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

Blessed is He who rewards the good, for the Chelkat Mechokek Portion of the Lawgiver has finished [the discussion] in section 63.

The Rambam Maimonides, the Rif Rabbi Isaac Alfasi, and the Tur are our teachers and the pillars of instruction for Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews. Also, one of the great later scholars of Ashkenaz, who is a pious man desiring to do good regarding all these holy words from the days of the Besamim Rosh Fragrance of the Head (a Halachic work), saw the explanation of the Gemara Talmud. The Gaon Rabbi Elijah of Vilna wrote: "He is not subject to flogging," etc. Even according to one who is strict, they do not send him away in every case, but rather in the study of the year (the opinion of Rambam and the Rishonim, etc.). He means to say, if he designated a woman for himself according to the law original: "דת"—and the law of over transgression is in the heart of the commandment lit. "negative commandment"—however, in the study of the laws of flogging, it is a positive commandment without witnesses. Therefore, the Gaon knew himself that for intercourse, they instruct them day and night to improve all their matters—it is a commandment regarding intercourse—but they are superfluous and have no use except to remember the time, the sorrow of the soul, and to clear the field and the law of intercourse.

But we understand from their words that they made the essence, which is intercourse, into something secondary, and the association of man and woman together was for the fulfillment of the seed and the commandment of procreation, as it is written in the portion of Bereishit Genesis, chapter 2, verse 24: "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and cling to his wife," etc. And they permitted designating a woman in the mentioned book for pleasure and not for pregnancy original: "ולא להריון", [to] judge to sanctify through intercourse. See in section 33, paragraph 2, [paragraph] 1. And this is his language regarding intercourse: "How? If he said to her in the presence of two witnesses, 'Behold, you are sanctified to me by this act of intercourse,' and he secluded himself with her in their presence, she is sanctified, even though it was [the reverse] etc." And one must not say anything except according to its stringency and not according to its status. And behold, from this law we can learn a kal va-chomer argument a fortiori regarding the law that says [something] about one who designates a woman without witnesses and not for pregnancy, for he sees specifically that he is adding [a requirement], but certainly she is fully sanctified and he transgresses a negative commandment. And the prince and those in the land of Judah will prove that the Gaon did not wish to disagree with the words of the [text]. According to his opinion, it appears there is no difference between those who take [wives] and those who permit [this], and thus all these things you carry are a power.