A historic handwritten letter by the Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh, Rav Chaim ibn Attar (c1696-1743), sold for $700,000 (2.5 million shekels) at auction in Yerushalayim on Wednesday.
The sale, conducted by Kedem Auction House, includes an additional 25% commission fee.
The manuscript, which emerged from a comprehensive collection assembled by Israeli attorney Avigdor Klagsbald, features the distinctive signature of the Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh and addresses the dayanim of Meknes regarding tax relief for a community member. The letter was discovered within a remarkable volume containing hundreds of manuscripts and signatures from prominent 18th-century Moroccan gedolim, including Rav Yaakov ibn Tzur and Rav Yehudah ben Attar.
In a journey that would shape Yerushalayim’s landscape, the Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh arrived first in Acre with 30 students, intending to establish a yeshivah. After navigating through epidemics in the Galilee, he eventually settled in Yerushalayim, where he purchased a historic courtyard. Now known as the Old Yishuv Courtyard, it is traditionally believed to be the birthplace of the Arizal, Rav Yitzchak Luria, two centuries earlier—and established his bais medrash.
The Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh, a Sephardic gadol, achieved unprecedented recognition among Chassidic communities throughout Europe, with his writings becoming cornerstone texts in Chassidic thought.
The bais medrash he founded demonstrated similar resilience, surviving the 1948 Jordanian destruction of Jewish institutions and later undergoing renovation on Rechov Or HaChaim in the Jewish Quarter following the Six-Day War.
The Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh’s influence continues well beyond his brief life, which ended at age 47 in 1743. His kever on Har Hazeisim serves as a significant pilgrimage site, drawing thousands annually who seek yeshuos there.
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