Mishpat u-tsedakah be-Ya‘akov (Judgment and Righteousness [Are] in Jacob)

It has been a long, sorrowful time that Mr. Solomon Ha-Kohen of Tangier (may God protect him) has been living here with us in Fez (may God protect it), upset angry, and bitter. We did not know what had befallen him until the day came . . . that we investigated, inquiring into the matter, and heard from others that something improper had been done to him. The cause was certain testimony he had given in Tangier. When the matter was taken up in Tétouan, the communal heads of Tétouan (may God protect it) arose and demanded that he pay back the losses certain people sustained at the hands of the gentiles, because they claimed that his testimony had caused their losses. He is now like a refugee, for he fears that if he would return to his home in Tangier they would give him no respite until he pays. We see him walking around in a melancholy, depressed, tearful state, sighing all the time.

We therefore sent for him and asked that he present the facts of the matter to us as they had occurred. He produced for us a copy of the testimony he had given concerning a man by the name of Solomon Gerson, describing how [Gerson] had been delighted and self-satisfied to relate the affairs he had carried on with several women, some widows and some currently married—he had done with them as he pleased.

Meanwhile, rumors had been circulating there about some man and woman [having an affair], and it was confirmed, though they had tried to cover it up. When they saw this, the community, along with the hakham of the city, gathered in the synagogue (may God increase its greatness) on a Sabbath to rebuke and safeguard the [moral] fences of Israel. The hakham preached about this matter and they decreed that any Jew who knew about someone’s promiscuous acts but did not come to report them is himself a concealed sinner. For this reason, the aforementioned Mr. Solomon Kohen appeared and testified what he had heard concerning the aforementioned Solomon Gerson.

After the presentation of the testimony, it stated that the said Mr. Solomon Kohen swore upon an object, a Torah scroll, confirmed on 19 Tammuz of the year 5504 [1744] in the name of God, may He be blessed, and in the name of all those who swear by His great and awesome name in truth, that everything to which he had testified was absolute fact. It is what the aforementioned Solomon Gerson had said to him from time to time, to which [Kohen] had added nothing. He also had no dislike of Solomon Gerson—quite the opposite; he had been a friend of his, etc. As long as he had seen no charge to report transgressors, he had been silent. But when he saw that the holy congregation had undertaken to regulate conduct, and had decreed that anyone who knew something must come and testify, he came and testified before the hakham. Among the things to which he swore was that all the details he had mentioned in his testimony were not divulged to him by Solomon Gerson at one time, but from time to time and on various occasions; in each instance he would recount one or two details. Furthermore, Solomon Gerson did not speak to him of all these matters in drunkenness, but in a state of full awareness.

Thus far is what we found written in that copied document that he showed us.

Another witness to this was found here [in Fez], by the name of Me’ir ben Ramokh, who had been in Tangier at the time. His testimony was received here and brought before us. It clarified that when Mr. Solomon Kohen went and testified to the aforementioned matters before the Hakham Rabbi Judah Hadidah (may God protect him), the hakham went to investigate and inquire into the matter of those women, in order to rebuke them and separate them from sin. [The next sentence appears to be an editorial insertion by the question’s editor:] This is our obligation, and it is proper for us to burn the weeds out of the vineyard.

One of the women who heard the hakham speaking about this matter went and told the husband of one of the suspected women. This man (the husband of the suspected woman) now went to the governor and told him that Rabbi Isaac Kohen [another member of the rabbinic court?] and the abovementioned Rabbi Judah Hadidah had slandered his wife. The governor arrested them and was preparing to punish them, forcing Rabbi Judah Hadidah to tell the governor, “I said nothing on my own; rather, a single witness, Mr. Solomon Kohen, told me such and such.” The governor then arrested Mr. Solomon Kohen to have him testify. At the beginning he denied it all, but the heads of the holy community saw that the two abovementioned hakhamim, Rabbi Isaac Kohen and Rabbi Judah Hadidah, were in distress, because the governor was preparing to punish them, and it was possible that the cup of torture would pass on to Mr. Solomon Kohen as well. So, they came to Mr. Solomon Kohen and said to him, “Why do you deny it? Tell the truth for its own sake.” He replied to them, “I fear, first of all, that the suspects will forfeit money at the hands of the governor, and I will be charged for their [loss] whether or not the law demands it. I am also afraid the governor will punish me with physical torture.”

The heads of the community told him, “Do not worry and do not be upset. Tell the truth and save those arrested [Hadidah and Kohen]. We will intercede to save you from physical distress as well as monetary distress. Anything you lose is entirely our responsibility, whether it is lost to the governor, the suspected women, or in any suit in rabbinic court that arises.” With that, he told the governor about the matter.

Thus far is the essence of the aforesaid Mr. Me’ir Ben Ramokh’s testimony.

And so, the said Mr. Solomon Kohen related to us, weeping bitter tears, he summarized the whole matter for the governor. The governor then arose, arrested Solomon Gerson, and took what he wanted from him in fines. He also took a fine from the aforesaid Jacob Israel [!] based on this same testimony, and took what he wanted from the accused women, as the governors are wont to do. The matter persisted onward, and the two hakhamim mentioned, Rabbi Isaac Kohen and Rabbi Judah Hadidah, traveled to Tétouan, may God preserve it. The heads of the holy congregation of Tétouan stood against them and sullied their honor, tormenting them by asking, “Why did you do this?” They sent to Tangier to force Mr. Solomon Kohen to come before them in Tétouan, which he did. The heads of the holy community were very bad to him because of this testimony he had given. They demanded that he repay everything lost by those accused. Afterward they appeared before a rabbinic court, which assented and charged him with the repayment for the reason that since he was a sole witness, he is a slanderer! He has caused them damage and is responsible for the costs.

Thus far is what he told us.

It would have been more proper for them to hold the husband of the suspected woman who went to the governor responsible, for he should have taken matters only to the rabbis and received their judgment. The Torah says before them—before them and not before gentiles [Exodus 21:1]. It is obvious that ingoing to the governor he intended nothing other than to damage, may his spirit rupture. Why was he so fearful? She [his wife] had not been forbidden to him—they were simply trying to shore up the [moral] situation from this point forward. He also claimed that he had requested the court to give him a ruling, to tell him which way they would judge him. They had said that was fine, but afterward they pushed him off from one day to the next until he could take it no longer, and he came out with empty hands.

Response: [ . . . ]

Thanks indeed go to God who has not withheld a redeemer for Rabbi Solomon Kohen. For right here was found the young Hayyim of Imran, whose testimony was properly received. He stated that when he was in Tangier in the fall of the year 5504 [1743/44] he was sitting one day in the shop of Solomon Gerson. This Solomon was proudly recounting to him that he had slept with four women—one widow and three married women—and that he mentioned them all by name. However, the scribe [taking the testimony] mentioned only three of them by name, and finished with, “and another married woman whose name is being left out for obvious reasons.”

We therefore now have two witnesses to the statements of the aforementioned evildoer Gerson. Mr. Solomon Kohen is thus innocent, and is not to be called a slanderer. [ . . . ]

It is also true that the first thing Mr. Solomon Kohen showed us was the receipt of testimony by four persons who stated that the governor of Tangier told them, with no instigation, that before Mr. Solomon Kohen ever declared his testimony before him, he already knew about the matter from gentiles who reported all events in their territories. However, as we have written, we have no actual need of either this testimony or the testimony of the abovementioned second witness who stated that he too had heard the same evil matters from Gerson.