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Lot : 63
Handwritten Kvittel by the Skulener Rebbe, Rabbi Eliezer Zusia Portugal – Crown Heights, 1960s
Handwritten Kvittel by the Skulener Rebbe, Rabbi Eliezer Zusia Portugal – Crown Heights, 1960s
A deeply moving kvittel entirely in the holy handwriting of the Skulener Rebbe, Rabbi Eliezer Zusia Portugal, presented to the Admor Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Heshel of Kopischnitz.
At the beginning of the kvittel, the Skulener Rebbe records personal prayers for himself — “Eliezer Zusia ben Leah Raizel” — and for his wife, the Rebbetzin, “Shaina Rachel bas Luba.”
He then continues with an extraordinary list of requests on behalf of “the orphans who were raised in our home, ” naming six orphaned boys and one orphaned girl individually. At the conclusion he notes: “Pidyon Nefesh – $10.”
At the top of the kvittel, as was customary, the Rebbe recorded his place of residence: Crown Heights.
Rabbi Eliezer Zusia Portugal of Skulen (1898–1982) was a towering Torah scholar and halachic authority, renowned for his mastery of the entire Talmud. He had close ties with the Rebbes of the Ruzhin dynasty. He was appointed Rav of Skulen, Romania, at just seventeen years of age. He devoted his life to the welfare of Romanian Jewry, especially the countless children left homeless in the aftermath of the Holocaust. The greatest achievement of his life — and the one that became legendary throughout the Jewish world — was his rescue, adoption, and upbringing of children who had lost their parents during the Holocaust.
The Rebbe and his Rebbetzin, who for many years had no children of their own, did not limit themselves to establishing charitable institutions. They transformed their own home into an orphanage, embracing these children as their own sons and daughters. The children, in turn, did not call him “Rebbe, ” but simply “Tatte.”
In 1960, he succeeded in leaving Romania for the United States, where he established the Chesed L’Avraham institutions to rescue and care for refugee children from Romania, Transylvania, Bukovina, and Marmarosh.
This kvittel is a deeply moving testament to the Rebbe’s fatherly devotion and boundless compassion for the orphans he raised and adopted.
It includes heartfelt prayers for their material and spiritual well-being, including requests for a good livelihood, good health, suitable marriage matches, success in Torah study, and fear of Heaven.
Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York, 1960s (before 1967).
Size: 12 × 20 cm. Page Count: [1] leaf. Eighteen handwritten lines.
Condition: Good.
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Transcription of the Letter:
B”H
Crown Heights
Eliezer Zusia son of Leah Raizel — may he merit a complete recovery, physically and spiritually, together with all those in Klal Yisrael who are in need of healing, and may he be blessed with a good livelihood, blessing, and salvation, speedily, together with all of Klal Yisrael.
Shaina daughter of Luba — may she be shown mercy and merit a complete recovery, physically and spiritually, together with all those in Klal Yisrael who are in need of healing.
The orphans who were raised in our home:
The chassan Yaakov son of Zlata — may he be blessed with success and all that is good, together with all of Klal Yisrael. May it be Hashem’s will that his marriage take place at an auspicious time and with success, that he establish an eternal home, and that he be blessed with upright and worthy descendants.
Tzvi son of Baila — may he be blessed with success and all that is good, together with all of Klal Yisrael; may he be diligent and successful in his study and observance of the holy Torah, and may Hashem provide him very soon with a good and worthy match.
The orphan Baila — may she be blessed with success and all that is good, together with all of Klal Yisrael, and may she merit a good and worthy match very soon.
The twin orphans:
Yaakov son of Matel — may he be blessed with success and all that is good, with a good livelihood, and may he merit a good and worthy match very soon.
Eliyahu son of Matel — may he be blessed with success and all that is good, with a good livelihood, and may he merit a good and worthy match very soon.
Menachem — may he be blessed with success and all that is good, together with all of Klal Yisrael. May Hashem inspire him to follow the path of Torah and Yiras Hashem, and may he merit a good and worthy match very soon.
Mordechai son of Raizel — may he be blessed with success and all that is good, together with all of Klal Yisrael. May Hashem inspire him to continue growing in the path of Torah and Yiras Hashem, and may he merit a good and worthy match very soon.
Pidyon nefesh: ten dollars
