Scholarship on Legal document: T-S 20.87

Recto

1. (1-2) .... and if it is not carried out, and if …. not 

2.  

3. …. and his children in a grave danger of …. 

4. assessment, (in which) he proposed that he should bear the expenditures on repairs ......... 

5. the heqdēsh will spend of the rent that is allotted for it, consecutively.... 

6. (6-8) and then, our Master Maṣlīaḥ ha-Kohen, the Head of the yeshīvā Geʾōn Yaʿaqōv may he live forever, was informed of the advantages.... of the current .... the supervision and overseeing.... of the repairs.... its inevitable advantage was made clear....  

7.  
8.  

9. that (fulfill) the services of (the people of) Israel, may they be blessed. And we received from both of them all of it 

10. the properties, (according to) those who are competent in matters of building work the …. aforesaid compound 

11. ...., in which there are a number of apartments; and the apartment and the qāʿa are in a state of ruin; we established 

12. the truth of what the aforesaid, our Lord and Master Obadiah, mentioned, that all this was necessary and (the situation) could not be endured any more. 

13. (13-14) If the repairs were  not carried out and a big sum was not invested, whoever was inside would have perished and also whoever lived in the apartment …. So a deed was written on this matter and those who were present affixed their signatures. 

14.  

15. (15-18) The expenditure was approved by His Excellency, the Gaon, may He live forever. Then the money was assigned for whatever would be necessary in the above mentioned compound, and the Noble and Holy al-Shaykh Abūʾl-Faraj, our Lord and Master Yeshūʿā ha-Levi, the Notable Scholar, may God preserve him, the son of our Lord and Master Ṣedāqā ha-Levi ha-Zāqēn, of blessed memory, known as al-Ramlī, was invited to assume the supervision of the building operations in the aforesaid compound accordingly, due to his reliability and devoutness, 

16.  
17.  
18.  

19. and his excellent competence in building matters. It was decided that, of what was spent by this our Lord and Master Obadiah 

20. on these (repairs), one quarter would be accounted to his credit by the heqdēsh. So after 

21. the repairs were done that were necessary in the current circumstances, he set forth the account of the expenditures 

22. on the repairs and carefully examined it for the heqdēsh. As the total sum amounted to 24 dinars, 

23. (23-24) the heqdēsh will allot 6 dinars of it. Since a sum of 1 rubāʿī has previously been due to the aforesaid, our Lord and Master Obadiah, for the share of the heqdēsh, it amounted to his credit, as verified, 

24.  

25. for the one quarter of the aforesaid compound being the waqf of the heqdēsh, to 6 1/4 dinars; he was granted (the right) to deduct it from 

26. the rent of the compound, in specie. Therefore he needed written evidence to be held by him in order to deduct it in a proper way 

27. from the rent, successively, every month, after deducting from it (the sums due) for ḥikr and nightwatch. 

28. (Therefore) we wrote this deed for him and handed it over to him so that he bears it with him as a right and proof, to deduct with it 

29. the sums as fixed by the court. When the period during which he is entitled (to cash) the rent is over 

30. (30-31) and the total of 6 1/4 dinars has been returned to him, he will desist from the collection, the collection of the rent revenue from the quarter of the heqdēsh (will be retaken) and will be done the normal way, 

31.  

32. (32-33) and spent as is requisite for the purposes to which it was made waqf. (All) this occurred in the middle ten days of the month of Tammuz of the year 1445 of the era 

33.  

34. of the documents, in Fustat of Egypt, that is situated on the Nile river, under the authority of our Lord Maṣlīaḥ 

35. (35-36) ha-Kohen, the Head of the yeshīvā Geʾōn Yaʿaqōv, may His Name last forever, like the moon that lasts forever. The aforesaid compound is in Qaṣr al-Shamʿ in Fustat, in the lane known as the Lane of the Poor. 

36.  

37. Its fame in the vicinity permits us to dispense with the enumeration of its boundaries herewith. Firm, (sound, and valid), 

38. Nathan ha-Kohen b. R. Solomon ha-Kohen, of blessed memory, 

39. Ḥalfōn ha-Levi b. R. Menashē, of blessed memory. 

Verso

1. The first collection of Abūʾl-Maʿālī, .... deducting what was testified to 

2. his (i.e. the co-owner’s) credit, in the interior of this note, that he had lost at the 

3. repairs of the compound of which one quarter belongs to the heqdēsh 

4. and the heqdēsh granted to him of it six dinars and 1⁄4. 

5. .......... (from) the month.... (to) Marheshwan 1445 

6. (he) collected for Adar (I) and Adar (II), Nisan, Iyyar, Siwan, and Tammuz. 

7. And this was written so that it be as a right and a proof of the money 

8. from the Great Court, may Its Honor be exalted, to the inhabitant 

9. .... the decision that the rent should be turned over to him until the time when 

10. (10-11) the debt is covered this will oblige the qōdesh 

11.  

12. It was also collected from ʿAbdallah, from the rent of the month Tishri of the year 1446, five 

13. and 3/4 dirhems .... of what he owed the qōdesh. 

(margin) To his credit, to the end of Siwan 1446, 3 1/2 dinars.