Mazkeret Batya (Ekron) – Important Documents – The Shmita Controversy

Mazkeret Batya (Ekron) – Important Documents – The Shmita Controversy
1. A letter from the settlers to Rabbi Israel Dov Frumkin, the editor of Hachavatzelet newspaper. [Not dated, apparently 1895 or 1896]. "A double request of Your Honor to reply with good advice to the question of Shmita as we have read in his newspaper … in our settlement, five families wish to keep the laws of Shmita as written in the Torah…".
2. A letter from 1899, to Rabbi Yonatan Binyamin HaLevi Horowitz, the rabbi and manager of the Committee of Officers and Administrators (Amsterdam) in Jerusalem, requesting monetary assistance.
3. A letter from 1895 from the settlers, at the bottom of the letter a letter by Rabbi Zerach Reuven Braverman, the Rabbi of Petach Tikva.
4. A letter from 1896, about the collection for building a house for Rabbi Mordechai Leib Rubin.
5. A letter from 1895 with the request for monetary assistance. "The hardships of working our Holy Land lessen the love of Torah in our midst… ".
6. A bill of the sale of a house in the Ekron settlement, with the signature and authorization of Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook. Rehovot, 1905 or 1907.
The Shmita controversy in Mazkeret Batya in 1889 is well known, when the settlement founders decided to keep the commandment of Shmita as the rabbis of Jerusalem instructed them. This was in opposition to the opinion of the officers of Baron Rothchild, who demanded that the settlers continue working the land. The document before us also deals with the Shmita controversy a number of years later. Attached are a number of newspaper clippings with details of the first settlers.
[6] pages, varied size, fair condition. Tears, cutoff margins, folding marks and few stains.