Auction 68
Lot 55:
Historical polemic – a small printed leaf that was distributed in Europe containing a Psak Halacha by the Gaon Rabbi Elchanan Spektor Av Beit Din of Kovna about the prohibition to place charity boxes (Pushkes) of charities other than Kupat Rabbi Meir Baal Hanes for the poor of Eretz Yisrael – Kovna, 1888.
Background: The disputes pertaining to the charity boxes of Rabbi Meir Baal Hanes are old as the boxes themselves… varied funds and institutions have always coveted the inexhaustible well of placing charity boxes in Jewish homes. Women put money in the boxes before the lighting of the Sabbath candles and in times of trouble, the Jew vowed to give money to charity to be rescued. In the historical Psak Halacha, Rabbeinu writes: "זכו בקביעת פושקעס רק עניי אה"ק המכונה רמב"ן, ואין רשות לשום צדקה לקבוע פושקעס, וכן הנני מקפיד גם בארצנו ובעירי, וחלילה לעבור על תקנות הגאונים…."
For obvious reasons, most of these leaves did not survive the troubles of the Diaspora and the Holocaust and are extremely rare.
11.5X14 cm.
Good condition.
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