Letter: T-S 6J3.1
Letter T-S 6J3.1Tags
Description
Letter from the son or descendant of Yeshuʿa he-Ḥaver b. Ṣabgha (צבגה), who moved from Jerusalem to Fustat with his family, asking for help from the community in Fustat. He wrote a few letters and left space to write the addressees. In this letter, he filled in the addressee's name: Avraham b. Yosef ha-Kohen. Dating: ca. 1030 CE, per Gil. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 2 p. 621, #338.) VMR. Appears to be the same sender as Bodl. MS heb. d 75/23 (PGPID 19455), though the handwriting is not a perfect match.
Edition: Gil, Moshe
Translation: Cohen, Mark (in English)
T-S 6J3.1 1r
Transcription
Moshe Gil, Palestine During the First Muslim Period (634–1099) (in Hebrew) (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 1983), vol. 2.- שלום לה עצים וברכה להבשים
- ונחמה כפולה ומילוי כל שאילה
- ליקירינו מר ורב אברהם הכהן
- היקר ישמרו צורו ויהי עזרו
- בן רבנא יוסף נבע שואלים
- אנו מכבודך יקירינו לעשות
- עמנו כווסתך הננהגת עם בני
- תורה ובני סנהדרין כי יש עלינו
- עול בית וטף וכבר יגענו עד
- למאד מירושלים ועד מצרים
- וצורינו ישים מה שתעשה
- עמנו כקרבן כליל וכטנא
- בכורים ויכפול סכרך והוא
- ברחמיו יעש וימלא ועקב // שלום
בן חדותא ח מ ו ד
- נין ישועה החבר ביר צבגה נבע
ש ב נא /ייחיה/
Translation
Mark Cohen, The Voice of the Poor in the Middle Ages (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2005).Recto
- May abundant greetings / and scented blessing /
- and double consolation / and fulfillment of every request /
- be bestowed upon our precious master and teacher Abraham ha-Kohen
- the precious, may your Rock protect you and be your succor,
- son of our teacher Joseph, (who) r(ests) in (the Garden of) E(den). We request
- from your honor, our precious one, to act
- on our behalf in keeping with your habit with
- scholars and members of the Sanhedrin (the yeshiva), for we have
- the burden of a wife [and] children. We have just made the extremely laborious journey
- from Jerusalem to Fustat.
- May our Rock consider what you do
- for us as if it were a complete offering and a basket
- of first fruits, and may he double your reward. May He
- in His mercy so do and fulfill, and may the outcome be (your) welfare.
- (Signature:) descendant of Yeshuʿa the ḥaver son of Ṣedaqa, (who) r(ests) in E(den).