Geniza Lab

Copy of a Gaon’s responsum (possibly R. Hayya Gaon) that includes details about the house of Bustenai and an answer regarding the status of the family’s children. There are two other versions for this answer (one of them is T-S 13G1). (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, p. 1; joins by Shraga Abramson via FGP.) Ed. Assaf, Teshuvot ha-Geonim, pp. 59–62 (Doc #9).

Responsum in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe or Hillel b. ʿEli. May be related to T-S 10J5.23 (verso). See Goitein's note card for further information.

Responsum by [Shemuel] b. Ḥofni. In Hebrew. Regarding a partnership.

Legal query addressed to Shemuel b. ʿEli (active ca. 1164–97; identification based on handwriting of the responsum on verso) concerning a man whose son becomes engaged to a woman but calls off the wedding. Can they recoup the early marriage payment that was already paid? On verso is the full responsum in the hand of Shemuel b. ʿEli, answering that whatever was already paid is like a deposit and does not belong to the bride until the wedding, so she must return it. It seems that precisely because of this eventuality, many engagement contracts stipulate that the bride would receive the muqaddam in full or in part if the groom should renege on the promise to marry (and he would get it back if she reneges). Information from Ashur dissertation and FGP description. See also Goitein's note card.

Recto: Legal query sent to Maimonides along with his autograph responsum. This was published by Goitein as well as Blau, Maimonides Responsa, no. 283. Verso: Draft of a long dirge in Hebrew, in the hand of Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi, upon the death of three prominent members of the Jewish community: the rabbis Shemuel, Shelomo and Yiṣḥaq. These three figures were identified by M. A. Friedman as the judges in Maimonides’ court, see Friedman, India Book IVA, pp. 36–37. Shemuel is Shemuel b. Seʿadya ha-Levi, who died in 1203. (Information in part from Amir Ashur's Fragments of the Month, April 2011, November 2016.)

Responsum draft. On the question whether a dead man continues to acquire merit and reject evil. (This is less whimsical than it sounds, e.g., if he has endowed a charitable waqf, does he continue to acquire merit from all the people it helps in the future?) The answer is no, he is rewarded on the basis of the intention that he had when he did the good deed in his lifetime, not on the basis of events that occur after his death. The text has corrections and deletions. Two lines at the bottom of the leaf are in a different hand. (Information in part from GRU catalogue via FGP.)

Fragment of two responsa of a Babylonian Gaon.

Responsa, Miscellaneous; recto: unidentified Judaeo-Arabic text; verso: geonic responsum concerning a bailee who attempts to cheat the depositors heirs (Hebrew + Aramaic). (Info from FGP)

Damaged and faded fragment, probably from a responsum. The text is too fragmentary, but it seems it is dealing with payment of damage. AA

Responsum by HARID (R. Yish'aya di-Tirani 1165-1240), end of no. 93 in the printed edition (info by Simcha Emanuel, FGP)

Most of a legal query about Reuven who sold to Shimʿon a copy of the Halakhot of a certain Rav Yiṣḥaq but the book was later found to be defective, but Reuven hadn't known that it was defective.

Recto: Long query addressed in 1058 to the Gaon of Jerusalem by Eli b. Amram, the head of the Palestinians in Fustat. (Or rather, this may be the partnership contract that is the subject of the legal queries/responsa edited in Gil, Palestine #395, #396. Another copy of the same contract is T-S 20.79.) The note describes a legal matter concerning a Jewish Egyptian merchant who entrusted a business friend returning to his native Sicily with a large shipment of goods, including spices and drugs. The agent died while at sea, and the shipment ended up in Tripoli (Libya?) instead of Sicily. The Jewish authorities in Tripoli seized the goods in order to protect the rights of the deceased agent’s widow and daughter. The Egyptian merchant wanted his goods returned to his possession, but the authorities in Tripoli refused unless he pursued a full-fledged lawsuit against the representatives of the heirs in Sicily. The case went to the rabbinical court in Cairo and then the high court in Jerusalem. Verso: Dirge. (Information from S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:236, 395-5, 574, 613; CUDL; EMS; and Moshe Yagur, who also identified the join.

Rough draft of a question probably sent to a Gaon in Palestine.

Responsum from Shelomo b. Yehuda Gaon, in the hand of his son Avraham, regarding levirate marriage, Palestine.

Draft of a letter that was not sent. A question that was addressed to Maimonides about remission of debts. (Information from Goitein, Tarbiz, 28, 1959: 195-196). VMR

Legal query (in a different hand than recto) concerning the case of a widow holding a statement of trustworthiness, who had declared that she possessed none of her husband's possessions. She refused to let the elders into her house as she had been advised, but later opened the door after all. However, the inventory was not taken away. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 255, and from Goitein's index cards.) NB: This used to be called T-S 10J21.16 on PGP.

Recto: Responsum in the name of Shelomo Kohen b. Aharon Kohen Kanzī(?) Dimashqī. Dating: After 1490 CE. It has to do with a man who vowed in anger that he would divorce his wife. The ruling is that this vow, taken when he was not in full possession of his faculties, is null in comparison to the vow he took when he married her, when he was both in possession of his faculties and fulfilling a mitzvah. Numerous proofs are cited as well as the authority of Yehuda Hadassi (12th c) in Sefer ha-Peles (= Eshkol ha-Kofer), Aharon b. Eliyyahu (d. 1369) the author of Etz Ḥayyim, Eliyyahu Bashyaẓi ZL (d. 1490), and finally the great sage Shemuel ha-Rofe ha-Maʿaravi (active 15th century) in chapter five of his Book of Commandments. Shelomo Kohen writes an addendum in his own hand with his own signature, confirming everything above (that was written in his name but not by him). There are two further addenda.