Letter: Moss. V,355

Recto

1. (1-3) The servant, the daughter of Abraham the cantor, m(ay he rest in) E(den), the wife of Khalaf b. Hārūn known as tāj al-maʿālī (the Crown of the Lofty).

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4. In Y(our name), O M(erciful),

5. “Happy is he who is thoughtful of the wretched; in bad times may the Lord keep him from harm” (Psalm 41:2) 

6. May the creator, may His praise be great, answer the pious prayers for your excellency, our lord, the light of our eyes, the crown over our heads, 

7. the turban of our magnificence, our Gaon Maṣliʾaḥ ha-Kohen, head of the Academy of the Pride (Gaon) of Jacob, may your name be 

8. ever “like the moon, established forever” (Psalms 89:38). May He bring about the days of the savior in your lifetime.

9.  May He annihilate anything disg[raceful to you] and destroy those who hate you. May He not expose you to any evil and may He be in your aid 

10. and increase the shares of happiness which he bestows upon you. May He save you from any calamity 

11. and may He keep alive the venerable lords, nobles, the youths (i.e. Maṣliaḥʼs children), the trunks of the holy Yeshiva, and place them in 

12. your station in your lifetime while granting you a long life span. So it shall be done for the holiness of His name.

13. The servant informs your illustrious station of the state of injury, 

14. hardships and harm in which I am with my husband. He keeps casting me out of the house 

15. and demands from me the iftidāʾ. You know the matter of my father, (may he) R(est in) P(eace), and that my mother

16. remained after him a widow with not an hour’s maintenance. She has no money to herself and only with difficulties 

17. and by renting out (her labor) does she provide for others. Every time he casts your servant out he leaves me without 

18. maintenance. It has now been (like this) for eight months. I have been afraid to come 

19. and complain to you due to the great awe of your illustrious station.11 I am close to perishing. 

20. I seek the aid of God, the exalted, and of your loftiness to examine my state. Either 

21. he improves his behavior with me or let him provide what is incumbent upon him. For the humiliation (al-hawān) and the hunger 

22. cannot be tolerated, neither the constant evictions. At the time I was 

23. still at home, I suffered his parents, one of them a cripple, you know 

24. of his situation. Her mother was the one preventing her. The servant does not have from whom to seek protection

25. except from God and your loftiness for I am alone and an orphan. Act 

26. with me in a manner that will bring you close to God, may He be praised, and earn you a reward (for helping) me. Do not 

27. enable (him) to wrong her and (their) leaguing together against her. And [peace].

May the welfare of your excellency increase forever. Great Salvation!