Power of Attorney Documents from the Beit Din in Torino for the Beit Din in Modena, 1777

Power of Attorney Documents from the Beit Din in Torino for the Beit Din in Modena, 1777

The rabbis of Jerusalem appointed Torino rabbis Rabbi Michael Shlomo Yonah and Rabbi Ephraim Navon [son of the author of Nechpah VaKesef] to be guardians of an orphan girl. In the document before us, Rabbi Michael Shlomo Yonah and Rabbi Ephraim Navon, in the presence of their colleagues, the dayanim of the Beit Din in Torino, appoint the Beit Din in Modena to care for the above-mentioned orphan's affairs.

The document is wholly in Oriental script (not Italian), which may indicate that it was entirely written by Rabbi Ephraim Navon. The following dayanim of the Torino Beit Din signed this document:

Rabbi Yitzchak Trivash,  who the gaon Rabbi Menachem Azariah Meir Castelnuovo, author of Misgeret HaShulchan, referred to in his book Shu"t Emek HaMelech as one of the three "tekifei d'ar'a" [rabbinic leaders of the country] (Shu"t Emek HaMelech): "There was a deed carried out in Torino in 1804 by one of the three tekifei d'ar'a, Rabbi Yeshayah Chizkiyah Shlomo Michael Yonah, and Yitzchak Trivash and Yosef Yarak zy"a."

Rabbi Yosef Yarak was counted as well by the 'Emek HaMelech' as one of the "tekifei d'ar'a." He is also mentioned by the Chid"a in Ma'agal Tov (p. 172).

Rabbi Yisrael Milano - his work on ritual slaughter remains in manuscript (refer to Catalog Judaica, Summer 1992 p. 299).

[2] written pages, 19x24 cm. Thick, high-quality paper.

Fine condition. Fold marks. The strong ink goes through to the other side, but the text is legible.