Letter: T-S 13J21.21

Description

Declaration of support for a Gaʾon, written by at least three different scribes, and containing the signatures and names of approximately a dozen communal notables in the Upper Galilee. The first five lines are very faded. Legible phrases include חסידיו קהל . . . הקהל הקדוש . . . הן בעניין . . . The next section is the signature of Saʿadya b. ʿOvadya who calls himself "the one 'pierced' to the obedience of our master" and states that he was granted rabbinical authority (semikha) in Safed by "our master." The "pierced" is an allusion to Exodus 21:5–6. The next section similarly quotes Exodus 21:5–6 (אהבתי את אדוני לא אצא חפשי) and is signed by David b. Meshullam. Underneath, there are the signatures of Pinḥas b. Meshullam and Yaʿaqov b. ʿOvadya ha-Kohen. In Birya, near Safed: Saʿadya b. David; Avraham b. Saʿadya; Elʿazar b. Yeshaʿya ha-Ḥazzan. In ʿAyn al-Zaytūn, near Safed: Sason b. Elʿazar ha-Ḥazzan; Elʿazar b. Ḥiyya; Saʿadya b. Shelomo. In ʿAlmā: Yefet b. Moshe ha-Ḥazzan; ʿOvadya b. Yaʿaqov; Yosef b. Yaʿaqov; Yehuda b. Shelomo; ʿOvadya b. Saʿadya ha-Ḥazzan. In al-ʿAlawiyya (the identity of this location is unknown), near Gush Ḥalav: Shelomo b. Ḥisday; Yiṣḥaq b. Ḥisday. In Gush (Ḥalav): Yishmaʿel b. Yefet; Saʿadya b. Yis[...].