Letter by Rabbi Shabtai Sheftil HaLevi Av Beit Din of Setshin, to Rabbi Shlomo Rosenthal (Mahr) of Pest. Setshin, 1836.
Handwritten letter signed "Shabtai Sheftil son of the rabbi of Setshin", in which Rabbi Shabtai Sheftil requests that Rabbi Shlomo use his contacts and influence to assist him in securing a rabbinic position after leaving the Setshin Rabbinate. Much of the letter consists of a Jewish philosophical discussion. "ג€¦and this is the defective opinion of Spinozaג€¦ to which the answer isג€¦ and indeed in regard to the question by the Chacham Kant on the Rambamn [Moshe Mendelson] I saidג€¦".
Rabbi Shabtai Sheftil Ha'Levi Margaliot (Encyclopedia L'Chachmei Galicia, Volume 3, page 948; Ishim B'Tshuvot HaChatam Sofer, page 364), son of Rabbi Gershon of Ternopol, was a prominent disciple of Rabbi Yehoshua Heshel Av Beit Din of Ternopol author of "Sefer Yehoshua". He served as Av Beit Din of Keszthely from 1828, left due to a dispute with members of his congregation thereafter appointed Rabbi of Setshin. In Setshin as well, congregants made his life miserable and in his distress he turned to Rabbi Shlomo Rosenthal (see attached material). As indicated by this letter, Rabbi Shabtai Sheftil was forced to leave the Setshin Rabbinate: "Because I greatly lack livelihood, nevertheless, I thank the Almighty for ridding me of these evil people.."..
The recipient of the letter, Rabbi Shlomo Rosenthal-Mahr of Pest, rabbi and public askan, one of the most influential leaders of Hungary in those days, corresponded with many Torah leaders of his generation. On reverse side of letter, two lines were written by someone else: "Rabbi Sheftil grasped the fundamentals of religion and did not know the difference between right and left".
[3] pages, 24 cm. Good condition. Tear to third page [with slight damage to text] in place of the wax stamp. Folding marks. On back page an address in a foreign language and in Hebrew and a wax stamp of Rabbi Shabtai.