Description of Center for Advanced Judaic Studies Library, Halper 378: Letter to Ephraim he-Ḥaver ben Shemarya Center for Advanced Judaic Studies Library These images and the content of Center for Advanced Judaic Studies Library, Halper 378: Letter to Ephraim he-Ḥaver ben Shemarya are free of known copyright restrictions and in the public domain. See the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark page for usage details, http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/. Metadata is ©2017 University of Pennsylvania Books & Manuscripts and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License version 4.0 (CC-BY-4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. For a description of the terms of use see the Creative Commons Deed https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. In mail format; recto has 42 lines of text, plus one of signature, almost filling the page; Verso contains the names of the addressee and sender, in two columns of two lines. In the poetic segment (ll. 2-11), verse endings denoted by a punctus; The author, whose name indicates that he originated in Constantinople, was a captive, redeemed by the Fustat Jewish Community. He has taken a loan from the non-Jews. He now asks for the aid of the head of the Community, in the wake of an unspecified tragedy; His Hebrew is florid, his script is that of an expert. The letter opens with a panegyric poem of six strophes. Regards are sent to Ephraim's scribe Yephet (b. David);Ephraim ben Shemaryah served as the head of the Erets Israeli community of Fustat, (in whose synagogue the Genizah was housed) in documents between 1020-1047 (see E. Bareqet, Shafrir Mitsraim, 1995, pp. 100-121, = Fustat on the Nile, Leiden, 1999, pp. 129-160). He earned the title "he-Ḥaver", as in this letter, in 1025 (Bareqet, ibid. p. 104, idem. 135). Condition: complete; faded, erasures. United States Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Center for Advanced Judaic Studies Library Cairo Genizah Collection Halper 378 https://franklin.library.upenn.edu/catalog/FRANKLIN_9940420563503681 Hebrew Letter to Ephraim he-Ḥaver ben Shemarya Eliyah ben Shelomoh, 11th cent.

Paper

 24.8 X 17.8 cm Columns: 1 (recto), 2 (verso); lines: 42 (recto), 2 (verso). Hebrew Byzantine square Black ink

ca. 1025-1047?

Orient Cairo Genizah Collection (University of Pennsylvania. Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. Library). Cairo Genizah Collection (Dropsie College. Library). Amram. Laudatory poetry, Hebrew