Letter: T-S Ar.7.27

Description

Letter of appeal from an unknown man, in Bilbays, to Eliyyahu the Judge, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew. The writer had lived with Eliyyahu's son (Abū Zikrī) in Jerusalem. (Other letters to Eliyyahu from another one of Abū Zikrī's Jerusalem roommates have survived: see T-S 8J16.3 and T-S 8J16.3 by Avraham b. Rav Shelomo the Yemeni.) The writer gives his story. He was supporting himself from his store ('as your son will confirm'). He heard that his wife had died in Bilbays, so he leased the store and came to Bilbays. "God disciplined me with great discipline and with great illness 'from the illnesses of Egypt' and with a disease of the eyes." He lost all his money and "the money of others" (=his creditors?). He concludes with eloquent expressions of his shame in turning to Eliyyahu for help. "Due to the great shame and hardship and pain/illness, I have not turned to (afṣartu, from Hebrew הפציר) any Jew this Passover, and I have not gone to the synagogue, rather [I am] like a corpse in the grave. Do what you can according to your power and your righteousness." ASE