[Letter, 1770 January 23, Altona to David ben Loeb Berlin].
[מכתב, כ"ו טבת תק"ל, אלטונא אל דוד בן ליב בערלין].

Format:

Manuscript

Author/Creator:

Tsevi-Hirsch ben Elḥanan, (Altona), active 1770.

Contributor:

Berlin, David ben Loeb, -1771, addressee.

Lamm, Louis, 1871-1943, former owner.

בערלין, דוד בן ליב. -1771, addressee.

Language:

German

Hebrew

Subjects (All):

Jews.

Excommunication (Jewish law).

Rabbis.

Germany--Hamburg.

Tsevi-Hirsch ben Elḥanan, (Altona), active 1770--Trials, litigation, etc.

Mosheh b. Barukh ha-levi, (Altona), active 1770--Trials, litigation, etc.

Rabbis--Germany--Hamburg--18th century--Correspondence.

Excommunication (Jewish law)--18th century.

Dinei mamonot.

Jews--Germany--Hamburg--18th century--Correspondence.

Local Subjects:

Tsevi-Hirsch ben Elḥanan, (Altona), active 1770--Trials, litigation, etc.

Mosheh b. Barukh ha-levi, (Altona), active 1770--Trials, litigation, etc.

Genre:

Correspondence.

legal correspondence

correspondence artifacts

seals (artifacts)

Manuscripts, European.

Personal correspondence.

Penn Provenance:

Sold by Winner's Auctions (Jerusalem), Auction 121 (May 5, 2020) lot 423 as part of the archive of David ben Loeb Berlin (-1771).

Physical Description:

1 leaf : paper ; 168 x 208 (145 x 200) mm

Contained In:

Berlin, David ben Loeb, -1771. David ben Loeb Berlin correspondence.

Place of Publication:

[Altona], 26 Tevet 5530 (23 January 1770)

אלטונא, כ"ו טבת תק"ל.

Language Note:

Hebrew; one word in German (in Hebrew charachters, repeated twice).

Summary:

This is a letter written to David Berlin, 26 Ṭevet 5530 (26 January 1770) by Tsevi-Hirsch ben Elḥanan in Altona, complaining that he had unfairly been put under a temporary Beth Din excommunication after Mosheh b. Barukh ha-levi claimed (privately) that the writer would not pay a small sum owed to him (and he is writing the letter after learning about his own excommunication); the writer reassures Berlin that he has already sent the money through Feivel, an appointed emissary and is attaching a "quittung" (קוויטונג, German for quitclaim), and complains that the excommunication could bankrupt his family; the tone of the letter writer is somewhat acrimonious (“כל האומר דוד חטא אינו אלא טועה”; eighth line).

Notes:

Ms. document.

Title supplied by cataloger.

Layout: Written in twelve lines (letter text) and an additional two lines of greeting above; date centered at upper end.

Script: Written in a Ashkenazic cursive script in the hand of Tsevi-Hirsch ben Elḥanan of Altona.

Decoration: Flourishes, swirls, and exaggerated abbreviations; crosshatched underlining below signature.

Origin: Written in Altona, then Denmark (today part of Hamburg, Germany).

Item previously mounted on blue paper (mostly lost); broken wax seal (verso).

Cited as:

UPenn CAJS Rar Ms 559a.

OCLC:

1320821778