Bundle of ancient handwritten leaves removed from the "Binding Geniza".
Among the leaves:
· Part of a missive in [curly] ancient cursive Sephardic script. [17th century]. Later, this leaf was used for a letter [in Judeo-Arabic], which partly survived, featuring a cutoff signature: "Ya'akov Bacha---". The recipient is mentioned on the reverse side of the leaf: "It should arrive and be pleasing as a sacrifice before the glorious sage and dayan my brother and teacher R' Shimon Mizrachi…from Hamadan to Baghdad…". [Apparently, the recipient is Rabbi Shimon son of R' Yonah Mizrachi, a Baghdad scholar and Rabbi. In 1696, he authored his work "Kanfei Yonah" on the Hebrew calendar. Possibly, the writer is his brother Rabbi Ya'akov who in 1687 wrote his book Kehillat Ya'akov on the calendar. See enclosed material].
· Letter of recommendation for "[Avraham]? Son of R' Kamal Etzfhani", by Baghdad Rabbis who sign "Here in the holy community of Baghdad…1680". The first signature belongs to Rabbi Shimon Mizrachi, author of Kanfei Yonah. Folded leaf. The second part contains about two pages from his composition of homilies on the Torah [in the author's handwriting].
· Bill of sale of a house. Mandali [Babylonia], 1678. On the verso, the blessing of Erusin and Nisiu'in.
· Part of a composition of homilies [on the Midrash "And Ya'akov arrived complete"].
· Parts of ancient compositions in Judeo-Persian. [Moreh Nevuchim, piyyutim, etc.].
· More leaves.
· Enclosed is part of the binding, upon which more leaves are glued.
In the 18th century, Baghdad was stricken by severe epidemics that claimed many lives and heavily affected the local Jewish population. The epidemic in 1742 claimed the lives of most of the local sages and the Baghdad community was forced to apply to the Aleppo community to send them a Rabbi (Rabbi Zedakah Hozin was sent to Baghdad and served in its rabbinate for 30 years). These leaves are a very rare documentation of the 17th century - preceding the epidemics which annihilated a large part of the community and its rabbis. Very few of such documents survived and much information can be extracted from them regarding the history of Babylonian Jewry. For example, the letter sent from Hamadan to Baghdad portrays the connection between the Jewish communities of Babylonia and Persia (see previous item).
More than 15 leaf fragments, size varies, various levels of damage.
All the leaves were removed from one binding, which initially bound the manuscript featured in this catalog, see previous item.