Cairo Genizah : Letter

Solomon b. Judah (Gaʾon)

Cairo Genizah

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Letter, dated 1026 CE, written by the Gaʾon Solomon the younger ‘Head of the Yešiva of the Pride of Jacob’ (i.e. Solomon b. Judah), in Jerusalem, to Ephraim he-Ḥaver b. Šemarya, in Fusṭāṭ, discussing strife within the Jewish communities in Egypt, between the Babylonians and Jerusalemites. The Babylonian leader Elḥanan b. Šemarya, and Jerusalemite Samuel ha-Kohen b. Avṭalyon, are mentioned, as are the calamitous effects on the Jewish communities of the Land of Israel of the war, probably between the Fatimid Caliph al-Ẓāhir and rebel Arab tribes (= 1024-1029 CE). Šayḵ Abū ʿAlī Ḥasan Ibn al-Ṭayīb is mentioned, with quotes from Psalms 91:1, Isaiah 29:21, Micah 2:6, Ezekiel 3:27, Jeremiah 30:12; and references to the prophet Micah, and also to Sanballat and Ṭoviyya (enemies of the Jews in the book of Nehemiah). </p>