Geniza Lab

Legal deed involving R. Yiṣḥaq Luria Ashkenazi and Rafa'el Kalonymos. Location: Egypt. Dated: Tevet 5319 AM, which is 1559 CE. The deed details the terms under which a certain Refaʾel Kalonymos will settle a loan with Yiṣḥaq Luria Ashkenazi by working in the latter's "bazares/באזאריש" in Alexandria (l.5). As Avraham David notes in his description, "bazares/באזאריש" is most likely a reference to market shops. The witness Yosef b. Meʾir Somekh ha-Kohen is also likely the scribe, given that he penned at least four other legal documents across the sixteenth century (T-S 13J5.6, Moss. VII.20.1, T-S AS 145.222,T-S 13J4.23.) The scribal production of Yosef b. Meʾir Somekh ha-Kohen is also widely attested in responsa: Rabbi Meʿīr Gāviṣōn, responsum 9; Rabbi Beṣalel Ashkenazi, reponsum 33; Rabbi Yaʿacov Castro, responsum 18; Rabbi Ḥayīm Kapūsī, responsum 33, cited in Leah Bornstein-Makovetsky, "The Community and its Institutions / הקהילה ומוסדותיה", in The Jews of Ottoman Egypt 1517-1914, ed., Jacob Landau (Jerusalem: Misgav Yerushalayim, 1988), 177. (Information in part from Avraham David's edition on FGP.) MCD.