Scholarship on Letter: T-S 8J26.19

In your name, You Merciful.

To the high Seat of our Lord the Nagid, may his splendor be exalted and his honor great.

The maidservant

the wife of Basīr the bellmaker kisses the ground and submits that she has on her neck

three children because her husband was completely infatuated with (life on) the mountain with

al-Kūrānī, in vain and to no purpose, a place where there is no Torah,

no prayer and no mention of God's name in truth.

He goes up the mountain and mingles with the mendicants,

although these have only the semblance, but not the essence, of religion. The maidservant

is afraid there may be there some bad man who may induce her husband to forsake

the Jewish Faith, taking with him the three children.

The maidservant almost perishes because of her solitude and her search

after food for the little ones. It is her wish

that our Master go after her husband and take the matter up with him according to his unfailing

wisdom, and what the maidservant entreats him to do is not

beyond his power nor the high degree of his influence.

The only thing which the maidservant wants is

that her husband cease to go up the mountain

and that he may show mercy towards the little ones.

If he wishes to devote himself to God,

he may do so in the synagogue,

attending regularly morning, afternoon and evening prayers,

and listening to the words of the Torah, but he should not occupy himself with useless

things. Furthermore, he presses the maidservant

to sell their house, to leave the Jewish community

and to stay on the mountain, (which would mean that) the little ones would cease

to study the Torah. (It would be helpful) if our Lord

gave orders to the maidservant in that matter and instructed her

concerning it, for his wisdom is unfailing. And Peace.

Our Lord—may God prolong his life—is in charge of a vast region;

thus his high aspiration could not fail to hinder

the above mentioned from going up the mountain and to induce him to attend

the synagogue and to occupy himself

with the upkeep of the family.

N. B. Our Lord has promised the little one

a medicine for the ear, for he suffers 

from it. There is no harm in trying it out,

seeing that even the barber is playing with it

without experience. May God have mercy!