Letter from Safed Emissaries Rabbi Yosef ben Juya, Author of 'Tal Orot,' and Rabbi Yom Tov Saban. Reggio, 1744

Letter from Safed Emissaries Rabbi Yosef ben Juya, Author of 'Tal Orot,' and Rabbi Yom Tov Saban. Reggio, 1744
Missive from Safed emissaries to the leaders of the Modina community, signed by them. They respond in this missive to the letter from the heads of the Reggio community stating that it is not worthwhile for the emissaries to come to their community.

The emissaries describe the difficult condition of Safed Jews and the troubles that plague them through their Arab neighbors, and that the great fire in Izmir also affected Safed residents. Among other matters, they mention the synagogues of Safed, and the special synagogue for rabbis from Ashkenaz, 'which we designated for them when the wondrous rabbi, the G-dly kabbalist, Rabbi Eliezer of Krakow zlh"h arrived' [author of Ma'aseh Rokeach, a patriarch of the Belz family dynasty]. (Regarding their mission, refer also to Shuchei Eretz Yisrael pp. 437-438.)

Rabbi Yosef ben Juya [d. 1828] was known by the name of his important book, as the author of Tal Orot on the Mordechai (Salonika, 1790). When he returned from this mission, he moved to Jerusalem, where he passed away.

Rabbi Shem Tov ben Samon was a Safed sage. He traveled as an emissary again, together with Rabbi Meir di Shigurah. Rabbi Shem Tov signed together with Safed rabbis (in 1736) on the letter for emissary Rabbi Chaim Ya'akov.

[1] sheet paper folded into two pages, 22x33 cm each (the first page contains the body of the letter and the second contains details of the sender and of the addressee). Thick, quality paper. Oriental script. Fine condition. Fold marks.