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A rare letter appointing David Dayan, Shedar, to collect funds on behalf of the Aleppo community. Such letters are generally from communities in Erez Israel where the inhabitants were engaged in religious vocations and not available for income producing professions. The document describes the hardships and tribulations of the Aleppo community and asks Jews to contribute generously to a descendant of King David. The Dayan family had documents identifying their direct descent, generation by generation, to King David.
Aleppo called by the Jews Aram-Zoba (Aram Zova), second-largest city in Syria and the center of northern Syria. The Hebrew form of Aleppo (Haleb) is, according to a legend quoted by the 12th-century traveler, Pethahiah of Regensburg, derived from the tradition that Abraham pastured his sheep on the mountain of Aleppo and distributed their milk (halav) to the poor on its slopes. Jewish settlement there has continued uninterruptedly since Roman times. The ancient section of the great synagogue was built in the form of a basilica with three stoae during the Byzantine period; an inscription on it dates from 834. R. Saadiah Gaon was in Aleppo in 921 and it is said that he found Jewish scholars there. In the 11th century learned rabbis led a well-ordered community. R. Baruch b. Isaac was its leader at the end of the 11th century: fragments of his commentary on the Gemara as well as responsa have been found in the genizah. Apparently the rosh kehillot ("head of communities"), i.e., a leader common to the various communities of Jews (such as Babylonians, Palestinians, etc.), represented all Jews before the Muslim authorities.
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