Aleppo Codex

Aleppo Codex
Earliest Complete
Manuscript of the
Bible
by
Sarina Roffé

 

 

The Keter (Hebrew for Crown) sits in secure temperature-controlled cases on the lower level of the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum and holds a place of honor akin to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Otherwise known as the Aleppo Codex, as that community held it for nearly 600 years, the Keter is the earliest known complete manuscript of the Bible ever written.

The term Keter is a Jewish term of respect in Middle East countries for a select few ancient Hebrew biblical manuscripts. A codex is in the form of a book — not a collection of scrolls — and represents a transformation from scrolls to book format. The Aleppo Codex is the first known manuscript in this format.

The Codex is seen as a fulfillment of the words of Isaiah (2:3) "for instruction (Torah) shall come forth from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." Written by the Masoretes scholars in Tiberias in the 10^th Century (a center for Jewish learning after the destruction of the Second Temple), the text embodies the pronunciation, spelling, punctuation and cantillation handed down through many generations and was used by Maimonides to formulate the Mishneh Torah.

Most of the Codex was written in three columns, vocalized according to the Tiberian system where vowels were placed beneath the letters, unlike the Babylonian system of placing the vowels above the letters. Cantillation accents are inscribed above or beneath the words, providing phonetic information about where a word should be accented, as well as information on where to pause and how the words should be sung. The Codex also includes commentary on spelling, which may affect the meaning of words, which are in the margins, between columns and above and below text. These pages can be viewed at Aleppo Codex.

The colophon (inscription at the end of the manuscript) indicates that it was copied by the scribe Solomon ben Beya'a, a scion from a well-known family of scribes, and states that the manuscript has all 24 books of the Bible. The colophon indicates that the Codex was purchased years after completion by a wealthy Karaite from Basra, Iraq named Israel Simhah, who donated it to the Karaite synagogue in Jerusalem. The vocalization, cantillation and masoretic comments were added by Aaron ben Asher, the last of the Masoretes and the final link in the chain of tradition. The only copy of the colophon was made by Professor Umberto Cassuto during his visit to Aleppo in 1943 to study it.

The thick manuscript has had an adventurous journey. Taken from Tiberias to the Karaite synagogue in Jerusalem and then to Cairo at the end of the 11^th century, it reached Aleppo about 1375, where it remained for nearly 600 years before being returned to Jerusalem in 1958.

When the Aleppo Codex was in Cairo, Moses Maimonides relied on it to formulate laws relating to the Torah scrolls in the Mishneh Torah. Maimonides writes in his conclusion "In these matters we relied upon the Codex now in Egypt, which contains the 24 books of scripture and which had been in Jerusalem for several years. It was used as the standard text in the correction of my books. Everyone relied on it, because it had been corrected by Ben Asher himself, who worked on its details closely for many years and corrected it many times whenever it was being copied. And I relied on it in the Torah scroll that I wrote according to Jewish law." (Sefer Ahavah, Hilkhot Sefer Torah 8:4)

In the 11^th century, the Codex was smuggled out of Jerusalem, either by Seljuks in 1071 or Crusaders in 1099 and was sold in Egypt. At the end of the 14^th century, the Aleppo Codex was brought from Cairo to Aleppo and deposited with the Jewish community. Some believe that the great-great-great-grandson of Maimonides brought the Codex to Aleppo, although this cannot be verified.

The Codex was placed in a metal chest with a double lock in the Cave of Elijah in the ancient synagogue of Aleppo. The community was very superstitious, felt the Codex had magical properties, and viewed it as the most important manuscript in their possession.

An inscription on the opening page reads "Sacred to the Lord […] it shall be neither sold nor redeemed forever and ever […]" Thus, the community believed great harm would come to the community if they sold it, relinquished their custody of it, or even if removed from the synagogue.

Yet its fame spread as scholars and scribes sought authoritative answers. The community was so protective of the Codex that only seven people were permitted to study or view it while it was held in Aleppo. These include Yishai Hakchen ben Amram Hakohen Amad of Kurdistan in the late 15^th century; Rabbi Joseph Caro of Safed, author of Shulkan Aruhk and Rabbi Moses Isserles (Rema of Krakow) in 1559; Moses Joshua Kimhi on instruction of his father-in-law, the renowned scribe Rabbi Shalom Shakhna Yellin (1790-1874); British born Alexander Russell in 1753; Professor Umberto Cassuto in 1943 and for Moshe David Cassuto, a Bible scholar, in 1953. A copy of one page of the Codex appears in a book written by scholar William Wickes (1877) and missionary J. Segall published a photo of two pages of the Codex containing the Ten Commandments in his book Travels Through Northern Syria (1910).

Fires were set to the ancient synagogue during pogroms that broke out in Aleppo in December 1947 after the United Nations Resolution to establish the State of Israel. What remained of the Codex was rescued from its hiding place of nearly 600 years and hidden for 10 years.

In 1943, Yitzhak Shamosh was sent on a mission by Judah L Magnes, the first president of Hebrew University, and Ben-Zvi, then president of the Vaad HaLeumi, the National Council of Jews in Palestine, to the Jewish community of Aleppo to persuade the elders to move the Codex to Jerusalem for safekeeping during World War II. The community refused as its rabbis believed that if the Codex left their possession, the community would be destroyed. Shamosh went on a second mission to obtain permission for Moshe David Cassuto, a Bible scholar, to study the Codex in its entirely. While Cassuto's notes survived, he did not live long enough to prepare them for publication.

In 1957, Israel's Chief Sephardic Rabbi, Ben-Zion Meir Hai Ouziel, canceled the edicts of the Aleppo Codex ("cursed be he who steals it, sells it or mortgages it. It may never be sold or redeemed"). This allowed the community to move it out of Aleppo. In 1957, Rabbi Moshe Tawil and Rabbi Shlomo Zafrani entrusted what remained of the Codex to Mordechai Faham, who smuggled it out of Syria to Turkey by placing it inside a washing machine.

In January 1958, what remained of the Codex was entrusted to the care of Israeli President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi and the Ben Zvi Institute in Jerusalem. Extensive repairs were made to the documents in the Israel Museum over six years. Ongoing and extensive efforts are being made to locate missing parts, some of which are rumored to exist in the private hands of members of Brooklyn's Syrian community. The Aleppo Codex is overseen by a board of eight trustees, including four from the former community in Aleppo.

In 2007, a piece of the Codex was returned by the descendants of Sam Sabbagh. Sabbagh had picked up a piece of the Codex from the floor of the burning synagogue in 1947 and carried the 1,000-year-old fragment in a plastic pouch in his wallet as a good luck charm for over 60 years. The fragment was from the Book of Exodus and described the plagues of Egypt including the word of Moses to Pharoah "Let my people go."

In its original form, it included all 24 books of the Hebrew Bible in a different order than is used today. Of the original 487 leaves, only 295 remain. 193 pages were missing, mostly from the Torah. The last six chapters of the Pentateuch survived. Missing sections include Ecclesiastes Lamentations, Esther, Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah as well as certain chapters from Kings, Jeremiah, Psalms and some other books. Also missing are Obadiah, Jonah and Haggai.

Now on public view at the Shrine of the Book in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, modern printed editions of the Bible base their texts on the Aleppo Codex. In 1976, a photo edition of the Aleppo Codex was made publicly available and is now on the internet at www.aleppocodex.org where it can be leafed through in its entirety.

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Sources

The Bible in the Shrine of the Book (Israel Museum, Jerusalem: 2006).

Treasures of the Aleppo Community (Israel Museum, Jerusalem: 2004).

Bringing Back the Aleppo Codex, JTA 2007

December 2007