Legal document: ENA 2808.15a
Legal document ENA 2808.15aWhat's in the PGP
- 1 Transcription
- 1 Translation
Description
A legal query, possibly addressed to R. Yiṣḥaq ha-Sefaradi (per Goitein, Palestinian Jewry, 309–11), concerning an adopted woman who fled her marriage to a foster brother and was driven out of her house by her foster siblings. The back-story is that the mother of three girls and two boys took a captive girl into her house on the view that raising her was a thawāb (miṣva). After 4–5 years, when she matured, one of the foster-mother's boys wished to marry her. After four (months?), the former captive returned to the house of her foster-mother and declared that she wouldn't stay with him. Dating: Goitein dates this document to the Crusader period, but see Goldman, "Arabic-Speaking Jews in Crusader Syria," p. 37: "Many undated Geniza documents have been ascribed to the period of the Crusades simply because they relate to warfare, ransoming, refugees, and/or massacres." (some data added by AA)
Tags
Editor: Goitein, S. D.
Translator: Goitein, S. D. (in English)
Recto
- בש
- אלדי נסאל חצרה רבינו הרב המובהק אדאם אללה עזהא
- ותבת איאמהא תפתינא פי מא ילזם פי הדה אלנובה ודאך
- אן וצלו מנד זמאן נסא שבויים וכאן פיהם צבאיאת צגאר
- פאכדת מנהם אמראה צבייה צגירה תרביהא ללתואב וענד תלך אלאמראה
- ג בנאת איצא אבכאר וולדין רגאל עזאב פרבאת אלצבייה
- ואקאמ]ת ע[נד]הא מדה ה סנין או ארבעה אלי אן בלגת פכטבהא
- אחד מן ולדין] אלאמראה פשאורו אלדיאן שצ פי זיגתהא פקאל
- יגוז פזוגוהא ואד]כלו מעהא אלדי סאהלה אללה עלי זוגהא
- גיר אן בעד זיג]תהא לם תקים מע אלרגל אכתר מן ד
- שהור תם ר]געת אלי דאר אלאמראה אלדי אתרבת
- ענדהא ]תהא וקאלת מא אקים מע אלרגל סאעה
- ואחדה וכאן אלשיוך ואלדי]אן שצ ראגעין להא כל וקת והי תקול
- לא אקים מעה ]וכתרו עליהא וכלמוהא באנואע
- אלכלאם וקאלת מא אקים מע אל]רגל ולו אפרג עלי ראסי אלמאל
- אלבאלג תם אכר]גוהא אולאד אלמרה מן ענדהם
- ]ולם תפעל אלא אנהא מ[
- ]סעד [
recto
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In (Your) N(ame).
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This is what we ask your excellency, our master, the prominent Rav, may God make your exalted position permanent
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and your leadership solid. Please let us have your legal opinion about what has to be done in the following matter.
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A long time ago, female captives, among them little girls, arrived here.
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A woman took a little girl into her house in order to bring her up, doing this as a pious work. That woman had
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three virgin girls and two boys, grown up bachelors. She brought the girl up,
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who stayed with her five or four years until she came of age.
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[One of the two boys] of that woman asked for her hand. They consulted the local judge, (may) G(od) k(eep him), whether this marriage was permissible. He said:
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"It is." They arranged the marriage and gave her as outfit whatever God had blessed them with.
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[However, after the marria]ge she did not stay with her husband longer than four
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[weeks and re]turned to the house of the woman, in which she had been brought up.
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[...] and said: I shall not stay with this man one single hour
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[The elders and the jud]ge, (may) G(od) k(eep him) urged her all the time to reconsider the matter, but she said:
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[...]. They exercised on her all kinds of pressure and talked to her in different
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[ways, but she said: "I shall not stay with this] man even if he pours gold over my head."
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[...]. Then the woman's children drove her out of the house.
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[...] she did not agree, but [...].