Community Register

We the undersigned hereby declare that to sustain the community and for the welfare and the peace of the communities of our city, of common accord we have issued for twenty years the following regulations [haskamot]:

1. None of the ḥakhamim [rabbis] of our city, whether they are rabbis of synagogues or the other rabbis, may establish any agreement with any of the synagogues, to be their rabbi or head of the community, nor judge nor leader either in the community nor outside it, neither openly nor in secret. No synagogue rabbi may involve himself in judgment regarding individuals of his community, either in disputes between one individual and another, or in gittin [divorce] or ḥalitsah [levirate marriage]. He can only involve himself in betrothals and marriage contracts, births, and funerals. However, rabbis who had a pulpit before the issuing of this regulation are permitted to practice as before.
2. No community treasurer is permitted to approach any other community to be its treasurer, counselor, or judge, neither within the community nor outside it, neither openly nor secretly.
3. No community, class group, society, or even any individual is permitted to enter into any contract or agreement with any other community, class, or society. All communities must be of one common accord, one community, one people, and one unity.
4. There cannot be any separation within the community, class, company, or union; even two persons of the community are not permitted to make any joint venture against members of the community, for all must be of a common accord. Only in the communities in which there are diverse classes—from when the taxes were estimated—can remain as before according to the conditions that they had. But from now onward it is forbidden for there to be any separation or any change, and the one or the ones who act against these regulations will be excluded from all the communities.

Salonika 19 Sivan, 5377.