Last Will and Testament Handwritten by Rabbi Yosef Zundel of Salant, the Leader of the Perushim Community of ...

Last Will and Testament Handwritten by Rabbi Yosef Zundel of Salant, the Leader of the Perushim Community of Jerusalem – Written on Behalf of His Son-in-Law Rabbi Natan Neta Notkin – Signature of Rabbi Yosef Yoel Rivlin – 1863
An important will and testament handwritten by the founder of the Mussar Movement, Rabbi Yosef Zundel of Salant. It was written on behalf of his son-in-law Rabbi Natan Neta Notkin, who was married to Mrs. Tzviya, Rabbi Yosef Zundel Salant's daughter, who died in her youth leaving a daughter, Pesiya Friendel. The will refers to her being her father's heir.
Seventeen lines handwritten by Rabbi Zundel! Rare and important!
In the will, Rabbi Notkin refers to financial arrangements regarding his property. He mentions "My teacher and father-in-law Rabbi Yosef Zundel of Salant" four times in his will!
Rabbi Notkin orders "that the child be given the jewelry by her aforementioned grandfather the Rabbi…"
The date is noted at the end of the will: the 28th of Shevat 1863. It is signed by two witnesses: Rabbi Pesach son of Rabbi Eliyahu and Rabbi Yosef Yoel Rivlin. Their sugnatures are extremely rare!
It is worth noting that Rabbi Yosef Zundel died during a cholera plague in Jerusalem in 1866. Rabbi Yosef Yoel Rivlin, who is one of the witnesses who signed the will before us, also died in that plague. And so it was written in contemporary books: "And the people believed that he (Rabbi Yosef Rivlin) stopped the epidemic and it was considered a Tzedaka of his and was commemorated in the notebook of the Chevra Kadisha".

Rabbi Yosef Zundel Salant
Rabbi Zundel was a leading disciple of Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin and the deliverer of the doctrine of the Vilna Gaon to the following generations. The founder of the Mussar Movement and the rabbi of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, who used to say: "If not for Rabbi Zundel, I too would have been caught up in the Enlightenment and had become a "Berliner" (that is, a follower of Mendelsohn and his followers of Berlin) and all my life I must be grateful to my teacher and rabbi, Rabbi Yosef Zundel, who saved me!"
Rabbi Zundel immigrated to Jerusalem in 1838 and becam eth eleader of the Perushim community. Due to his modesty, Rabbi Zundel refused to accept any official rabbinical position, but served as the Gabai of the library of the "Menachem Zion" Beit Midrash at the yard of the "Curva" synagogue, which was a center of prayer and study of the rabbis of the Perushim of Jerusalem.
His son-in-law, Rabbi Natan Neta Notkin was a multifarious man who acted for the Yishuv of the Land of Israel (he also served as a Shadar). He greatly admired his first father-in-law, Rabbi Yosef Zundel of Salant and used to refer to him with awesome respect to praise him. Once he said of him: "He was unique in the world with no one like him. He who did not know him could not believe what we told of him, since it is unbelievable that a human being overcome his worldliness and be like a true angel, while simultaneously walking around people as a simple and regular man…"
Rabbi Yosef Rivlin is described by the book 'Toldot Chachmei Yisrael" as "an author and leader of the Kollel, a great rabbi who never offended another human being. He was a moral and honest man. Most of his life, he did not eat meat and lived on dry bread. He humbly suffered everything that happened to him…"