Cairo Genizah : Letter

Solomon b. Judah (Gaʾon)

Cairo Genizah

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Letter, c. 1029 CE, written by Solomon ‘the lesser, Head of the Yešiva’ (i.e. the Gaʾon Solomon b. Judah), to Ephraim ‘he-Ḥaver in the Great Sanhedrin’ b. Šemarya, concerning the preference of an opponent of Ephraim (probably Sahlān b. Abraham) for the title Allūf, bestowed by the Babylonian academy (‘the step-mother’), as opposed to Ḥaver, bestowed by the Jerusalem academy (‘the mother’). Solomon agrees with Ephraim’s opinion that this scholar had thus ‘despised the waters of Siloam to drink the waters of the Euphrates’, but has faith that the true seat of learning will recover its former status. Solomon also denies misappropriating a loan of 19.5 dinars between the Fusṭāṭ and Jerusalem communities, and mentions the payment of a debt by Aaron. </p>