Six leaves from the Pinkas of regulations of the minyan of the "holy society… of glaziers". Lviv, [ca. 1853-1863].
Leaves from the Pinkas of the glaziers' society in Lviv, written in calligraphic square script. On the final leaf, a transcript (vocalized) of the approbation to the society's regulations, accorded in "the middle of the month of Sivan" 1853, with the transcribed signatures of R. "Binyamin Ellenberg Rabbi of Bokshevitz" and R. "Avraham Shapiro dayan of Lviv". From this approbation in Sivan 1853, it emerges that the society was founded several years earlier, upon the instructions of the rabbi of the city, R. Simcha Natan Ellenberg. A declaration from 1863 reaffirming the regulations of the society and signed by the society members is recorded on p. 1b.
In the mid-19th century in Lviv – largest Jewish metropolis in Eastern Galicia, each profession established itself as an independent society, wherein the members committed to study and pray together. The societies were organized at the initiative of the rabbis of the city, in order to bolster the spiritual and social state of the thousands of workers in the city, which had developed into a big industrial center. Dozens of minyanim and kloizelach (small synagogues) were thus established, for the various groups of tradesmen. Besod Yesharim VeEdah – Lviv (by Ze'ev Fisher-Shein, Tel Aviv, 1969) documents the various synagogues that the city boasted, including synagogues for waiters and musicians, for the society of print workers and bookbinders of the large printing firms in the city, for textile merchants, porters and delivery companies, school teachers, barbers, cobblers, tailors, hatmakers, carpenters, stockbrokers, and others tradesmen.
This Pinkas reveals that the glaziers' society in Lviv did not have their own synagogue, yet they committed to participating in set minyanim in the large and old synagogues within and outside the city walls (two renowned areas in Lviv. Regarding these synagogues, see BeSod Yesharim VeEdah – Lviv). The regulations disclose that the society members agreed to sit together in the same area of the synagogue, and those who would come to pray on a regular basis would be entitled to be called up to the Torah reading at least once a month. Also specified in the Pinkas are the conventions of mutual assistance between the society members – participation in each other's joyous occasions, visiting the sick and burying the dead.
In BeSod Yesharim VeEdah – Lviv, Ze'ev Fisher-Shein relates that these organizations of tradesmen were initiated by the Shoel UMeshiv, rabbi of the city: "…the renowned Torah scholar R. Yosef Shaul Nathansohn, encouraged and assisted in the establishment of many synagogues in his city, with fatherly devotion… he cared for the spiritual situation of the tradesmen... He organized them, the various tradesmen – each trade separately – and toiled to set them up with synagogues for Torah study and prayer, to instill in them ethics and fear of G-d, to educate them to Mitzvot and good deeds" (BeSod Yesharim VeEdah, p. 15). This Pinkas documents the organization of a group of tradesmen as a society already in 1853, during the tenure of the previous rabbi, R. Simcha Natan Ellenberg, who served as rabbi of the city until the appointment of the Shoel UMeshiv in 1857. His son, R. Binyamin Ellenberg Rabbi of Bokshevitz (Bukachivtsi), a signatory on the approbation to the regulations of this society, relocated to Lviv in 1850, in order to assist his elderly father in his rabbinical duties. After R. Binyamin's untimely passing in 1856, his father R. Simcha Natan left the rabbinate and summoned the Shoel UMeshiv to come serve in his place as rabbi of the city. R. Simcha Natan himself passed away on Simchat Torah 1858 (see: Wunder, Encyclopedia LeChachmei Galicia, I, pp. 214-218).
[6] leaves. 38 cm. Thick paper. Fair condition. Stains. Large open tears to corners, with some loss of text. New leather binding.