Community Magazine October 2019

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 around 1375, where it remained for nearly 600 years before being returned to Jerusalem in 1958. When the Aleppo Codex was in Cairo, the Rambam relied on it in formulating laws relating to the Torah scrolls in the Mishneh Torah , as he testifies in his concluding remarks to this section: 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. (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 a great-great-great grandson of the Rambam brought the Codex to Aleppo, though this has not been verified. The Codex was placed in a metal chest with a double lock in the “Cave of Eliyahu” in the ancient synagogue of Aleppo. The community believed that 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 L-rd […] it shall be neither sold nor redeemed forever and ever […]” The people feared that great harm would befall the community if they sold it, relinquished their custody of it, or even if it was just removed from the synagogue. The manuscript’s 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 ben Amram Hakohen Amad of Kurdistan in the late 15 th century; Rabbi Yosef Karo of Safed, author of Shulhan Aruch , Rabbi Moshe Isserles of Cracow (the “Rema”), in 1559; Moshe Yehoshua Kimhi, on the instruction of his father in law, the renowned scribe Rabbi ShalomShachna Yellin (1790-1874); British-born Alexander Russell in 1753; Professor Umberto Cassuto in 1943, and Moshe David Cassuto 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). Rescued From the Flames In 1943, Aleppo native Yitzhak Shamosh was sent on a mission by Judah L Magnes, the first president of Hebrew University, and Yitzhak 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 entirety. While Cassuto’s notes survived, he did not live long enough to prepare them for publication. 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. In1957, Israel’s Chief Sephardic Rabbi, Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel, formally annulled the edicts of the Aleppo Codex (“cursed be he who steals it, sells it or mortgages it. It may never be sold or redeemed”), thereby allowing 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, intensive efforts are still being made today 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 1000-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 Shemot, and described the plagues brought upon Egypt as well as Moshe’s famous order to Pharaoh, “Let my people go.” In its original form, the Codex included all 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, though in a different order than is used today. Only 295 of the original 487 leaves remain; 193 pages were missing, mostly from the Torah. The last six chapters of the five Books of Humash survived. Missing sections include Kohelet, Echah, Ester, Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemyah, as well as certain chapters fromMelachim, Yirmiyahu, Tehillim, and some other books. Also missing are Ovadyah, Yonah, and Haggai. The Aleppo Codex is now on public view at the Shrine of the Book in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, and modern printed editions of the Bible base their texts on this ancient artifact. 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. The Cave of Eliyahu (Elijah the prophet) in the Great Synagogue. The Ark in the Cave of Eliyahu, where the Crown was safeguarded for over 500 years. PHOTOS: Courtesy of Beth Hatefutsoth, Photo Archive, Tel Aviv 42 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE