Or 17086

This pad was used by Hakham Ezra Reuben Dangoor (HED), in the last couple years of his life (from 1928), as a personal jotter. It contains drafts of his writings (letters, notes, sermons, calendars), and financial calculations. In a way that is not accessible from polished works on specific topics and put forth to the public, this jotter offers a glimpse of the range of HED’s involvements, including: preparing sermons; recording new Torah insights; adjudicating complex issues in Jewish law, such as the status of using electricity on the Sabbath, and whether to encourage a gentile who wants to marry a Jew to convert to Judaism; raising funds for various communal projects; obtaining (the return of) hard-to-find printed books and manuscripts; handing over the reins of supervision of the kosher slaughter of fowl; and preparing the Baghdad Jewish calendar. Also, we glimpse HED’s relations with various renowned persons, such as David Sassoon, Farha (Flora) Sassoon, and Rabbi Isaac Nissim. Some items are written in the shaky, spidery script characteristic of HED’s final years.

Folios 1 – 4r: Judeo-Arabic discussion of important communal and Jewish religious issues.

Folios 4v – 7r: Calendar calculations for 5689 Anno Mundi (= 1928/9 CE).

Folios 7v – 9: Draft of letter to David Sassoon, in Judeo-Arabic and Hebrew. Date: ٥ = 5th of Sivan, ‘88 (٨٨) = 24 May 1928 CE. Subjects discussed include: the calendar that HED prepared for 5689 AM; the use of electricity on the Sabbath and holidays, quoting the statement by the Ashkenazic rabbis of Jerusalem published in Palestine Daily Mail, VOL. X, No. 140. Jerusalem, Friday, March 16th, 1928, p. 6, column 1b; HED mentions books by ReYaḤ Tov / רי”ח טוב (literally ‘pleasing fragrance’, the acrostic for Rabbi Yosef Ḥayim ben Elijah of Baghdad, famous as the author of Ben Ish Ḥay / בן איש חי) and ḤYDA (acrostic for Rabbi Ḥayim Yosef David Azulai) that he supplied to David Sassoon at a steal, expressing displeasure with Sassoon, and then asking Sassoon to return one particular book at least temporarily, so that HED can copy and publish some of his marginalia therefrom.

Folios 10 – 12r: Draft of letter to the wise and precious magnate Mrs Farha (= Flora) [presumably: Sassoon]. Judeo-Arabic. Day before Shavuot (= 5 Sivan), [56]88 (٨٨) = 24 May 1928 CE (same as previous item). Finances are mentioned. So are the welfare and status of various family members.

Folio 12v: Judeo-Arabic. Monday, 9 Sivan, [5688] = 28 May 1928 CE. Follow-up of earlier letter? Mentions Ezra son of the Hakham David, and a sum of 11 shillings and 3 pence.

Folio 13r: Judeo-Arabic. Date: 25 Tammuz, [56]88 = 13 July 1928 CE. Responsum: How to proceed when a Jew and non-Jew intend to marry, and the non-Jew is willing to convert to Judaism, but not out of religious motivation.

Folios 13v – 14r: Judeo-Arabic letter to Mrs Farha Sassoon, followed by calculations. Dated 15 Elul 5688 [Anno Mundi = 31 August 1928 CE].

Folios 14v – 15r: Judeo-Arabic letter to a Rabbi Jacob Hai. Dated 3 Kislev (based on the context: 5689 Anno Mundi = 16 November 1928 CE). Mentions David Suliman Sassoon, and (obtaining from the latter?) various works of the Jewish calendar: Rabbi [Shimon] Barzani’s ‘Kanfe Yonah, from the House of Barzani’ / כנפי יונה, מן בית ברזאני (Barzani was Chief Rabbi of Baghdad during the 17th century); Kehilat Ya'akov / קהלת יעקב (by Rabbi Israel Jacob Al-Gazi?); and the abridgment of Rabbi Joseph Shlomo Batzri’s work. [HED cites the first two sources at the beginning of his calendar monograph [MS Or 17046], completed 42 years earlier.] [For follow-up, see folios 18 – 19.]

Folios 15v – 16r: Calculations. Mentions Jacob, possibly of the previous entry.

Folio 16v: Judeo-Arabic aphorism.

Folios 17 – top 18r: Judeo-Arabic. Caption about a student who died early. Date: Night of 4 December 1928. Mentions Sassoon Efodi.

Folios 18 – 19: Judeo-Arabic. 12 Tebet 5689 Anno Mundi = 25 December 1928 CE. Follow-up with Jacob Hai: Kanfe Yonah on the calendar. [See above, folios 14v – 15r.]

Folio 20r: Hebrew. HED tells correspondent that it is impossible to collect his debt by means of force or pressure; and that the only course is to appeal to the mercy of the debtor.

Folios 20v – top 21r: Judeo-Arabic. Financial matters.

Folio 21r, bottom: Judeo-Arabic. To Mrs Farha [Sassoon]. Mentions financial matters.

Folios 21v – 22: Judeo-Arabic opening; main text in Hebrew. Date: 7 Tammuz, ‘69. (The year of this date, ‘69, does not fit with most of the years in the manuscript, which are [56]88 - [56]89 Anno Mundi. However, on folio 25v, two eras are used. Accordingly, ‘69 in whatever era HED is using here would = 5689 in the Anno Mundi era. If so, this date would = 15 July 1929 CE). Account of intrigues surrounding the chief rabbinate of Baghdad, beginning with the account from the diary of Rabbi Samel Abraham Sadkah, but continuing with what HED heard from the elders of the generation. (The latter source was not available to Yaron Harel or his sources: see Intrigue and Revolution: Chief Rabbis in Aleppo, Baghdad, and Damascus 1744-1914. 2015: Oxford; Portland, Oregon, Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, p. 57, n. 7.)

Folios 23 – 25r: Judeo-Arabic. To Mrs Farha [Sassoon]. Mentions various sums, some (8000; 400; 300; 200) in Rupees / רפיי, some (1000; 200) in Pounds / פאוון, some per annum.

Folio 25v: Judeo-Arabic. To Moses Judah (of noble birth? / son of the Nasi?). Date: Rosh Hodesh M?"? ‘89 [= 5689 Anno Mundi], unto the year ‘70. (In which era is the year ‘70?). Mentions sums of Pounds: 20 thousand; 40 thousand.

Folio 26r: Beginning of a table or list. Incomplete. Writing fading. Is this related to previous item?

Folios 27 – 29r: Judeo-Arabic. Addressed to the honourable magnate Judah Salkh / למע' הגביר היקר כה"ר יאודה צאלק. Finances discussed: thousand pounds from Mrs Farha; Rupees.

[Folios 29v – 39 are blank. This side of the composite pad ends with folio 34. For foliation purposes, it was necessary to continue the numbering in the direction of this side of the composite pad. However, the two pads are attached back-to-back. Thus, the folio numbers in the other half of the composite pad run from its back, folio 35r, to its front, folio 56v. For the sake of clarity, the following items will follow the true order of the second pad, with folio numbers working downward, in reverse order.]

Folio 56v: Hebrew. Torah insight to Numbers chapter 26: Relation of opening statement, ‘It came to pass after the plague’ to the continuation about the census; and why in this census was not made using a half-shekel in lieu of a headcount. Numbers at the top.

Folio 56r: small calculations.

Folios 55v – 54v: Hebrew. Torah insight: After the sin of the Golden Calf, God’s providence over Israel diminished from supernatural to natural. This necessitated their sending of scouts to discover the best way to enter the Promised Land.

Folio 54r: Hebrew. Legal document. Granting permission to Judge Rabbi Raphael Isaac Hayyim to stand in his stead as the one who certifies the ritual slaughterers of fowl. Dated: day 6(?) of the month Tamuz [56]88 [Anno Mundi = 24 June 1928 CE].

Folios 53v – 52v: Hebrew. Jewish Law, Responsa. Response to letter from Rabbi Isaac Nissim (later chief rabbi of Israel?) regarding difference of opinion on the status of turning electric lights on and off on the Sabbath and Holidays. (Although HED forbids it, he is unsure of the scientific nuance of how electricity works. Some have claimed that flipping the switch does not create / terminate light, but simply covers / uncovers existing light. Without certainty, HED is opposed to enforcing his prohibition upon community members who did not heed his ruling.) HED also enquires after the welfare of a colleague who experienced financial difficulty.

Folios 51v – 50r: Judeo-Arabic. Letter to friend, magnate, and esteemed sage David Suliman David Sassoon.

Folio 49v: Judeo-Arabic. [To?] Abraham Isaac. Date: Friday, 5 Ḥeshṿan, 5689 AM (= 19 October 1928). Brief note regarding the letter (see previous entry) to David Sassoon.

Folios 48v – 46v: Hebrew. Torah insights. On some items in Genesis. [a] Pericope Lekh Lekha / לך לך, Genesis chapter 12: Sarah is taken by Pharaoh: It was for Sarah’s protection that Abraham told her to say that she is his sister; why Abraham’s plan did not work; the episode with Pharaoh. [b] Genesis chapter 22: The Binding of Isaac: God did not command of Abraham, but merely requested of him, to offer up Isaac.

Folios 45r – 40r: Calculations of ‘molad’ = mean conjunction of sun and moon, in preparation of the Jewish calendar for the year 5691 AM (= 1930/1 CE); Jewish Calendar for the year 5691 AM (= 1930/1 CE): basic data for year-type; civil dates; Jewish dates; days of the week; special occasions.

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