"Sacred Lottery," of the Knesset Yisrael community and Yeshivat Bar Yochai. Meron, 1910. A rare and historic item!

"Sacred Lottery," of the Knesset Yisrael community and Yeshivat Bar Yochai. Meron, 1910. A rare and historic item!

A voucher from the "Sacred Lottery" on behalf of the builders of the community "Knesset Yisrael" in the Meron area of the Galilee. The voucher was given to donors to the cause of building the community and its Torah institution, Yeshivat Bar Yochai. The area in question was a large plot of land just north of and adjacent to the gravesite of R. Shimon bar Yochai.

The voucher states that each lottery winner will receive one of 12 houses in the new colony, "near the gravesite of our great master, the Divine Tanna Rav Shimon bar Yochai, and his son Rav Elazar, and all the other sacred ones next to him, may their memories protect us, with a share in the [facilities that provide] public needs in the above holy estate: the new Beit Medrash and bath-house, and bakery, and water pits, and a building for hospitality."

Detailed on the voucher are the procedure of the lottery, the number of participants, and the cost of a ticket (as a donation to the construction of the colony).

In or around the year 1900, the new community and its Yeshiva were founded. The founders of the community were residents of Safed. One of the reasons they built the new town was for the benefit of those who frequented the holy gravesite: "It is important and good for our brothers of Israel who come to this site on the anniversary of R. Shimon bar Yochai's death on Lag Baomer, and on days of mercy and Divine will… to come and find a place to rest and eat and drink a little and have some warm, cooked food. Before this new town was founded, visitors would wander around without any of that which is needed for those who are weak." So wrote the renowned Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld in a letter on behalf of the builders.

The seals of The four organizers/founders appear on the voucher: R. "Avraham Brandwein," R. "Yehoshua ben R. Lipa Bein from Warsaw, in Meron near Safed," and R. "Aharon Reisman, author of Birkat Rosh, and a descendant of Rashi, may his memory protect us."

R. "Gedaly Klein in Safed"

Atop the voucher are drawings of the holy city of Safed.

The voucher is not detached from its tab.

The proceedings of the lottery and the prizes are detailed on the second page.

Condition: Good-Excellent.