Scholarship on Letter: ENA 4020.56

recto

1. In Your name O Merciful One
2. His servant and his slave Joseph al-Ḥalabī
3. ‘And the light shall shine upon your ways’ (Job 22:29)
4. May he be declared the righteous one of his community, may good things whirl about without number
5. joining up with blessings and boons …
6. … like a goodly tree,
7. like splendid foliage, like clusters of vines. An expert in fine detail
8. and in hidden and recondite matters, a guardian of commandments and laws
9. older than the world by many years, a tamarisk firmly rooted in the chain of
10. tradition of worthy ancestors, a teacher at the pinnacle of instruction, of knowledge
11. that grows mighty like springs. From his wisdom, the wise become wiser,
12. and from his insight, the discerning gain understanding of His two-thousand-year-old creation.
13. Like the one ‘accepted of the multitude of his brethren’, born from the belly of the one who watches at the doors of sound wisdom
14. and he who upholds paths for guiding the righteous. Good and pleasant is his name in the mouths of
15. all who lead the way – they have presented their witnesses – and all those who glorify his righteousness.
16. Like a river running down from Eden, thereafter splitting up to become four rivers,
17. let God not cause the waters of his wisdom to dry up, nor bring low the source of
18. his insight. A tree planted by the channels of the rivers, his leaves be for balm.
19. The honourable, great, holy, our master and our teacher Moses, the Distinguished Rav,
20. [the Mighty Hammer,] the Western Lamp, Banner of the Rabbanites, Unique One of the Generation and its Wonder,…

verso, address

1. To our dear master and our teacher, the Distinguished Rav
2. The Mighty Hammer, the Western Lamp, Banner of
3. the Rabbanites, the h[onourable], g[reat], h[oly], our master and our teacher Moses – his Rock preserve him –
4. son of the h[onourable], g[reat], h[oly], our master and our teacher Maymūn the Holy Rav –
5. his rest is in the Garden of Eden.

1. Seeker of your wellbeing, your simple servant
2. Joseph ha-Kohen son of
3. Nathan – his rest is in the Garden of Eden – al-Ḥalabī.