Aleppo Codex

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The Aleppo Codex (Hebrew: כֶּתֶר אֲרָם צוֹבָא, kɛθɛɾ ʔăɾɔm sˁovɔʔ, Keter Aram Tsova) was the oldest complete manuscript^[1] of the Hebrew Bible according to the Tiberian masorah, produced and edited by the influential masorete Aaron ben Asher. However, approximately one-third of it, including nearly all of the Torah, has been missing since 1947. It is also considered the most authoritative document in the masorah ("transmission"), the tradition by which the Hebrew Scriptures have been preserved from generation to generation.^[2] Thus the Aleppo Codex is seen as the most authoritative source document for both the biblical text and its vocalization, cantillation as it has been proven to have been the most faithful to the Masoretic principles.See also Masoretic Text.

The Aleppo Codex has a long history of consultation by rabbinic authorities (it is cited is numerous responsa). Modern studies have shown it to be the most accurate representation of masoretic principles to be found in any extant manuscript, containing very few errors among the millions of orthographic details that make up the masoretic text.

Contents 1 Authority 2 Contents 3 History 3.1 Aleppo 4 See also 5 Notes 6 External links

[edit] Authority

The consonants in the Codex were copied by the scribe Shlomo ben Buya'a in Israel circa 920. The text was then verified, vocalized, and provided with Masoretic notes by Aaron ben Asher. Ben-Asher was the last and most prominent member of the Ben-Asher dynasty of grammarians from Tiberias, which shaped the most accurate version of the Masorah and, therefore, the Hebrew Bible.

The Leningrad Codex, which dates to approximately the same time as the Aleppo codex, has been claimed to be a product of the Ben-Asher scriptorium. However, its own colophon says only that it was corrected from manuscripts written by Ben-Asher; there is no evidence that Ben-Asher himself ever saw it.

The Aleppo Codex was the manuscript used by the rabbi and scholar Maimonides (1135-1204) when he set down 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 what is for Jews the seal of supreme textual authority, even though Maimonides only quoted it for paragraphing and other details of formatting, and not for the text itself (see discussion). "The codex which we used in these works is the codex known in Egypt, which includes 24 books, which was in Jerusalem," he wrote.

[edit] Contents

The beginning (nearly all of the Torah) and end of the manuscript are missing, as well as some pages in between.

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 Sephardic biblical manuscripts. Torah and Nevi'im appear in the same order found in most printed bibles, but the order for the books for Ketuvim differs markedly. In the Aleppo Codex, the order of Ketuvim is: Chronicles, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ruth, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Esther, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah.

The current text is missing almost the entire Torah (Genesis through most of Deuteronomy). It begins with the last word of Deuteronomy 28:17 (ומשארתך, "and your kneading trough"). After that, the books of Nevi'im appear in their traditional order (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve minor prophets). The Ketuvim follow as above, but currently end at the last leaf with בנות ציון in Song of Songs 3:11 ("come out, you daughters of Zion..."). Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Esther, Daniel, and Ezra-Nehemiah are missing.

[edit] History

The Codex has had an eventful history. In the mid-11th century, about a century after it was written, the text was delivered to the Karaite community of Jerusalem, apparently after having been purchased from the heirs of Aharon ben Asher. Not long after (either in 1079 by the Seljuks or in 1099 by the Crusaders) it was looted from Jerusalem and eventually wound up in the Rabbanite synagogue in Cairo, where it was consulted by Maimonides. Maimonides' descendants brought it to Aleppo, Syria, at the end of the 14th century.

Written (completed?) in the year 920, the Aleppo Codex in Tiberias it has become the most authoritative biblical text in Jewish culture. The most famous halakhic authority to rely on it was Rambam in the legal codes of his Mishne Tora. After completion, the codex was brought from Tiberia to Jerusalem. In the late 11th century, it was stolen and taken to Egypt, where it was redeemed by the Jewish community of Cairo. In the late 14th century, it was transported to the Jewish community of Aleppo, Syria (the biblical name of this region in Syria is Aram Tsova, whence the modern name for the codex in Hebrew). It remained there until 1947, when the Muslim anti-Jewish riots desecrated the synagogue and vandalized the holy books, where it resided. The Aleppo Codex was broken up and burned. The codex disappeared, but resurfaced in 1958, when it was smuggled into Israel and presented to the president of the state, Itzhak Ben-Zvi. On arrival, it was found that parts of the codex had been lost. The Aleppo Codex was entrusted to the Ben-Zvi Institute and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Later, after the university denied him access to the codex, Rabbi Mordechai Breuer began his own monumental 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 "Keter Yrushalayim" (כתר ירושלים, "Jerusalem Crown") is a modern version of the Tanakh, based on the Aleppo Codex and the work of Breuer, which is the official version of the Bible of the State of Israel.

[edit] Aleppo

The Aleppo community guarded it zealously for some six hundred years. 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.

However, the community limited direct observation of the manuscript by outsiders, especially by scholars in modern times. Paul 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 a standard printed Hebrew Bible and take notes on the differences was Umberto Cassuto. 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 10th Century.

During the riots against Jews and Jewish property in Aleppo in December 1947, the community's ancient synagogue was burned and the Codex was damaged, so that no more than 295 of the original 487 leaves survived. In particular, only the last few pages of the Torah are extant.

The missing leaves are a subject of fierce controversy. The Jews of Aleppo claim that they were burned. However, 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 the missing leaves and keeping them privately hidden. Two "missing" leaves have turned up, leaving open the possibility that even more may have survived the anti-Jewish riots in 1947.

In January 1958, the Aleppo Codex was brought back to Jerusalem, by the influence of then Israeli President, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, where it remains 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 the codex) that not only is it the oldest known Tanakh in one 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.

The Aleppo Codex is the source for several modern editions of the Hebrew Bible, including the two editions of Mordechai Breuer and "The Jerusalem Crown" (printed in Jerusalem in 2000, with a text based on Breuer's work and a newly-designed typeface based on the calligraphy of the Codex and based on its page-layout). The latter edition is used when the President of Israel is sworn into office.

[edit] See also

• Leningrad Codex
• Codex Cairensis

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• The Aleppo Codex Website - Images of the entire text with optional magnification and a great deal of historical material.
• The History and Authority of the Aleppo Codex, by Yosef Ofer (pdf)
• Israel Museum shrine of the Book
• Mechon Mamre - Electronic text of the Hebrew Bible based on the Aleppo Codex
• History of the Aleppo Codex