Letter: ENA NS 18.33

Recto

O master and lord, pillar and support, may God make your glory endure and give length to your days. . . . The note that I sent to you about your coming to . . . in which I mention to you that your letter arrived . . . with your customary kindness and attention to every manner. I was . . . after the entanglement, but . . . with God’s grace and yours. The community showed me so much kindness and acceptance, acclaim, thoughtfulness, courtesy, and honor that I was embarrassed. I participated outwardly. . . . Inwardly, it was very burdensome for me. For I did not come for any of this, and all I want is its opposite—isolation and solitude—as appropriate for one who is near to expecting death any minute. But being of such an emotional character, as you know, I have no choice but to accept anyone who intends to do me kindness and to devote myself to him. As for the chief, the rabbi and judge, my master and lord, he is devoted to it. He has made me his slave and his bondsman [so that I have neither . . . ] nor tongue to thank him. Do me the favor you have done in the past of writing a noble letter to him on my behalf . . . whom I have given your letter to read. . . . I shall copy . . . his intellect that this . . . and that soul. . . . God knows . . . my nature . . . with you in every calamity, all the more, to the point that . . . for the things that have befallen you 

Recto, margin

. . . contempt for this world . . . I have concerned myself . . . the soul I have occupied my mind with . . . the soul . . . open, on account of the quickness of the coming to light of as. . . .

Recto

1. [My lord] and [mast]er, my pillar and support, my God perpetuate your glory and prolong your life
2. [and] power [ . . . ]. I had already sent a note to his honor my lord pouring forth
3. with utmost preparation in which I mentioned to him my arrival; then he sent letters to me with his messenger, with his well-known
4. graciousness and attention in everything possible. I thought about what [ . . . ] on his route, and I acted
5. [i]n a manner that followed from attachment. But success is achieved with God's favor and his. 
6. The community has showered me with kindness, attention, frequent visits, kindness and hon[o]rs,
7. in a measure that embarrasses me. I partook of it outwardly, but God knows that inwardly
8. it weighed on me very much, since I didn't come for this kind of thing, and I wanted only its opposite,
9. isolation and solitude, since I'm nearly someone waiting for death
10. any moment. But as you know, under the influence of my principles/disposition/character, it wasn't possible
11. to do anything other than receive it in the spirit of kindness and to engage in it. As for the rayyis, ḥaver
12. and dayyan, my l[or]d and master who strives for your kindness, he has enslaved me and made me his servant
13. [ . . . and ma]de [i]t impossible for me to be absent or to hold back. There is no language to express my thanks
14. [to him . . . Perhap]s you can fill my role with a gracious and beneficent letter to him, as is your custom.
15. [ . . . ] whomever I showed part of your letter from your depression
16. [con]demned my tranquillity and and lack of (good) companionship, and i[n]quired of me abou[t] you, and I said that this was 
17. [ . . . ] this caused me [p]ain and expanded (?). That soul
18. [ . . . ] may God relieve it of [ . . . ] and what it created for him 
19. [ . . . ] who has wearied there every great person. For how is it until 
20. [ . . . ] when suffering the affairs of the [ . . . ] 
21. [only] God knows, anticipating [ . . . ]
22. He who is unique, may God be pleased witih h[im, . . . ]
23. [ . . . ] he is the [ . . . ]

Recto, right margin

1. [dis]dain for the world and the withdrawal of the soul. I am preoccupied with something [ . . . ] my mind has cooled off [ . . . ]
2. For the soul, looking expectantly for speed, redeems you. [ . . . ] He granted
3. m[y mo]st exalted [lord] the oppressive on[es] 

Verso

I adjure you by the strongest oath . . . to favor me by sending your solid judgment . . . our merchandise there. This merchandise . . . in silk . . . part of the silk . . . will benefit . . . if Ibn Barukh gets . . . Abu l-Majd. . . .

Verso, address

To the distinguished sage, the exalted prince, master and teacher Halfon Halevi, may God protect him, the son of the honorable master and teacher Nethaniel Halevi, may he rest in paradise.

Verso

1. I pledge to his excellency most unwavering faith [ . . . ]
2. May he write to me with the favor of his apposite opinion [ . . . ]
3. [ . . . ] us in it from a commodity, and the commodit[y . . . ]
4. [ . . . ] in silk, the part of silk that I'll buy [from] him [ . . . ]
5. [ . . . ] you intercede for me with Ibn Barukh to the extent [ . . . ]
6. [ . . . m]y lord m[ost perfect] greetings [ . . . ] your nephew Abū l-Majd, my lord and master
7. [ . . . my] lord and master [ . . . ]

Verso, address

1. The wondrous sage, the exalted prince, the master and teacher Ḥalfon ha-Levi, may the me(rciful one) pr(otect him), son of his honor our master and teacher Netanʾel ha-Levi, may the memory of the righteous be a blessing.