מכתב: T-S NS 298.2

תיאור

Letter discussing the liturgy, specifically the different siddurim of R. Shelomo (who must be Shelomo b. Natan of Sijilmāsa), the seder moʿed included in the Mishneh (Torah) of R. Moshe (Moshe Maimonides), and that of Rabbenu Saʿadya (Gaʾon). The writer points out that no one from the communities of Fusṭāṭ or Cairo (מן אהל מצר ואלקאהרה) has produced anything like it – he’s complaining about a lack of native talent among the Egyptian Jews (since Maimonides was a Spaniard and Saʿadya, despite being born in Egypt, was evidently viewed as an Iraqi). He refers to Maimonides as אלרייס (al-Rayyis, ‘the Head’)– so he is still alive then and probably in the earlier period of his time in Egypt – and says that the Rambam has been teaching אלגמר ואלטב, ‘talmud and medicine’. (Information from Ben Outhwaite via https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/genizah-fragments/posts/qa-wednesday-ben-outhwaite-managing-gru-time-covid)