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55-657: The codex was kept for five centuries in the Central Synagogue of Aleppo , until the synagogue was torched during 1947 anti-Jewish riots in Aleppo . The fate of the codex during the subsequent decade is unclear: when it resurfaced in Israel in 1958, roughly 40% of the manuscript—including the majority of the Torah section—was missing, and only two additional leaves have been recovered since then. The original supposition that

110-642: A mosque . During the Mongol period (13th century), the synagogue was one of six designated places of refuge in the city, but was destroyed during Tamerlane 's subjugation of Aleppo in 1400. The central synagogue was rebuilt at some point in 1418. In August 1626, the Italian Jesuit Pietro Della Valle , (1586–1682), passed through Aleppo and visited the Great Synagogue of that city, which he described in detail: I went to see

165-565: A kind of musical tone, to whom all the people alternately answer:... Another account by Elkan Nathan Adler in his book Jews in Many Lands published in 1905 records: The chief synagogue is very ancient and has many peculiarities. There are several modern additions to it, but the main structure is dated by the Abbe Chagnot as early as the fourth century. It has several inscriptions, some carved on its walls, others painted on them. One

220-451: A standard printed Hebrew Bible and take notes on the differences was Umberto Cassuto , who examined it in 1943. This secrecy made it impossible to confirm the authenticity of the Codex, and indeed Cassuto doubted that it was Maimonides' codex, though he agreed that it was tenth century. During the 1947 Anti-Jewish riots in Aleppo , the community's ancient synagogue was burned. Later, while

275-498: A synagogue to have its roof removed during the summer (Baba Batra, 3:2), except for over the Holy Ark and the bimah for the cantor. The synagogue edifice was divided into three main sections: a central courtyard that separated the western wing, where in modern times the musta'arabi community used to worship, from the eastern section built at a later time during the 16th century and which served as Beth Midrash and prayer hall of

330-612: Is a modern version of the Tanakh based on the Aleppo Codex and the work of Breuer: It uses a newly designed typeface based on the calligraphy of the Codex and is based on its page layout. Among the Jewish community of Aleppo and their descendants in the post-1947 diaspora, the belief always was that the Codex holds great magical power and that the smallest piece of it can ensure the good health and well-being of its owner. Historically it

385-468: Is a raised, covered "tevah," or reader's platform, which the congregation used seasonally. It was in this form that Della Valle viewed the synagogue. It remained essentially unchanged until it was looted and burned in the riots of 1947. The synagogue included from the very beginning an adjacent courtyard that was used as an open-air synagogue in the summertime. According to the Talmud , it was customary for

440-568: Is as late as 1861, another as early as 834. The latter is on a chapel stated to have been erected by Mar Ali ben Nathan b. Mebasser b. HaAram....Hebrew inscription... Only four letters are starred, so that the date is probably 1145, sel.=834. The local Jews, however, assume that all the letters count in the perat, but that no thousand is omitted, so that the date would be 654 sel., i.e., 345 of the common era! The letters are certainly archaic, so early an inscription should not be accepted as such without further evidence. There are several chapels surrounding

495-502: Is parchment, 33 cm high by 26.5 cm wide (13 inches × 10.43 inches). In particular, only the last few pages of the Torah are extant. The ink was made of three types of gall , ground and mixed with black soot and iron sulfate . The manuscript has been restored by specialists of the Israel Museum, whose director declared that, given the Codex's history, it is "in remarkably excellent condition". The purple markings on

550-671: Is the codex known in Egypt , which includes 24 books, which was in Jerusalem ," he wrote. David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra testifies to this being the same codex that was later transferred to Aleppo. The Codex, as it presents itself now in the Israel Museum where it is kept in a vault, consists of the 294 pages delivered by the Ben-Zvi Institute, plus one full page and a section of a second one recovered subsequently. The pages are preserved unbound and written on both sides. Each page

605-584: The Damascus Pentateuch in academic circles and as the "Damascus Keter", or "Crown of Damascus", in traditional Jewish circles. It was also written in Israel in the tenth century, and is now kept at the National Library of Israel as "ms. Heb 5702". It is available online here [1] . (This should not be confused with another Damascus Keter, of medieval Spanish origin.) The Aleppo Codex was the manuscript used by Maimonides when he set down

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660-754: The Masoretic text of the Bible. The Jews believed that the day that the Aleppo Codex gets removed from Aleppo is the day that their community will be destroyed. It turns out that this actually occurred. Letter of the Karaite elders of Ascalon The Letter of the Karaite elders of Ascalon (c. 1100) was a communication written by six elders of the Karaite Jewish community of Ascalon and sent to their coreligionists in Alexandria nine months after

715-659: The Siege of Jerusalem (1099) during the First Crusade , the Crusaders held the codex and other holy works for ransom, along with Jewish survivors. The Aleppo Codex website cites two letters in the Cairo Geniza that describe how the inhabitants of Ashkelon borrowed money from Egypt to pay for the books. These Judeo-Arabic letters were discovered by noted Jewish historian Shelomo Dov Goitein in 1952. The Letter of

770-517: The fall of Jerusalem during the First Crusade . The contents describe how the Ascalon elders pooled money to pay the initial ransom for pockets of Jews and holy relics being held captive in Jerusalem by the Crusaders, the fate of some of these refugees after their release (including their transport to Alexandria, contraction of the plague , or death at sea), and the need for additional funds for

825-536: The "Francos", i.e. Sephardi Jews that settled in the town after the Spanish exile and other European Jews that happened to sojourn in Aleppo. An additional enclosed small courtyard was bordering the eastern wing farther to the east. The western hall had three heichaloth (Holy Arks); there were another three heichaloth on the southern wall ("the Zion Wall") of the courtyard, and a seventh Holy Ark, located in

880-400: The 1850s, Shalom Shachne Yellin sent his son in law, Moses Joshua Kimchi, to Aleppo, to copy information about the Codex; Kimchi sat for weeks, and copied thousands of details about the codex into the margins of a small handwritten Bible . The existence of this Bible was known to 20th-century scholars from the book ‘Ammudé Shesh by Shemuel Shelomo Boyarski , and then the actual Bible itself

935-616: The 5th century CE in Aleppo , in what is now the Syrian Arab Republic . When it functioned, it was considered the main synagogue of the Syrian Jewish community. The synagogue is noted as being the location where the Aleppo codex was housed for over five hundred years until it was removed during the 1947 Aleppo pogrom , during which the synagogue was burned. The synagogue is in a ruined state. According to tradition,

990-491: The Aleppo Codex. Complete online Tanakh: Partial editions: Central Synagogue of Aleppo The Central Synagogue of Aleppo , ( Hebrew : בית הכנסת המרכזי בחאלֶבּ , Arabic : كنيس حلب المركزي , romanized :  Kanīs Ḥalab al-Markazī ), also known as the Great Synagogue of Aleppo , Joab's Synagogue or Al-Bandara Synagogue ( Arabic : كنيس البندرة ), is a former Jewish place of worship since

1045-597: The Aleppo Jews. It was given first to Shlomo Zalman Shragai of the Jewish Agency , who later testified that the Codex was complete or nearly so at the time. Later that year it was given to the Ben-Zvi Institute . Still during 1958, the Jewish community of Aleppo sued the Ben-Zvi Institute for the return of the Codex, but the court ruled against them and suppressed publication of the proceedings. In

1100-533: The Byzantine period, perhaps as early as the 9th century. Damaged in the Mongol sack of Aleppo in 1400, the building underwent extensive changes in 1405–1418. With the arrival of the Sephardim in Aleppo in the 16th century, a wing on the eastern side of the main courtyard was built. On the southern part of this wing, facing Jerusalem, is a small room known as the "cave of Elijah." Within the porticoed -courtyard,

1155-487: The Cave of Elijah. It was regarded as the community's most sacred possession: Those in trouble would pray before it, and oaths were taken by it. The community received queries from Jews around the world, who asked that various textual details be checked, correspondence which is preserved in the responsa literature, and which allows for the reconstruction of certain details in the parts that are missing today. Most importantly, in

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1210-434: The Codex was in Israel, it was found that no more than 294 of the original (estimated) 487 pages survived. The missing leaves are a subject of fierce controversy. Originally it was thought they were destroyed by fire, but scholarly analysis has shown no evidence of fire having reached the codex itself (the dark marks on the pages are due to fungus). Some scholars instead accuse members of the Jewish community of having torn off

1265-463: The Codex would be hit by the curse. The consonants in the codex were copied by the scribe Shlomo ben Buya'a in Palestine circa 920. The text was then verified, vocalized, and provided with Masoretic notes by Aaron ben Moses ben Asher , the last and most prominent member of the ben Asher dynasty of grammarians from Tiberias , rivals to the ben Naphtali school. The tradition of ben Asher has become

1320-448: The Karaite elders of Ascalon , the more descriptive of the two, states that the money borrowed from Alexandria was used to "buy back two hundred and thirty Bible codices, a hundred other volumes, and eight Torah Scrolls." The documents were transported to Egypt via a caravan led and funded by the prominent Alexandrian official Abu’l-Fadl Sahl b. Yūsha’ b. Sha‘yā, who was in Ascalon for his wedding in early 1100. Judeo-Arabic inscriptions on

1375-543: The Syrian Jewish community of New York) and completed in 1992, but it now stands silent and empty. Occasionally, when possible, trips are made to visit the synagogue by Syrian Jews. An example of such a trip took place on 1 June 2008, when a minyan for the morning services with the Kaddish and Kohanim was conducted by the visitors and former members of the synagogue. The older portions of the synagogue were built in

1430-472: The World Register and was included in 2015. The Karaite Jewish community of Jerusalem received the book from Israel ben Simha of Basra sometime between 1040 and 1050. It was cared for by the brothers Hizkiyahu and Joshya, Karaite religious leaders who eventually moved to Fustat (today part of Old Cairo ) in 1050. The codex, however, stayed in Jerusalem until the latter part of that century. After

1485-438: The codex) that not only was it the oldest known masoretic Bible in a single volume, it was the first time ever that a complete Tanakh had been produced by one or two people as a unified entity in a consistent style. During the 1991 Gulf War, and again during the 2023 Israel-Hamas War, the scrolls were temporarily removed from display and placed in secure storage as part of the Israel Museum's emergency protocol. Later, after

1540-411: The eastern wing close to the courtyard, also on the southern wall pointing to the direction of Jerusalem that was named Cave of Eliyahu or Heichal/Me'arat Eliyahu . Here old Sifrei Torah and Bible manuscripts (Keter) were kept. It is here where the Aleppo codex was housed for over five hundred years until 1947. Keter Aram Soba (The Aleppo Codex) is considered the most authoritative manuscript of

1595-574: The edges of the pages were found to be mold rather than fire damage. When the Aleppo Codex was complete (until 1947), it followed the Tiberian textual tradition in the order of its books, similar to the Leningrad Codex , and which also matches the later tradition of Sephardi biblical manuscripts. The Torah and the Nevi'im appear in the same order found in most printed Hebrew Bibles, but

1650-569: The end; all of Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Esther, Daniel, and Ezra-Nehemiah. In 2016, the scholar Yosef Ofer published a newly recovered fragment of the Aleppo Codex with some portions of the Book of Exodus 8. Several complete or partial editions of the Tanakh based on the Aleppo Codex have been published over the past three decades in Israel, some of them under the academic auspices of Israeli universities. These editions incorporate reconstructions of

1705-585: The exact rules for writing scrolls of the Torah , Hilkhot Sefer Torah ("the Laws of the Torah Scroll") in his Mishneh Torah . This halachic ruling gave the Aleppo Codex the seal of supreme textual authority, albeit only with regard to the type of space preceding sections ( petuhot and setumot ) and for the manner of the writing of the songs in the Pentateuch. "The codex which we used in these works

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1760-508: The fact that eyewitnesses in Aleppo who saw the Codex shortly after the fire consistently reported that it was complete or nearly complete, and then there is no account of it for more than a decade, until after it arrived in Israel and was put, in 1958, in the Ben-Zvi Institute, at which point it was as currently described; his book suggests a number of possibilities for the loss of the pages including theft in Israel. Documentary filmmaker Avi Dabach, great-grandson of Hacham Ezra Dabach (one of

1815-659: The first page of the Codex mention the book was then "transferred to the Jerusalemite synagogue in Fustat ." The Aleppo codex website reveals how the book changed hands. [It was] transferred [...] according to the law of redemption from imprisonment [in which it had fallen] in Jerusalem, the Holy City, may it be rebuilt and reestablished, to the congregation in Egypt of Knisat Yerushalayim, may it be built and established in

1870-471: The foundation for the Great Synagogue in Aleppo was constructed by King David 's General, Joab ben Zeruiah , (circa 950 BCE), after his conquest of the city. (See 2 Sam 8:3-8) ; it is still sometimes referred to as Joab's Synagogue. The oldest surviving inscription is from the year 834 C.E. These early buildings were damaged after the Mongol occupation of Aleppo during the 13th century and then turned into

1925-514: The last caretakers of the Codex when it was still in Syria), announced in December 2015 an upcoming film tracing the history of the Codex and possibly determining the fate of the missing pages. The film, titled The Lost Crown  [ he ] , was released in 2018. In January 1958, the Aleppo Codex was smuggled out of Syria and sent to Jerusalem to be placed in the care of the chief rabbi of

1980-656: The late 1980s, the codex was placed in the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum . This finally gave scholars the chance to examine it and consider the claims that it is indeed the manuscript referred to by Maimonides. The work of Moshe Goshen-Gottstein on the few surviving pages of the Torah seems to have confirmed these claims beyond reasonable doubt. Goshen-Gottstein suggested (in the introduction to his facsimile reprint of

2035-454: The life of Israel. Blessed be he who preserves it and cursed be he who steals it, and cursed be he who sells it, and cursed be he who pawns it. It may not be sold and it may not be defiled forever. The Aleppo community guarded the Codex zealously for some 600 years: it was kept, together with three other Biblical manuscripts, in a special cupboard (later, an iron safe) in a basement chapel of the Central Synagogue of Aleppo , supposed to have been

2090-665: The literal sense of crown. The Karaite Jewish community of Jerusalem purchased the codex about a hundred years after it was made. When the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem in 1099, the synagogue was plundered and the codex was held for a high ransom, which was paid with money coming from Egypt, leading to the codex being transferred there. It was preserved at the Karaite , then at the Rabbanite synagogue in Old Cairo , where it

2145-479: The main building, evidently added from time to time, as the community grew. In each of these minyan is separately held. The chief peculiarity of the Aleppo synagogue is a raised pulpit called the Kiseh Eliyahu approached by a flight of some twenty steps and still used for the solemnization of a Brit milah . Over the synagogue there is a yeshivah and in a secret chamber in the eaves of the roof of one of

2200-411: The missing leaves and keeping them privately hidden. Two missing portions of the manuscript—a single complete leaf from the Book of Chronicles and a fragment of a page from the Book of Exodus —were turned up from such sources in the 1980s, leaving open the possibility that even more may have survived the riots in 1947. In particular, the 2012 book The Aleppo Codex by Matti Friedman calls attention to

2255-441: The missing pages were destroyed in the synagogue fire has increasingly been challenged, fueling speculation that they survive in private hands. The portion of the codex that is accounted for is housed in the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum . The codex's Hebrew name is כֶּתֶר אֲרָם צוֹבָא ‎ Keṯer ʾĂrām-Ṣōḇāʾ , translated as "Crown of Aleppo". Kether means "crown", and Aram-Ṣovaʾ (literally "outside Aram ")

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2310-414: The missing parts of the codex based on the methodology of Mordechai Breuer or similar systems, and by taking into account all available historical testimony about the contents of the codex. Complete Tanakh: These are complete editions of the Tanakh , usually in one volume (but sometimes also sold in three volumes, and, as noted, in more). Apart from the last, they do not include the masoretic notes of

2365-489: The one accepted for the Hebrew Bible . The ben Asher vocalization is late and in many respects artificial, compared to other traditions and tendencies reaching back closer to the period of spoken Biblical Hebrew. The Leningrad Codex , which dates to approximately the same time as the Aleppo codex, has been claimed by Paul E. Kahle to be a product of the ben Asher scriptorium . However, its colophon says only that it

2420-752: The order for the books for Ketuvim differs markedly. In the Aleppo Codex, the order of the Ketuvim is Books of Chronicles , Psalms , Book of Job , Book of Proverbs , Book of Ruth , Song of Songs , Ecclesiastes , Book of Lamentations , Book of Esther , Book of Daniel , and Book of Ezra and Book of Nehemiah . The current text is missing all of the Pentateuch to the Book of Deuteronomy 28.17; II Kings 14.21–18.13; Book of Jeremiah 29.9–31.33; 32.2–4, 9–11, 21–24; Book of Amos 8.12– Book of Micah 5.1; So 3.20–Za 9.17; II Chronicles 26.19–35.7; Book of Psalms 15.1–25.2 (MT enumeration); Song of Songs 3.11 to

2475-629: The rescuing of further captives. It was written in Judeo-Arabic , Arabic using the Hebrew alphabet . This and other such letters related to the Crusader conquest of Jerusalem were discovered by noted historian S.D. Goitein in 1952 among the papers of the Cairo Geniza . Goitein first published his findings in Zion , a Hebrew journal, and then presented a partial English translation of the letter in

2530-452: The right hand of the entrance, is a kind of great hall, which they make use of for their service in the winter when it is cold or rains; as they do of the court in summer and fair weather: In the middle of the court four pillasters support a cupoletta, under which in a high and decent place, like our altar; lies the volume of the Law, and there also their doctor and principal rabbi stands reading in

2585-484: The side chapels is the genizah . It had later on undergone a series of modifications until its destruction during the violent attacks against Jews by the local population in December 1947. The building has been badly damaged, but the synagogue still stands and is under full supervision and protection by the Syrian government, although there are no worshippers utilizing it. The synagogue was partially rebuilt (financed by

2640-652: The synagogue of the Jews at Aleppo, famed for fairness and antiquity. Their street is entered into by a narrow gate, which is so much lower than the rest, that it is descended to by a considerable number of steps. After I had gone through many of their narrow lanes, which they contrive so, purposely to hide the goodness of the building from the Turks, I came at length to the synagogue; which is a good large square uncovered court, with covered walks or cloysters round about, upheld by double pillars disposed according to good architecture. On

2695-514: The university denied him access to the codex, Mordechai Breuer began his own reconstruction of the Masoretic text on the basis of other well-known ancient manuscripts. His results matched the Aleppo Codex almost exactly. Thus today, Breuer's version is used authoritatively for the reconstruction of the missing portions of the Aleppo Codex. The Jerusalem Crown (כתר ירושלים, Keter Yerushalayim, lit. "Jerusalem Crown"), printed in Jerusalem in 2000,

2750-603: Was a not-yet-identified biblical city in what is now Syria whose name was applied from the 11th century onward by some Rabbinic sources and Syrian Jews to the area of Aleppo in Syria. Kether is a translation of Arabic taj , originally Persian taj ; the codex was called al-Taj by locals until the modern period. In Arabic, the term taj was used mostly as a stock superlative title (Muslim caliphs did not wear crowns) and applied liberally to model codices. It lost this sense when translated into Hebrew as kether , which has only

2805-445: Was believed that women allowed to look at it would become pregnant, and that those in charge of the keys to the Codex vault were blessed. On the other hand, community elders have written at the top of some pages "Sacred to Yahweh, not to be sold or defiled" and "Cursed be he who steals it, and cursed be he who sells it". The community feared being destroyed by a plague, should they lose the Codex, and they believed that he who stole or sold

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2860-533: Was consulted by Maimonides , who described it as a text trusted by all Jewish scholars. It is rumoured that in 1375 one of Maimonides' descendants brought it to Aleppo , Syria , leading to its present name. The Codex remained in Syria for nearly six hundred years. In 1947, rioters enraged by the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine burned down the synagogue where it was kept. The Codex disappeared, then reemerged in 1958, when it

2915-413: Was corrected from manuscripts written by ben Asher; there is no evidence that ben Asher himself ever saw it. However, the same holds true for the Aleppo Codex, which was apparently not vocalized by ben Asher himself, although a later colophon, which was added to the manuscript after his death, attributes the vocalization to him. The community of Damascus possessed a counterpart of the Aleppo Codex, known as

2970-510: Was discovered by Yosef Ofer in 1989. However, the community limited direct observation of the manuscript by outsiders, especially by scholars in modern times. Paul E. Kahle , when revising the text of the Biblia Hebraica in the 1920s, tried and failed to obtain a photographic copy. This forced him to use the Leningrad Codex instead for the third edition, which appeared in 1937. The only modern scholar allowed to compare it with

3025-507: Was smuggled into Israel by Syrian Jew Murad Faham, and presented to the president of the state, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi . Some time after arrival, it was found that parts of the codex had been lost. The Aleppo Codex was entrusted to the Ben-Zvi Institute and Hebrew University of Jerusalem . It is currently (2019) on display in the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum . The Aleppo Codex was submitted by Israel for inclusion in UNESCO's Memory of

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