the newspapers Mevaseret Zion and HaTzvi, in which he expounded his Zionist and political thought. Among his hobbies, Ben Yehuda had a special fondness for whipping the Old Yishuv in his newspaper, and throwing mud about the rabbis, the kollelim, and the culture of the distribution of funds.
Just prior to Hanukkah in 1894, Shlomo Jonas, Ben Yehuda’s father-in-law, published an article entitled "Mitzvos Trichos Kavana" in which he complained that besides observing the Hanukkah mitzvah, the Jews do not adhere to the practices of the Hasmoneans, that is, to initiate active actions to liberate the Land of Israel from foreign hands.
This article, which was among the first Zionist articles to be printed in the Land of Israel under the Ottoman rule, aroused the wrath of the Turkish government on Ben Yehuda; they imprisoned him and sentenced him to a whole year in prison.
The rabbis of Jerusalem who were horrified by the results of the defiant article issued a call, in which they strongly protested against Jonas’s words, and disavowed any connection to the article.
In contrast, Ben Yehuda and Yonas claimed that the rabbis were the ones who tipped off the Turkish government and revealed the article to it.
The text of the polemic before us begins with a long article entitled “Sfat Emet” ("Speech of Truth") in which he settles accounts with Ben Yehuda for his fight over the distribution fees and claims that "everyone who rejects something is rejected by his own mum [defect]" – "Will the distribution be enough to fill their doubts? And these calves will ask for their position. And from where? The thresher or the winemaker? Will not the hoe have the upper hand, not even the planters and some of the vineyards, yet a life of leisure will live and be filled like knights in the tooth, and where does this yelek live? Do not the generous benefactors abroad, they also have a simple hand to receive alms, but not from the distribution that is not mentioned there, such an abomination for the poorness of their language, they hate the division, and on the other hand they will love the schtiza, and what is more precious to God who has schtiza in it a wonderful virtue to accumulate wealth and live a pleasant life."
Later is a similar article entitled “Mi L’Hashem Elay”, with protest for Jonas’s article. Then there is a copy of Jonas’s article.
On the last page appears the protest that the rabbis of Jerusalem published against the provocation of the Turkish government "to inform and expound, that the things printed… did not come from our hearts nor were they written with our knowledge… and we faithfully announce that we, like the multitude of the House of Israel, who sit surely under the shadow of the government of our Lord, the Sultan, we Loyal slaves to our mighty king YRA and his ministers." The letter of protest is signed by Rabbi Ya’akov Shaul Elisher and Rabbi Shmuel Salant, the rabbis of Jerusalem.
Extremely rare!
4 large pages. Wear in the margins, good condition.
