Letter: T-S NS 320.133

Description

Letter addressed to a certain Avraham or [...] b. Avraham. In Hebrew. Concerning communal matters. Mentions 4 silver pieces; reward for the addressee; and the pseudo-Talmudic aphorism "a community is not poor" (ואין ציבור עני). The sender's identification may be in the second-to-last line, but it is difficult to read. There is a motto וישע יקרב, perhaps followed by a date. On the aphorism, see Ron Kleinman, "'The Community is not Poor' — The Metamorphosis of a Halakhic Rule" (Hebrew), Sidra 20 (2005), 195–209. Kleinman identifies the first known occurrence of the phrase in the commentary on the Talmud of Barukh b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi, ca. 1100 CE (p. 199). On verso there is Hebrew literary text.