Composite manuscript: Hebrew letters to the Jewish court of Paris by Pinchas Michael Abdallah (Gaster Hebrew MS 1207)

With the help of Heaven. Let us act and succeed.

An ornamental flourish, possibly a stylized letter Bet (ב), appears to the left of the header line.

To this, let my greeting and peace reach the assembly of the congregation, the splendor and dignity of all the wise-hearted and those who fear the Lord and love His name. Like the sun at noon in its strength and might, like the firmament, like a bridegroom emerging from his canopy, and like the stars in their paths in the heavens in their order. Illuminating with the glory of God and declaring the work of His hands, He is our Lord in the heavens, who lifts our hearts toward our hands. Come, let us bow down before Him, and let us inspect our ways, and let us inquire before all our paths in this year, which is the year five thousand six hundred and fifty-eight from the creation of the world according to the count of the Talmudic Christians. This is the year one thousand seven hundred and nineteen years since the sealing of the Mishnah, which is the source of all the Oral Law upon which all its laws, judgments, and histories are built. I, the least of the students of life among the residents of the Talmudic courts, am one of them, and I honor them with all my soul and all my might. Yet, truly, from the hand of God, the offering of songs and the measure of deaths is what was said: the world was for the sake of judgment, and for the creatures it is comfortable. Between the wise men and rabbis of Jerusalem—may it be built and established—and Hebron—may it be built and established—the great ones who sit first on the seats of judgment to teach law to a single woman, meaning (a widow) who has no husband, saying to her: "Another life is taken for your sake, and not for pregnancy without a marriage contract and betrothal according to the custom of the Oral Law." However, a complete woman for pregnancy to raise from her living seed is possible without a marriage contract and betrothal. Therefore, my head has been beset by thorns today by the hands of the Talmudic scholars because I did not listen to the voice of the person in charge who manages this.