No. 27 April 1994

The Newsletter of Cambridge University,s Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit at Cambridge University Library Nearing a milestone in Genizah research It was in the winter of travel to various libraries 1896-97 that Cambridge FROM THE EDITOR' S DESK and museums, with its final University,s talmudic speci- stop possibly at the Israel alist, , sions on how best to mark essor Mordechai Friedman, Museum in Jerusalem. made his famous trip to the event, not only for the of Tel Aviv University; A major co-operative Cairo. By the spring of 1897, specialists but also for the Mark Cohen, of effort, rather than individ- thousands of fragments of wider public. Princeton University; Prof- ual activities, is the ideal mediaeval During the most recent essor Edward Greenstein, of way to plan the project, with had been transported to World Congress, in Jeru- the Jewish Theological a steering committee, repre- Cambridge; and in October, salem last year, a meeting Seminary of America; Dr senting the interested 1898, they were formally was held to decide how to Abraham David, of the parties, making all the presented to the University initiate the celebrations and Jewish National and necessary arrangements - by Schechter and Charles how to ensure that the University Library; and perhaps via the World Taylor, Master of St John’s subject of the Genizah myself. Union of Jewish Studies. College. would receive the wide It was agreed that the next Whatever happens, unnec- With the centenary of this scholarly and popular atten- World Congress should essary duplication and momentous event in Jewish tion it deserved. devote part of its scheduling conflicts should scholarly history occurring Attending that meeting programme to Genizah be avoided, and the topic in the academical year were Professor Joshua Blau, research; that special accorded major publicity. 1996-97, and culminating in of the Society for Judaeo- courses on the subject be We owe that much to our the next World Congress of Studies; Professor taught in 1996-97; that suit- distinguished predecessors, Jewish Studies scheduled for Haggai Ben-Shammai, of able symposia be arranged from Solomon Schechter the summer of 1997 in the World Union of at major centres of Genizah onwards. Jerusalem, a number of Jewish Studies; Professor research; and that an exhi- STEFAN C. REIF scholars and institutions Menahem Ben-Sasson, of bition be mounted and Director, Taylor-Schechter have been engaged in discus­ the Ben-Zvi Institute; Prof­ arrangements made for it to Genizah Research Unit Bible: fact Beneath Byzantium Byzantine studies have much to Karaism in the eleventh century. gain from an examination of Geni- Two further groups of frag- or fiction? zah material. Jews living in medi- ments centre on Byzantine Jews North-West ’s Spectrum aeval Byzantine areas wrote not in Egypt and on Byzantium in Radio interviewed Dr Stefan Reif only in Hebrew, Aramaic and Jewish life, while the remaining on the controversy created by Arabic, but also in Judaeo-Greek two blocks of material contain the Thomas Thompson’s book, The - Greek in Hebrew characters - as correspondence of the tenth- Early History of the Israelite People, well as in Greek itself. century Spanish-Jewish diplomat, and Thompson’s claim that much During the Byzantine Sympo- Hasdai Ibn Shaprut, and of of the Hebrew Bible is fiction. sium held at Cambridge in 1990, Nehorai Ben Nissim, an eleventh- Having first explained the work the University Lecturer in Rab- century businessman in Cairo. of the Genizah Research Unit, Dr binics, Dr Nicholas de Lange, A total of 41 fragments are Reif pointed out that historical working with Genizah Research described, all but one (from approaches to religious documents Unit staff, prepared an exhibition Westminster College, Cambridge) were valuable in helping to explain of items of Byzantine interest for at Cambridge University Library. the origins of Jewish, Christian display in the University Library and Islamic traditions. (see Genizah Fragments 20, 1990). They were, however, often Such was the interest aroused ON OTHER PAGES speculative and should not be that he thought it worthwhile to presented as a superior scientific publish brief descriptions of all the Missing pieces from analysis as opposed to an exhibited items, plus a few more. a Sassoon jigsaw 2 outmoded religious commitment. These have now appeared in The various aspects of human Byzantine and Modern Greek New interpretation endeavour were complementary Studies, 16 (1992), pages 34-47. of circumcision 3 and not mutually exclusive. The first fragments discussed To those for whom the Hebrew belong to the biblical and liturgi- British Academy's Bible is the directly mediated cal fields and include palimpsests £8,500 contribution 3 word of God, said Dr Reif, there dating from the sixth century. is no challenge from history. To Veteran Cambridge Genizah The second area covers the every- Fresh insights into those whose self-awareness is researcher Dr Haskell Isaacs day life of the Jews in Byzantium Schechter's life 4 strengthened by history, there is with a cake specially made to as illustrated in documents and enough archaeological evidence to resemble a copy of Genizah letters; and the third concentrates reconstruct a convincing Israelite Fragments on the occasion on the correspondence of Tobias How you can help: page 2 background to the Hebrew Bible. of his eightieth birthday Ben Moses, a leading figure of Missing2 Genizah pieces Fragments from a Sassoon jigsaw An eighth-century Jewish legal attached leaf covers a portion of code associated with the name of the following chapter. Yehudai Gaon, Halakhot Pesuqot Another bifolium from this fas- (= HP), is the subject of a detailed cicle (T-S F8.97), as well as other study by Dr Neil Danzig. The leaves from ensuing fascicles original text was published in 1951 (among them T-S F2(i ).34), do by the late Solomon David indeed parallel sections of Sas- Sassoon, of Letch worth in Eng- soon’s text. The text of Sassoon’s land, from an incomplete unicum manuscript is thus unquestionably manuscript found in his father’s the same work attributed to library. Yehudai by the owner of that Danzig’s book, written in He- Genizah manuscript. brew and recently published by Another puzzle relating to the Jewish Theological Seminary Sassoon’s text has been solved of America, is entitled Mavo Le- using Cambridge Genizah mate- Sefer Halakhot Pesuqot (īntroduc- rial. Sassoon’s manuscript inclu- tion to HP) and relies heavily on des the laws of terefot according his research into Cairo Genizah to the customs of the Land of materials, including those in the Israel. This lent support to those Taylor-Schechter Collection at who questioned the authenticity Cambridge. of Sassoon’s text, since it is Of more than 300 Genizah frag- unlikely that the customs of the ments quoted or cited, half are in Jewish community in the Land Cambridge University Library; 50 of Israel would have been are identified as belonging to HP. accepted by Yehudai, who fought The chapters missing in Sassoon’s fiercely to uphold Babylonian text are published for the first traditions. time, collated from various Geni- Another Cambridge fragment zah fragments. (Or. 1080 4.18) resolves this issue: while it covers the end of the previous chapter and the begin- The nature of this elusive work ning of the next, it does not in- has intrigued scholars since the last elude this section. It appears, then, century. Prior to the appearance of that it was not part of the original Sassoon’s edition, Simcha Assaf work and may have been added by published a Cambridge Genizah the scribe of Sassoon’s manuscript. fragment (T-S K6.188) in his Re- sponsa Geonic a (Jerusalem, 1942), consisting of the first page of a text Danzig’s book includes analyses in which an owner’s signature of allied codes of the geonic identifies the leaf as belonging to period, especially Halakhot the Halakhot (without further Gedolot, written by Simeon specification) of Yehudai Gaon, Qayyara; Halakhot Qesuvot erro- who was head of the academy at neously attributed to Yehudai; Sura in Babylonia. and the anonymous Halakhot Sassoon and other scholars of his Qetanot. The traditions of day assumed that this leaf came Halakhot Pesuqot and of Yehudai from a work alternatively known Genizah other pages belonging to Danzig has, however, discovered are also studied, and the pivotal as HP. This theory was contested Assafs manuscript, no fragments a bifolium from the beginning of role played by Yehudai in trans- and it was claimed that Sassoon’s have been found to verify it as another manuscript (T-S NS mitting these laws is clearly estab- text was not the original code writ- indeed being the opening page of 291.77) that helps to solve the lished. ten under Yehudai’s auspices, but HP. It is likely that only the first puzzle. Although severely dam- Danzig has also recently com- an abridgement of another geonic page became detached from the aged and difficult to read, the first pleted a five-year project to cata- code, Halakhot Gedolot. manuscript and was deposited in leaf contains the same text as that logue the Elkan Nathan Adler Despite efforts to locate in the the Genizah. found in Assafs fragment, and the collection of Genizah fragments at the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, on its New York campus. How you can help the T-S Genizah Unit The project, funded in part by the United States Government If you would like to receive Genizah Frag- All contributions to the Unit, whether for the through its National Endowment ments regularly, to enquire about the Taylor- research programme or for its other activities, for the Humanities, included Dr Schechter Genizah Collection, or to know how are made to the , Stefan Reif as a member of its you may assist with its preservation and study, which enjoys charitable status for tax and simi- advisory board and consulted please write to: Dr Stefan Reif, Director of the lar purposes. several researchers at various Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit, at In the USA, all contributions may be directed academic centres who had worked Cambridge University Library, West Road, to the American Friends of Cambridge Univer- in the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Cambridge CB3 9DR, (fax number sity, c/o its President, Mr Stephen C. Price, at Unit. 0223-333160). 466 Lexington Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017, The database listing of all the Readers not already supporting the Unit are USA. Transfers of such funds are regularly fragments in that collection that asked to help ensure the continuity of this made from the USA to Cambridge. the project has recently completed publication by making a small, regular gift. The The AFCU is recognized by the IRS as a will be accessible through the sum of £3 (UK) or $8 (abroad) per annum is charitable organization and contributions are Research Libraries Information suggested, and payment may be made to the legally deductible for United States income tax Network (RLIN), and a catalogue Unit’s Cambridge office or to the American purposes. They are similarly deductible in of the rabbinic material is being Friends. Canada even if made directly to Cambridge. prepared for publication. New interpretationGenizah Fragments 3 of circumcision With Heinz Fahr, I have pub- way - and the new age that begins lished an edition of T-S B13.12, with the crossing of the Jordan entitled Jordandurchzug und into the Promised Land. Beschneidung als Zurechtweisung in T-S B13.12 (=CG) does not einem Tar gum zu Jfosua 5, which mention circumcision at all, just as appears as No. 3 in the Orientalia Josephus omits it in his reference Biblica et Christiana series pub- to the Passover of Gilgal in Anti- lished by J. J. Augustin (Gluck- quities V:20f. stadt, 1991). Instead of the rite of circumci- The manuscript T-S B 13.12 sion, CG interprets the biblical has been widely known - since text as referring to an admonition Kahle mentioned it in The Cairo delivered by representatives of Geniza in 1947 - as testimony to God - namely, wise men. Their an unpublished targum to the teaching is connected with the prophets in a dialect of spoken eschatological expectations of Palestinian Aramaic. Its impor- the righteous who are to enter tance, however, goes well beyond the Promised Land and their final the scope of the dialectical debate separation from those who do not that was once the preoccupation abandon their wicked ways. of the Kahle school. Circumcision is thus interpreted The five leaves contain the festi- in terms of such biblical texts as Libraries focus val haftarah reading for Passover Deuteronomy 30:if and Jeremiah in its liturgical frame, with alpha- 4:4f, which deal with the circum- betic introduction, blessings, cision of the heart and the repent- short résumé of the context in ance that the angel Uriel demands on technology Joshua 3:4 and the usual targum in the CG version of verse 15. Researchers in the Genizah the catalogue of almost 1,000 to Joshua 5:2-15, as well as an Unit played an important part in complete Hebrew codices now “ epilogue” of Joshua 6: if. hosting the annual meeting of being prepared at Cambridge Besides this arrangement, the Since Joshua 5 is one of the the National Council on University Library; and Hebrew manuscript is of special interest cornerstones of the rabbinic de- Orientalist Library Resources, and Arabic specialist, Mrs Jill for the contents of the Aramaic bate about the rites to be per- held at Cambridge University Butterworth, spoke about the rendering of the Hebrew text of formed by proselytes, the question Library in December under the Library’s use of the Israeli Joshua 5:2-15, which is partly arises: What is the Jewish milieu chairmanship of Mr John libraries network (ALEPH), with attested by two other manuscripts of this divergent text? Mcllwaine, of University Hebrew, Arabic and Cyrillic, as outside the Cambridge Genizah Some hints point in the direction College London. well as Roman script, on screen. Collection but is not in accor- of the Second Temple period and Lecturers and discussions Pictured above at the meeting dance with the standard targum. its literature. The Book of Jubilees focused on the use of state-of- are (left to right) Mr Craig The interpretation of circumci- (ch. 50) has a similar expectation of the-art computer technology by Jamieson, one of the main sion especially deserves attention. an eschatological Passover and a orientalist librarians. Work speakers; Dr Fred Ratcliffe, In the biblical text, circumcision crossing into the land. recently done on Cambridge the Cambridge University is an important act that marks the In the Damascus Document University Library’s Hebrew and Librarian, who welcomed the separation between the 40 years’ 20:14, the 40 years until “ the end Genizah material was among the delegates; Dr Stefan Reif, direc- time span in the wilderness - in of all the men of war” should be examples demonstrated. tor of the T-S Genizah Research which circumcision was not prac- seen as a reference more to Joshua Particular attention was paid to Unit; and Mr Mcllwaine. tised on the children born on the 5:6 than to Deuteronomy 2:14 because of the number cited. (Similar hope is expressed in 4QpPs 37 2:5 and in 1QM 2:7f.) The role of those who enter the Academy gives further award community to circumcise their Outstanding contributions Cambridge Genizah research pic (£500): and Mr Michael hearts (see IQS 5:5f) and who made to Genizah Unit funding also benefited from the Phillips (£500). admonish each other according to in recent months have continued assistance provided Helpful renewals of their Leviticus 19:18 is similar to that of included £8,506 from the by the Goldberg Charitable support have been made by those who deliver the admonition British Academy; £5,432 from Trust (£750); the Jewish Ruth and Conrad Morris in CG and is reminiscent of the St John’s College Cambridge; Memorial Council (£700); Mrs (£150); Harry and Gertie Essene scenario of crossing into the £3,000 from an international Marjorie Glick (£533); Sir Landy (£300); M r A. S. covenant (Deuteronomy 29:30). foundation that wishes to Trevor Chinn, of Lex Services Oppenheimer (£300); Fred and Joining the symbolic military or- remain anonymous; and Della Worms (£300); Philip der is depicted in terms that relate $3,000 from the Georges Lurcy The Trustees of the John S. and Hilary Maurice (£250); Mr to the crossing of the Jordan and Charitable and Educational Cohen Foundation have T. H. Reitman (£250); Mrs the Jericho campaign in Joshua 3-6. Trust (through the American awarded £12,000 to the Helena Sebba (£250); with new For the interpretation of CG, Friends of Cambridge University of Cambridge in support from Harvey and this background seems at the University). support of two of the Research Adrienne Beckman (£200). moment the most plausible Other major supporters have The Genizah Unit is grate- context among ancient . been Mr Samuel Sebba Unit’s current projects. The sum ful for gifts of £100 received Our book seeks to demonstrate (£1,500); the Corob Charitable of £7,867has been earmarked for from Michael and Esmé that the targumist is the author of Trust (£1,257); Dr Ralph Kohn the description of the Judaeo- Daniels, Anthony and Diana a new text which sees itself not (£1,000); Mr Cyril Stein Arabic fragments and £4,133 for Rau, Mr E. M. Rosenbluth, only as a translation, but also as (£1,000); and the Kessler work on mediaeval Hebrew Mrs Judith Samuel, and intent on making a relevant contri- Foundation, whose award of poetry in the Taylor-Schechter David and Helen Solomons. bution to the issue of eschatology. £1,000 was its first to the Unit, Collection. The grant will be Anonymous and smaller UWE GLESSMER and whose income is derived made in October, 1994. donations totalling £2,208 are Old Testament Seminar, from the Jewish Chronicle. also much appreciated. University of Hamburg Fresh4 Genizahinsights Fragments Into Schechter’s life How does a robust, noisy, and the diaries of Francis unkempt East European rabbi Jenkinson, the working relation- with a Lubavitch background get ship of Schechter and Jenkinson on with a mild, unassuming, between 1890 and 1902 (hardly public-school educated and well- mentioned in their respective turned-out Cambridge classicist? biographies) is presented in a new Pretty well, particularly if the perspective. Cambridge man has almost limit- Given their different back- less goodwill and tolerance! grounds and distinctive tempera- This is the impression concern- ments, as summarised at the ing the relationship between beginning of his article, Reif gives Solomon Schechter, Genizah the impression that Schechter and scholar and Reader in Talmudic Jenkinson complemented each in the University of Cambridge, other - Jenkinson bringing the Dr Stefan Reif greeting Mrs Hana Raviv (right), wife and Francis Jenkinson, methodology, orderliness and of the Israeli Ambassador, Mrs Amira Meir, wife of the Cambridge University Librarian, guidance of a University Librarian Minister Plenipotentiary, and other visitors from the Israeli given by Stefan Reif in to Schechter’s passion for learning. Embassy. A party of 35 visited the Genizah Unit in January “Jenkinson and Schechter Spending a number of hours at Cambridge: an expanded each day at the University and updated assessment” Library, Schechter came into daily according to the Translation of learn, for example, about the rela- ( Transactions o f the Jewish contact with Jenkinson, and the Aquila (Cambridge, 1898). tionship between Schechter’s Historical Society of England, Vol. article illustrates how instrumen- On a number of occasions, Orthodox Jewish upbringing and 32, 1992), a published version of tal and accommodating he was in Jenkinson defended Schechter - his scientific approach to the his presidential lecture to the facilitating Schechter’s research. when, for example, he criticised study of (Wissenschaft des Jewish Historical Society of He arranged his colleague’s visit George Margoliouth, of the Judentums), and about Schechter’s England in October, 1991. to Cairo and trips abroad to British Museum, for having inability to find appreciation for Reif has much to back up his consult Hebrew manuscripts; he rushed to publish two leaves of Jewish culture in the Anglo- assessment. With the use of advised on matters of conservation Ben Sira rather than handing them Jewish community, one of the archive material from Cambridge and binding; and he provided a over to the University Library for factors which led to his leaving for University Library and the room in the Library for Schechter Schechter to incorporate in his America to re-establish the Jewish Jewish Theological Seminary, to sort out the fragments and carry own work. Theological Seminary. including the memoirs of out his research. Jenkinson also came to Equally interesting is the fact that Mathilde Schechter, the corre- Jenkinson once opened the Schechter’s defence in helping to he never felt fully at home in the spondence of Solomon Schechter Library on a Sunday to assist draft a letter refuting an anony- Cambridge academic community, Schechter in an urgent matter mous attack, suggesting that real where he was made a member of regarding the numbering of credit for the discovery of the Christ’s College but not a fellow; Hebrew manuscripts; and on Cairo Genizah should go to Elkan where, although promoted to Presidents many occasions he remained with Nathan Adler. Reader in the University, he was Schechter until late in the evening There were times, however, not offered a professorship. one and all before closing the Library for the when a clash of cultures between Schechter was not above criticis- night - at that time the Librarian’s the two men was manifest. On one ing his colleagues and contempo- Presidential activity high- duty. occasion, Schechter burst into a raries, and his opinion of other lighted a meeting in London to Reif notes how discreet Library meeting in order to consult scholars and academics makes for mark the 100th anniversary — to Jenkinson must have been when it Jenkinson on the publication of the amusing reading. His general opin- the day - of the first lecture came to giving other scholars Ben Sira edition, provoking ion of Marcus and Morris Jastrow delivered to the Jew ish access to Genizah material on Jenkinson to reply in an angry and of Israel Abrahams, for exam- Historical Society of England which Schechter was working; and letter expatiating on Library regu- pie, was pretty low; and when it (on 11 November, 1893) by its the diplomatic skills required by lations and politeness! came to Genizah research, the abil- founding president, Lucien Jenkinson to ensure that due credit Reif’s understanding of ities of Israel Abrahams and Wolf. was given to Schechter on the title Schechter’s life and character Herbert Loewe did not impress Wolf was the famous publicist page of Burkitt5s edition of provides interesting insights into him. He also had his doubts about and historian who, with Solomon Fragments of the Book of Kings this complex personality. We Hartwig Hirschfeld, though these Schechter, was a member of were later allayed by Jenkinson. The Wanderers, a Jewish intel- Schechter’s attitude is aptly lectual group in late nineteenth- summed up in one of his letters, century London. Unravelling the law where he complained that some The proceedings were chaired scholars knew less about the by last year’s president, No serious student of mediaeval The documents, few of which contents of the Genizah than did Professor Aubrey Newman, and Arabic and Islamic sources can have been studied before, consti- the bookbinder in the Library! greetings were conveyed by the afford to ignore the latest publica- tute a unique source for the social COLIN F. BAKER president of the British tion in Cambridge University and political history of mediaeval Research Associate Academy, Sir Keith Thomas, Library’s Genizah Series (No. 10) Egypt, particularly touching on T -S Genizah Research Unit and by a council member repre- — Arabic Legal and Administrative Muslim-Jewish relations. They senting the president of the Documents in the Cambridge also offer a penetrating insight into Royal Historical Society, Genizah Collections, by Geoffrey the practice of law in mediaeval IN NEXT ISSUE Professor Olive Anderson. Khan (Cambridge University Islam and the administrative The anniversary lecture, on Press). structure of government offices. Taylor-Schechter in 1930 Lucien Wolf, was delivered by Most of these documents were These fully transcribed, trans- Judge Israel Finestein, currently produced in Fustāt (old Cairo) in lated and annotated documents Dating the manuscripts president of the Jewish the Fātimid period (10th-12th comprise important primary found in Cairo source material for a number Historical Society; and the vote centuries c .e .), and were written More Genizah magical of disciplines, including Middle of thanks was proposed by Dr by Muslim notaries or officials, fragments revealed Stefan Reif, president of the although a large number concern Eastern history, Jewish history, Society in 1991-92. Jews. Arabic philology, and Islamic law. Edited by Stefan C. Reif and printed by the University Printing Services of Cambridge University Press