Ḥerem against Se‘adya Ga’on

This is the worst of everything mentioned by Khalaf ibn Sarjado. After iterating this, I followed up with the statement of the exilarch and the chief kohen of the academy in their treatise. This is the shortest of the treatises they wrote after the larger works were composed, so I can be brief. This is what it says: “Know that the Holy One is righteous, forthright, and pure.” [ . . . ]

Pertaining to that which is said: The Rock, His work is perfect (Deuteronomy 32:4), He commanded Israel to go before Him in purity [or, perfection], as it says: You shall be wholehearted [with the Lord] (Deuteronomy 18:13). Now, when a man proceeds before Him wholeheartedly, He guides him faithfully. But when a man perverts his way and assumes within himself crudeness, arrogance, and reliance on his intellect, saying, “Adopt my opinion!,” behold, he fails in his actions, and it is known to all that he is as an earthen vessel overlaid with silver dross (Proverbs 26:23). His disgrace will be proclaimed, his shame divulged. For thus has Solomon said: He who walks uprightly walks securely; [but he who perverts his ways shall be found out] (Proverbs 10:9).

[Now, t]hat bloodthirsty scoundrel Sa‘id al-Fayyūmī [Se‘adya Ga’on] shows up. Feigning charming manners and lovely virtues, humbleness, modesty, and the ways of the righteous, he has deceived me and stole the hearts of the men of Israel (2 Samuel 15:6), just as Absalom did. Several people have been caught in his trap, [ensnared] in his net. He has exploited accolades that are undeserved. We have bestowed upon him unprecedented honor, that neither he nor his forefathers have witnessed. When he was strong, his heart was lifted up so that he did corruptly (2 Chronicles 26:16). He began to introduce grandiose and shocking novelties beyond his authority, like Jeroboam son of Nebat and the prophets of Baal, saying: “I shall establish ordinances among the people, and [thus] squelch the plague.” He further abused his power in the position to which they appointed him, tyrannizing the people with a rod in order to fortify his authority, screeching in the ears of the Jews, lashing them without judgment, smiting them on the cheek, crushing [their] manhood. Envying the sages, the good and precious elders of Israel, he ridiculed them and diminished their honor, fulfilling [the dictum]: “Envy, lust, and honor banish a man from the world” [m. Avot 4:21]. And because of his exorbitance and excess of blame, his sins have caught up with him. He has transgressed the curse and the oath I have invoked in the name of heaven, that he shall not defy my words nor plot against me and [shall] proclaim none other than me exilarch, that there shall be no other to dissent from me. He has desecrated the name of heaven in public, cast upon Israel a mighty quarrel, provoked dispute, and conjured enmity between myself and Hasan my brother. [ . . . ]

So I agree with the preceptors of the academies, the head of the rabbinic court, and the patricians and sages, who have excommunicated, banished, and defrocked him [Se‘adya] of his preeminence, and wrested from him the title of ḥaver [“fellow”; an honorific]. His disgrace has become widely known.

Now, all know that he [Se‘adya] is a lunatic, a villain, vulgar, a stranger, a non-Jew, of the Caftorim, who came forth out of Caftor (Deuteronomy 2:23). He is not suited for preeminence. He is loathsome, inferior! Behold, he is deposed; he is as a layman in every matter. We are indifferent to his office. We do not learn from him. We do not pay heed to his writ, abide by hi[s pen], or take testimony from him. Any legal document pursuant to his authority is void. His signature is as broken potsherds, his stamp is a vessel nobody wants. His blessing is not a blessing; his ban is not a ban. Behold, he is as debased as his forefathers. Now, I shall select one of the learned sages, and I shall appoint him as the luminary of [the academy of] Meḥasyah—one of distinguished lineage, not as this “Caftori”; one of honorable kin, unlike this scoundrel from a nameless people; one who is an Ezrahite, certainly of the seed of Jeshurun, not of this defiler, who they say is the son of proselytes. [ . . . ]

. . . with his ejaculate (Leviticus 15:16) and holding holy books—he who swears to his own hurt (Psalms 15:4), unlike this heretic, who violates oaths and scorns solemn vows, and thereby breaches the covenant. May it be the will [of the Lord] that he reaps what scripture says: My covenant that he has broken, I will bring it upon his own head (Ezekiel 17:19).

Now, therefore, ban and excommunicate permanently all who call Sa‘īd al-Fayyūmī, the defiler of Israel, by the title [Ga’on], by which he was previously hailed. All who go to his dwelling, all who are adjudicated by him, all who favor him with generosity and gifts, anyone who assists him, whether in secret or publicly, and anyone who copies a question, judgment, document, marriage contract, or writ of divorce by him, and anyone who reads his missive[s]‌ or writes a response to him—may he be under the ban of Israel.