Letter: T-S 6J3.1

Letter T-S 6J3.1

Tags

Input date

In PGP since 1986

Description

Letter from the son or descendant of Yeshuʿa he-Ḥaver b. Ṣabgha (צבגה), who moved from Jerusalem to Fustat with his family, asking for help from the community in Fustat. He wrote a few letters and left space to write the addressees. In this letter, he filled in the addressee's name: Avraham b. Yosef ha-Kohen. Dating: ca. 1030 CE, per Gil. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 2 p. 621, #338.) VMR. Appears to be the same sender as Bodl. MS heb. d 75/23 (PGPID 19455), though the handwriting is not a perfect match.

T-S 6J3.1 1r

1r

Transcription

Moshe Gil, Palestine During the First Muslim Period (634–1099)‎ (in Hebrew) (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 1983), vol. 2.
  1. שלום לה עצים וברכה להבשים
  2. ונחמה כפולה ומילוי כל שאילה
  3. ליקירינו מר ורב אברהם הכהן
  4. היקר ישמרו צורו ויהי עזרו
  5. בן רבנא יוסף נבע שואלים
  6. אנו מכבודך יקירינו לעשות
  7. עמנו כווסתך הננהגת עם בני
  8. תורה ובני סנהדרין כי יש עלינו
  9. עול בית וטף וכבר יגענו עד
  10. למאד מירושלים ועד מצרים
  11. וצורינו ישים מה שתעשה
  12. עמנו כקרבן כליל וכטנא
  13. בכורים ויכפול סכרך והוא
  14. ברחמיו יעש וימלא ועקב // שלום

בן חדותא ח מ ו ד

  1. נין ישועה החבר ביר צבגה נבע

ש ב נא /ייחיה/

Translation

Mark Cohen, The Voice of the Poor in the Middle Ages (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2005).

Recto

  1. May abundant greetings / and scented blessing /
  2. and double consolation / and fulfillment of every request /
  3. be bestowed upon our precious master and teacher Abraham ha-Kohen
  4. the precious, may your Rock protect you and be your succor,
  5. son of our teacher Joseph, (who) r(ests) in (the Garden of) E(den). We request
  6. from your honor, our precious one, to act
  7. on our behalf in keeping with your habit with
  8. scholars and members of the Sanhedrin (the yeshiva), for we have
  9. the burden of a wife [and] children. We have just made the extremely laborious journey
  10. from Jerusalem to Fustat.
  11. May our Rock consider what you do
  12. for us as if it were a complete offering and a basket
  13. of first fruits, and may he double your reward. May He
  14. in His mercy so do and fulfill, and may the outcome be (your) welfare. 
  1. (Signature:) descendant of Yeshuʿa the ḥaver son of Ṣedaqa, (who) r(ests) in E(den).

 

T-S 6J3.1 1v

1v
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