מכתב: ENA NS 17.20

תיאור

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Addressed to the Nagid Moshe b. Netanʾel. This is enigmatic, since there is no known Nagid named Moshe b. Netanʾel outside of this letter. Friedman argues that the addressee must be Moshe b. Netanʾel ha-Levi (otherwise known to have held the title Gaʾon) and that this letter must have been written after the death of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya (d. ca. 1159) by one of his supporters, expressing fealty and the rightful title of Moshe b. Netanʾel ha-Levi to the title of Nagid. The sender calls Moshe (and/or his ancestors?) “one of the pegs on which a person must hang himself (an yataʿallaqa bi-hā),” a translation of the maxim from the Talmud Yerushalmi “Fortunate is he whose ancestors earned merit for him, for he has a peg (yated) on which to hang himself (lehitalot).” (Information from M. A. Friedman's article on Zuta, p. 482.)