, resulting directly from abundant
financial resources safeguarded to him by the affluent parents. -- MdM).
S. Schechter brought his Middle Eastern 'trophy' to Cambridge in 1898.
Although, the overall number of the items brought then estimated ca 30 000,
his personal interest was focused only on the Tsidduqim (Hebrew: 'Saducees'
-- one of the three largest Jewish groups, alongside the Pharisees and
Essenes, existent in the Land of Israe-l, before the destruction of the
Second Temple; this group was composed of the priests -- MdM).
A most original feature of the Cairo Geniza set besides its quantative aspect
(ample size) is the qualitative one, i.e. its comprehensive character -- the
documents gathered date back even as early as to the Crusades, and deal with
the life and history of lots of different Mediterranean Jewish communities,
including the hands of the most famous scholars and Rabbis, e.g. Maimonides
(see below).
The place the Geniza collection is stored now is a classical example of the
Jewish history irony per se. Jews were expelled from the city of Cambridge a
little earlier than from most of England since the Queen of England's
mother was a very pious person and she wanted to get rid of the Jews
residing in that area, which was under her special control.
Professor Reif elaborated a lot on 'the personal angle of the Geniza'.
One of the local British academic establishment people critically minded
about the Geniza finds was David Shmue-l Margoliot. He was a member of
Jewish family from Lithuania who all converted to Anglicanism. At Oxford he
became a Professor of Arabic. In S. Schechter's view D.S. Margoliot was very
anti-Rabbinic. The latter considered the deuterocanonical Book of Ben-Sira,
--in its stylistics very resemblant--, the Mishley (Hebrew: 'Proverbs of
Solomon'), could be the best understood in Greek and Syriac versions only
and not in the Hebrew as D.S. Margoliot allegedly denied it the status of the
original language of this apparent part of Jewish Biblical Apocrypha.
The afore-mentioned Maimonides alias (The) Rambam recte Rabbi Moshe Ben-
Maymon aka Musa 'ibn Maymun (as his Arab neighbours would call him)
has been the primus inter pares Jewish scholar for the world Jewry since
the Middle Ages. It has been said of him 'MIMOShE AD MOShE
LO KAM KEMOShE' (Hebrew: 'Since Moses (who led the Jews out of Egypt over
thirty-three hundred years ago) until Moses (Mamonides who lived in the
Mediaeval Spain and North Africa) there had not been born a man like Moses
(Maimonides)'. He wrote all his works in the Judeo-Arabic characters
save for 'Mishney Tora' (cf. my article in preparation on the rare Judaica
manuscripts collection now on display at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
Givat Ram, Jerusalem).
A part of the Cairo Geniza constitutes documents related to the Karaite
presence in the Middle East, with a well established community of Egypt
active until the rule of Gamal Abdel Nasser. 'Karaites embarrass us (the
Rabbinical Jews, I guess -- MdM) in the knowledge of Torah', Professor
said. In a way it is a pity this community of many scholars, Firkovich for
instance, has become such a dwindling one due to its very exclusive
character. According to many a person cannot convert to the religion
of Karaism (or Universal Karaite Judaism, as a present-day calendar of
the Israe-li Karaite says). Like in the Samaritan ethno-religious community a person has to be born into the group to become its actual member (cf. the late Jewish scholar Yitshak Ben-Tzvi's appeal
to the Israe-li Samaritans to intermarry non-Jews in order to preserve the community's continuity and counteract numerous cases of innate genetic defects like blindness or deafness resulting from a very limited gene pool available for the clan-minded Samaritans. -- MdM).
The top person to whom we are indebted for the discovery and presentation
of the Cairo Geniza to the Western world, Solomon Schechter had got a
quality sort of education from well-known contemporaries. His private tutor
was Sir Moses Montefiore (see must: The Montefiore Windmill of Yemin
Moshe, Jerusalem). Speaking of his student's Geniza collection Sir Moses
said the Genizah should be all burnt so the young gifted Solomon could
spend more time on writing a good book on Jewish theology addressed to
non-Jewish audiences. As far as everyday linguistics is concerned
Schechter and Taylor, who was Schechter's co-worker on the Geniza, made
a remark to the Cambridge University Library the Cairo Geniza should be
named after their own names, hence Schechter-Taylor Collection (STC).
The current work the Geniza team faces, --which currently numbers 5 - 6
staff--, is to digitalize all the artifacts, and this project was started many years ago. The overall number of fragments to be computerized is about 140 000, and the scholars working on this
project need some US$2-6 000 000 to successfully complete it. To finish in not too distant time, though, it is very substantial to find adequate monetary resources to cover these expenditures now.
To sum up, there are two special reasons why this this detailed book
has been written, Professor Reif says. First, the historic importance of
such rare ample collection. Second, enabling scholars of other fields to
learn more on what is in the Geniza Collection might draw their interest
for a more particular research, e.g. one in historical linguistics, Mediaeval
sociopolitical history, trade and commerce in the Levant, Mediterranean culture, Semitic paleography, Jewish art, &c.
In my opinion the Cairo Geniza is one of the two greatest jewels of
Jewish archaeological finds over last two centuries and even more,
besides the Dead Sea Scrolls (DDS) of Qumran. Thus, we should not
be economical on expenses involving the preservation and cataloging
such unique artifacts of Jewish heritage.
The lecture has been followed by an interesting discussion.
Inter alia, a question was asked by Rabbi Yaakov Fogelman, a unique
erudite personality of Jerusalem's Old City, where he runs his Judaica
bookshop and Torah Outreach Programme at 54 Habad
Street, Jewish Quarter. His question was whether we got to know something
new from the Cairo Geniza find. The answer-question given by Professor
RIEF was the same he had given before the lecture to a correspondent of the
Kol Israe-l (Hebrew: 'The Voice of Israe-l') Radio English Service (which
was broadcast at 5:15 p.m. Israe-li time the following Friday):
'Did we know anything correctly until the discovery of the Geniza?'
As for me I have asked two questions to the speaker:
(1) Is there any language variation noticeable in those Geniza manuscripts,
and if so, to which extent?
S.R.: Yes, the has artifacts in many different languages
Besides Hebrew, documents in Arabic and Aramaic are present,
in their different regional varieties. We do not know exactly
about the grammatical changes the Hebrew language underwent
during 2nd - 11th centuries. Yet, we can trace back some of them
via indirect references to those lost documents as contained in the
Geniza finds. The afore-mentioned diversity of linguistic
variety is not coincidental. It results from the migrational nature
of many Jewish communities, which is due to the widespread anti-
Semitism in most parts of the world (here, I propose my own idea of
new Latin concept for this quality: IVDAEVS.MOVENS 'The Mobile
Jew'. -- MdM).
(2) Are there any instances within the Jewish tradition to ritually
terminate the existence of the manuscript remnants from further
deterioration by way of burning as it could be practiced by the
Islamic community with respect to the Qur'an (cf. the Hindi custom
of human body cremation)?
S.R.: No, we do not know of any such practices within the Jewish
tradition, although the custom of geniza storing is also present
in the Muslim culture. Actually, from the linguistic point of
view, both Hebrew and Arabic have the same word root for the
word geniza.
Last not least, this educational evening was nicely seasoned with the
presence of Solomon Schechter's family descendants, Israe-li academics
and some other guests of honour in the lecture hall. A special credit
should be given to the organizer Ms Chana of the Beyt Morasha institution,
whose regular scholarly events are always prepared on the tip-top level.
What I mean here is the choice food for thought combined with the
delicious food catered by the Crowne Plaza Holiday Inn Hotel of Jerusalem.
Donc, bon appetit, Mesdames et Monsieurs :)