Manuscript, reply by Rabbi Eliezer Bergman of Jerusalem, reply to those who failed and became members of the Free Masons. Jerusalem, c. 1846.
This reply was copied [by the writer?] from a reply which he sent [to Cincinati] through his friend Rabbi Binyamin Liliental. Within the text the writer mentions the reaction of the great Jewish sages throughout the generations to membership in the Free Masons order, his rabbi Av-Beit–Din Würzburg Rabbi AB"E [Avraham Ben Enosh] Ha-Levy, Rabbi Jilibi Elyakim Av-Beit-Din Hebron who died soon after [in 1845], his close friend the elderly Rabbi Yossef Zondil of Salant, Rabbi Moshe Turgeman of Fez on behalf of Rabbi Shalom Shar'abi who claimed that about this order the Torah says "your friend will incite you to worship idols "secretly". Also on behalf of Rabbi David Chassin who wrote a poem against membership in this order in the book "Tehilah Le-David" (Amsterdam 1807).
This reply was printed after many alterations from another manuscript, in the compendium Or Ha-Mizrach, 1955, and then copied to the book "Ba-Har Yireh", see enclosed pictures.
In this important document we find early references by 18th and 19th centuries rabbis to the Free Masons order, by the Ya'abetz who printed his book in 1748, by Rabbi Shalom Shar'abi who died in 1870 and by Rabbi David Chassin who died in 1792.
The Ga'on Rabbi Eliezer Bergman (1798-1852), born in Heidenheim (Bavaria), an extraordinary scholar and a foremost disciple of the Ga'on Rabbi Wolf Hamburg in the Fürth Yeshivah, as well as of the Ga'on Rabbi Avraham Bing in the Würzburg Yeshivah. In early 1835 came to Jerusalem where he became one of the community leaders. Studied Kabbalah with his friends Rabbi Yehossef Schwartz, Rabbi Binyamin Liliental and Rabbi Nachman Natan Koronil. Headed the Kolel HOD (Holland and Deitchland) in Jerusalem, in 1849 went on mission to Germany where he fell sick and died in Berlin.
Leaf 30 cm. 4 Written columns, good condition, tears to folds and borders, no text omission.