Title

Description

The title page states that this is the new ledger of the burial society of Shabiln, and it is dated 5569 [1808-09]. The year is alluded to by the highlighted letters in the Hebrew phrase, “May we speedily merit the resurrection of the dead.” The border of the title page of the ledger is inscribed with the verse “And to the sons of Abraham’s concubines, Abraham gave gifts; then he sent them away from Isaac his son while he [Abraham] was still alive, eastward to the land of the east” (Genesis 25:6). [This verse apparently alludes to the giving of a present to the Angel of Death in order to appease him and keep him far away from the community.] [Image 5]

An ethical discourse (musar) reminding people of their mortality by Rabbi Yosef of Dubno in Volhynia [now part of Ukraine]. [Images 7-9]

Order of Sliḥot for the 15^th of Kislev [a day on which meetings for burial societies is traditionally held] and prayers to be said at the cemetery after the morning services that day. [Images 11 -12]

Index to the first 33 statutes of the society. [Image 13]

Sixty-seven statutes of the society. On the margin of some of the statutes are notes indicating that they are not the custom of the Jewish community in Shabiln. Apparently, those specified statutes are not original to Shabiln; rather, they were copied from the statutes of another, older community. [Images 14-23]

An additional 13 statutes “which were instituted in another community.” [Images 24-25]

Additional statutes instituted over the years, some of which are apparently signed by the rabbis of the community. [Images 25 -26]

Fourteen chapters concerning the Jewish laws of visiting the sick, a Jewish funeral, a Jewish burial, etc. Each chapter containing many points of law. These are probably copied from an earlier source. [Image 27-46]

Various incidents of unusual deaths and the manners in which to prepare the bodies for burial. The concern was the collection and burial of the spilled blood, as demanded by Jewish law. For example, Rabbi Leyb Ka”ts of Krakow issued a ruling regarding the body of a child who fell out of a window and about someone who was killed by a soldier. In 1689 in Keydan, Rabbi Gets issued a ruling regarding the victims of a fire caused by gunpowder in which Rabbi Ya’akov the son of Gershon, his daughter, and two of her children were killed. In Plungyan, Rabbi Ya’akov Ka”ts ruled regarding the son of a man named Yisakhar who fell off a horse, yet his foot remained caught in the saddle, causing him to be dragged through the streets. The boy suffered multiple wounds and seven holes in his head, from which he died. On the 7^th of Adar upon the passing of Rabbi Efraim [i.e., Rabbi Shlomoh Efraim Lunshits, Rabbi of Prague, 1540-1619], his students wanted the honor of preparing his body for burial as prescribed by Jewish law, but Rabbi Yeshayahu [probably Rabbi Yeshayahu ha-Levi Horowitz, c. 1555-1630, known as the Shelah] ruled that the members of the society took precedence since they work all year. ]This incident is mentioned in Elyah Rabah by Rabbi Eliyahu Shapiro, 1660-1712, of Prague.] On Thursday, 28 Nissan 5381 [1821], a youth was killed while digging trenches [This took place during the early stages of the Thirty Years’ War.]. [Images 41-42]

Various punitive actions were taken against members of the society for diverse reasons. It was ruled that a certain person should be lashed 39 times and was fined two pounds of wax because he had used foul language to ridicule the gabbai of the society in the synagogue [Image 49]. When someone hit another person with his fist, he was censured by the society and forbidden from ever becoming a member, among other consequences [Image 87]. Another example of someone being censured for improper behavior [Image 98]. An individual was fined for bathing in the gentile bathhouse. [Image 101]

The names of the female members of the society are recorded. Some prominent women are mentioned including the following: In 1810 Sarah the daughter of Morenu (Our Teacher) Gershon, who was a meyuḥeset, i.e., from an aristocratic family, probably indicating that she was the offspring of a rabbinic family [Image 52]. The modest, well-known Gitl, daughter of Moreh Morenu (Our Teacher) Rabbi Mosheh Yitsḥak ha-Levi, the rabbi of Goldingen. [Image 78]

Hundreds of entries between 1809-1909 recording the acceptance of new members and junior members into the society, the results of the elections for the officers of the society, etc. [Images 47 – 156]

Acceptance as the town’s rabbi of the renowned Rabbi Mordekhai son of Aharon. [Image 74]

In 1849, the rabbi of Shabelin is noted as being Rabbi Dov-Z’ev, son of Ḥayim. [Image 80]

The Will of Kalman Yosef Leuchter, who left money for many charitable causes, including: the various societies in Shabiln; the Yeshiva Eitz Ḥayim in Jerusalem; the yeshivas in Telz, Slabodke, Lida, and others; the building of a bet ha-midrash (study hall) in Shabiln. [Image 161-162]

A product of a cooperative agreement between the Russian National Library and Touro University’s Project Zikaron in 2019. This pinkas is part of the Günzburg Manuscript Collection at the Russian National Library in Moscow. This overview was prepared by Rabbi Yitzchok Stroh of Brooklyn, New York, in 2020.

Category

Year of Publication/Creation

1808-1809

Language(s)

Hebrew

Geographic Places

• Sabile (Shabiln), Latvia (read online)