Letter to His Mother

May the Lord who dwells in Zion protect you from any grief and sorrow. To my beloved mother, the crown of my head, the pious Mrs. Rachel, may she live long. [ . . . ] You should know, my dear mom, that we are all, thank God, in good health, and we hope it is the same with you at every hour, Amen! You should know, my dear mom, that there was a plague—God forfend!—here from Passover to the end of Sivan, so that my father-in-law—may God protect and preserve him!—rented a house in the Bulaq [district] on the blessed river because there has never been a plague here in Bulaq. It is a luxury to live on the Nile. So that, my dear mom, we are still here. For Shabbat Naḥamu¹ we will return to town [Cairo]. Although the plague has, thank God, already stopped, we will stay here until Shabbat Naḥamu on behalf of my wife who is pregnant, praise to God!, since Sivan. That is why, my dear mom, during all this time I couldn’t even send you a letter or buy for you what you requested since everyone fled and locked himself in, and I didn’t know who would be traveling so that I could send you at least a letter. So, my dear mom, have great patience. I will shortly send you, with the help of God, by a reliable person everything I wrote to you in the other letter. My dear mom, you didn’t write to me if you received the two pieces. My dear mom, now I will write you about the children, may God protect and preserve them! Zvi’ele—may God protect and preserve him!—is [learning] at the care of ma’alma marḥaba [“female teacher” named Shlomit] and Dovele at the care of the ma’alem [teacher] R. Isaac Ashkenazi [Luria], may God protect them. Both are promising; I wish that continues. They study nicely. Dovele has changed a lot. He learns here even better than he did there [while he was in Jerusalem]. And the great fool, alas! he is [working as] a servant to the wife of R. Benjamin Castro. He hangs around like a fool. He does not obey anyone. [ . . . ] Nobody mentions you as often as Dovele. He keeps on telling me that if God helps him, he will share every morsel with you. And Zvi’ele is very pleased with himself. He knows how to dress and behave. Now I don’t know what more to write to you. May God, blessed be He, keep you vigorous and healthy. So prays and wishes your son who remembers you day and night, Moses son of the honorable R. Eliezar Zarit of blessed memory. Written on the Thursday of the weekly portion [Balak, when they read,] So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel (Numbers 25:8). Give my regards to everybody and to the Rebetsn Moishe [the wife of R. Moses], and tell her that I have spoken to the wife of Moses Ashkenazi about thirty times and she promised as many times to send her the pepper and the ginger. What can I do if she hasn’t done it?