Letter to Ephraim ben Shemariah

May God prolong the life of my lords, the noble elders, and always help and support them and make their prominent position permanent. I am writing to you from al-Ahwāz on Friday the 12th of Muḥarram…

As for that [Purim] evening of ours, may God bring such events about for you repeatedly in years to come and grant you the merit to build His Temple—as they [sic] performed miracles for our ancestors…

[ . . . ] He spoke to him in a manner the likes of which are not [per]mitted, and gathered about him a group of young men like himself [and] assumed the title Head of [the] Yeshiva. Then he began to…

May complete well-being be brought about, inscribed, and sealed up for our dear one and our elder and our noted one, the honorable, holy, our master and teacher, Solomon the elder, the wise and…

My dear brother, may God lengthen your remaining days and make permanent your peace and your happiness, and may He not be ungenerous in bestowing His good fortune upon you. I am writing to you, my…

To the dear, glorious, honourable, great, holy master and teacher Abraham ha-Kohen “Prince of the Congregation”—may the Rock be his aid and his shelter’s shade, and may he crown him and help him find…