Letter by Rabbi Shaul Katzin – Jerusalem 1909

Letter by Rabbi Shaul Katzin – Jerusalem 1909
Letter handwritten and signed by Rabbi Shaul Katzin, Jerusalem, Cheshvan 1909. The letter remonstrates a man who received a ruling by the Yemenite Beit Din to reach a compromise but did not accept the ruling, and instead, applied to other courts claiming that the Beit Din did not rule accurately. The Kabbalist Rabbi Shaul Katzin (1864-1917), author of Klilat Shaul, a leading Aleppo sage, arrived at Eretz Israel in 1891 and studied Torah for three years with the Kabbalist Rabbi Eliyahu Mani, Rabbi of Hebron. In 1894, he moved to Jerusalem and studied at the Kabbalist Beit El Yeshiva together with his friend, HaRav HaSadeh, Rabbi Chaim Shaul HaCohen Dweck, another arrival from Aleppo. In 1896, he was one of the first attendees of the Rehovot HaNahar Yeshiva of Kabbalists founded by his friend HaRav HaSadeh, and he was the regular leader of prayers every Friday and of the Mussaf prayer on Yom Kippur. He also delivered mussar discourses for the public. An outstanding Torah prodigy and public leader in Jerusalem, together with HaRav HaSadeh he opposed deviations from religious practices. Died at the age of 53. His sons were also famed rabbis who served in the rabbinate of prominent communities of Aleppo emigrants in Eretz Israel and abroad. Leaf, approximately 21 cm. fair condition, wear and tears, on the reverse side of the leaf is a half-written letter from 1906, by an unknown writer in Oriental-Persian handwriting.