Letter: Bodl. MS heb. a 3/12 + T-S 24.39

Description

Letter in the hand of Yehoshuaʿ Maimonides (d. 1355), or at least by the same person as PER H 129 (PGPID 9391), which Goitein identified as Yehoshuaʿ's only known autograph. Both are addressed to al-Shaykh al-Muhadhdhab. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. 1334 CE, as both seem to relate to the same affair. The sender is urging the addressee to return by appealing to his charitable deeds; how the Jewish community has been bereft of his presence; and how at this rate, his children will only know him through those charitable deeds (ll. 8–11). "Get up! Rise! And earn the World to Come. . . for as long as this continues, I have become very weak. Every hour I wonder if my weakness will increase. [If you return,] you will not have grief in your heart that you did not see me and that I did not pray for you before my death. I do not doubt in your love for me, as you must not doubt in my lasting love for you. Even if you have changed with the separation for all this time, and have been absent from my sight, my heart too has been absent" (ll. 17–23). Continues with eloquent meditations on the fickleness of fate (referred to in l. 2 as the "waterwheel" (al-dūlāb)) and on the impermanence of the world. He delivers an impromptu sermon: "The world (al-dunyā) is settled/exhausted (? mafrūgh minhā): its happiness is finite (fāniya), its advancement is regression (iqbāluhā idbār), it is a traitor to the one who trusts in it, it humiliates the one who rejoices in it, it gives nothing but that it takes it away, and delights no soul but that it saddens it—it cannot be trusted. The only benefit is in the slave's service (Ar. muʿāmala = Heb. ʿavoda) of the Truth and fearing Him and carrying out His law and seeking His mercy and fulfilling His commandments... this is the treasure that does not decay and the happiness that never perishes...." He then offers his sympathy for the recent separation between the addressee and his 'brother' ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz. Previously the two were very close, and it seems they have had a fight. 'The physicians' (al-ḥukamāʾ) were pained when they heard that 'their brother' (ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz?) was the one at fault. The letter concludes, "Nobody loves evil except every person bereft of intellect and religion, and peace is the wellspring of life, and existence is/was built up only through peace, may God bless His nation with peace." Reused on the back for Saʿadya's tafsīr for Psalms 113:4–116:6 (upper fragment) and Psalms 116:7–118:2 (lower fragment). (Information in part from CUDL and Neubauer-Cowley Catalog.) Identification and join: Alan Elbaum.