Interesting letter signed by the kabbalistic founders and leaders of the Sha’ar Shamayim yeshiva

Interesting letter signed by the kabbalistic founders and leaders of the Sha’ar Shamayim yeshiva

Second section of a typewritten letter in which the rabbis write effusively regarding the righteousness of their yeshiva and purify its name from the evil rumours, “to succeed in getting to the highest levels of kavana no one achieves today, not even our Sefardi brethren, but our holy yeshiva is the only place in which students manage to achieve kavana…based on the kavanot of the Arizal in the siddur of the kabbalist Rabbi Shalom Sharabi….before unelevated people, filled with jealousy and hate attacked it and lit an Esh Zara in the holy Temple, and only thanks to the combative stance of Maran…Rav Avraham Yitzhak Kook zt”l did they not decide to destroy this Mikdash Meat…because of this we were forced unfortunately to reduce the studies…it was published today the end of those who lit an esh zara in the Heichal of our yeshiva, or they died in their youth with horrible deaths or their ideas became impure to them a few years before they died, and only two of them who remain alive returned from their evil path during the middle of the machloket, and one of them tried to help as much as he could to uplift the yeshiva, and said “with fire I lit it and with fire I give to its children” and he was one of the greats of Jerusalem…it is still imprinted in our memory the words of Rav Kook and his applause when he came in for the first time to our yeshiva and found dozens of rabbis and talmidei chachamim studying the kabbalah, he called in a clear voice that “this is a beit elokim and this is the Shaar HaShamayim…”. The letter ends with their blessings: “In this merit may Hashem provide all good things, and bless it with a gmar hatima tova, a year of fulfillment, may it be a year of Redemption for all of Israel, with the rebuilding of our Temple, amen. Signed by the founders of the yeshiva: Haim Yuda Leib Auerbach, Shimon Zvi Horwitz, Mordechai Gimpel Borg, and the official stamp. Size: 18x21cm. Text was folded (creases), light tears at the edges, overall good condition.

The kabbalist Rabbi Shimon Zvi Horowitz (1870-1947), a disciple of Rabbi Itzele of Volozhin. One of the founders of the Ashkenazi kabbalistic yeshiva Sha’ar Hashamayim. As the kabbalah states that the ten lost tribes will be discovered before the final redemption, in 1929 Rabbi Shimon Zvi was sent to Asia on behalf of the Jerusalemite kabbalists from all the different communities to investigate the matter. For two years, walking by foot or riding a donkey he discovered remains of Jewish settlements in far-flung places cut-off from the rest of the world. He even travelled as far as Tibet, but the Indian authorities suspected him of having criminal motives, and he was therefore forced to stop his journey. He recorded his experiences on his journey in his book Kol Mevaser that was published in 1923

Gaon Kabbalist Rabbi Haim Yehuda Leib Auerbach (1887-1954), Kabbalist Rav in Jerusalem, father of the Gaon Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, and the 7th generation since Rabbi Yaakov Yosef of Polna, student of the Ba’al Shem Tov, certified to the rabbinate by Rav Haim Berlin at age 18, in 1906 he founded the Kabbalist yeshiva Sha’ar HaShamayim, even though at its founding he was less than 20 years of age.

Gaon Kabbalist Rabbi Mordechai Gimpel Borg (1903-1957) served as a rabbi in Tiberias in 1934, and was later appointed the Mashgiach of the Sha’ar Shamayim yeshiva in Jerusalem. He wrote the Beer Mordechai.