Letter to Aaron ha-Ḥazan ben Ephraim

In this short letter, the controversial leader David ben Daniel charges Aaron ben Ephraim, a ḥazan (a synagogue functionary), with enforcing a ban of excommunication against an individual who had repeatedly violated the regulations surrounding the kosher slaughter of animals. It was not uncommon for communal leaders to enforce rules about the preparation of meat; in fact, the Muslim convert from Judaism and anti-Jewish polemicist Samaw’al al-Maghribī (d. 1175) attacked Jewish leaders whom he saw as flaunting their leadership by imposing stringencies on meat production. While there is insufficient evidence to impugn Daniel’s motives here, meat production was certainly politicized in the early medieval period and beyond. There is no way to know if Aaron acted upon David’s instructions.