Minister Moshe Montefiore's personal glow book is offered for sale at the Taj Art auction house.
The book sheds light on one of the people who led the exit from the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, and who actually led the Land of Israel to redevelopment, after centuries of desolation.
Sir Moshe Montefiore (1885-1784) devoted his life to assisting Jews in the various lands, emphasizing the resurrection of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel.
Montefiore served as head of the Sephardic community in London and established charitable institutions, including a Jewish settlement fund called "Mazkeret Moshe."
He visited the Land of Israel a total of seven times, on tours that were fraught with difficulties and dangers.
Montefiore was responsible, among other things, for building the Mishkenot Sha'ananim neighborhood, the first neighborhood outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, and also built the windmill, which to this day is one of the capital's symbols.
In his youth Montefiore did not keep the commandments, but after his first visit to Jerusalem he approached the Jewish religion and tradition, and even made sure to take a butcher with him on his travels around the world, so that he could eat kosher meat.
The Book of Zohar, now on sale at the Taj Art auction house (February 7 at 7:00 p.m.), provides a glimpse into the fact that perhaps alongside observing the standard rules of Judaism, he also used to peruse the Kabbalah books.
This is the book "Hadrat Zakanim", a commentary by Rabbi Yitzchak Badhav to "Adra Rabba", an article by the Zohar, published in Jerusalem in 1885.
It is a miniature book, the pages of which are 7.6 cm in size. And it is estimated that it will be sold for between $ 5,000 and $ 10,000.
The first page of the book printed a "certificate letter" from two of the most important rabbis in the Land of Israel at the time, "Rishon LeZion" Rabbi Rafael Meir Panizil, and "Rishon LeZion" Rabbi Yaakov Shaul Elishar.
An interesting detail regarding the author of the commentary, Rabbi Yitzchak Badhav, is that at the end of his life he lived a few meters from the Yemin Moshe neighborhood, named after Montefiore.
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