[TEN JEWELS] Leningrad Codex, Aleppo
Codex, Washington Haggadah, Rothschild Collection, Munich Manuscript. Trust me, the list goes on and on. Today we know many important
manuscripts by their places of storage or by the names of their former owners. And these titles tell us nothing about the
place and the time of these manuscripts being transcribed or the
scribes who worked on them. “Crown Jewels” is a series
of ten meetings with those who enjoy stories about books. I will tell you about Jewish books from
X-XV centuries, about manuscripts, and about the very first printed edition. Each of these books is a real crown jewel of Jewish written civilization. I invite you to dive into our treasure
chest and start admiring these jewels. Today we are going to talk about
the so-called Leningrad Codex. This is a completely unique manuscript, the oldest dated manuscript
of the complete Hebrew Bible. It is a masterpiece of Hebrew calligraphy, a masterpiece of the art of illumination, and an extremely important
monument for Bible studies, for studying the Hebrew text of the Bible. But before we begin to talk
about the manuscript itself, I would like to explain very briefly, as it was put in the Talmud, “while
I stand on one foot,” a few terms. When we say the Bible or the Hebrew Bible, we mean the books that are
included in the Hebrew Bible canon. In the canonical count, this
contains twenty-four books which are divided into three parts: the Torah or the Pentateuch,
the Prophets, and the Scriptures. We naturally do not know when
these books were written. They include very different texts dating
from the XII century BCE up to early CE. But we think today that the
first part of the Pentateuch was edited and recorded
in the V century BCE. The Prophetic Books date back to
the first half of the IV century BCE. The Scriptures were written
in the late I century CE, but were debated further, possibly until
the very beginning of the III century CE. The general revision of the books we call today the Bible
or the Hebrew Bible was most likely completed
in the III century CE. But then, the Jews were
scattered throughout the world. They spoke different languages. And the language, the phonetic sound
of the Bible, was gradually forgotten. So, the text had to be recorded in full, vowels had to be invented because initially the texts were written
down in the consonant-based script, that is, consonants only. This work began around the VII century CE and was conducted in various locations. But to make a long story short,
some time around the early IX century and the first half of the X century the so-called Tiberian
vocalization was finally formed. And its last representative, Aaron Ben Asher, recorded the complete
phonetics of the Hebrew text and created the first scholarly
apparatus to work with it. So, we can say that the canonical Bible we have
today was fully completed in the first half of the X century. Now let us get back to
the Leningrad Codex. I was thinking how to begin and came up with the following. I really see it this way. Imagine Odesa. Cape Langeron, to be more precise. House No. 4. 1845. It is late autumn or early winter. A man appears on Langeron. In those times he would have been
considered to be fairly old – I think he was about 57. His outfit is unusual for
such a large city as Odesa: I would say his outfit is oriental. He leisurely approaches the building which was recently occupied by the
Odesa Society of History and Antiquities. Look at the man’s quaint appearance. I cannot be sure that was
how he was dressed that day, but this was his standard outfit. He approaches this building. He is actually a famous man, a
corresponding member of this Society. The doorman lets him in, and he
goes upstairs to the second floor. Who is that? Abraham Firkovich, the
famous Karaite leader. He is a Karaite, and the
Karaites recognize Biblical law and do not recognize Talmudic law. He is an incredible researcher
and loves Jewish antiquities. He is the one who, on a commission
from this Historical Society, organized in 1839 and 1840, so to say, a chase after Jewish manuscripts
in the Crimea and the Caucasus and gathered a rather
impressive collection. He selected the best items and brought them to Odesa
for antiquarians to see. The society even decided to publish
a catalog of these manuscripts. And they invited German Hebrew
scholar Ephraim Pinner to prepare it, which he did. Pinner was also a very peculiar person. He was the one who decided to
translate the Talmud into German. He was looking for a sponsor. And, strange as it may seem, Emperor
Nicholas I offered to support the project. Emperor Nicholas I intensely disliked Jews and believed that the Talmud
was the source of all evil. So, he wanted to have the
Talmud translated for him so that he could understand what it said. Pinner translated only the first
tractate Berakhot, incidentally with a dedication to Nicholas I. That was the end of their relationship. But Pinner stayed in Russia and
was invited to work on this catalog. He prepared it and it
was ready to go to print. This is when Abraham Firkovich, whom
I just introduced to you, shows up. Like I said, Firkovish goes
upstairs to the second floor. And all of a sudden the
people who met him — it could be Pinner or
the head of this society, I am not sure — noticed that he was holding
a large scroll in his hands. He unwrapped this scroll and placed the manuscript on the
table in front of these people. I do not know how to describe what happened next. I imagine that all the people around
that table froze in astonishment, as no one had ever seen such a manuscript. It was a fantastically
beautiful and elegant volume of the complete Hebrew
Bible from cover to cover, preserved as if it had
been written yesterday. Everything was absolutely readable! But on the very first page of this
manuscript, there was a large dedication where the date and place
of transcription were indicated. It said that it was transcribed in Egypt. We know that this is how Cairo or
old Cairo, Fustat, was designated. But the important thing is that the first five lines included the
date when it was transcribed. This date was given in five
different systems of chronology that the Jews used. The dates are slightly
out of sync with each other. But for 1845, this inconsistency was irrelevant. With your permission, I will read
out to you what was written there. “And this manuscript was
completed in the month of Sivan in the year 4770 of the Creation. (Shimon Iakerson: This is 1010) And this is the year 1444 of
the Exile of the King Jehoiachin. (S.I.: 1013) And this is the year 1319 of
the kingdom of the Greeks or the era of contracts and
the cessation of prophecy. (S.I.: 1008) And this is the year 940 of the
Destruction of the Second Temple. (S.I: 1008) And this is the year 399 of the Hijra. (S.I.: 1009).” Many scholars have argued
what year is the correct one. Nowadays researchers tend to believe this manuscript dates back to 1008. The scribe most probably
knew this date best of all. But academically we can say that the manuscript was transcribed
between 1008 and 1013. I would like to stress once again
that we do not have, to this day, a more ancient complete Hebrew Bible with the exact date of
transcription indicated. I was lucky to refer to this
manuscript many times. I described it both for
my own publications and for an international project on
description of dated Jewish manuscripts. So, I will just use my notes. There are 491 pages in the manuscript. It is transcribed on very
fine, well-made parchment. The sides of this parchment
are slightly different: one is more yellow, while the
other is whitish, so to say. That is how it was supposed to be done. The manuscript is composed of notebooks,
each consisting of five doubled pages. It is calligraphically written. Each standard page is
transcribed in three columns. Later I will show you one
such standard page. You would be surprised but this
manuscript has eight colophons. A colophon is a text that
a scribe wrote himself mentioning certain bibliographic data: when he transcribed this manuscript,
who he transcribed it for, and where he did it. In this manuscript, there
are eight such notes. And now let us look at the most amazing, most famous page from this manuscript. It is a colophon. Today we would call this a Magen David. Although, more presicely, it is
certainly a geographic ornament. It says here: "Ani Shmuel ben Yaakov, katavti, ve-nikadti, u-misarti ze a-mitzhaf li-khvod rabana Mevorah a-Kohen ben Yosef a-yadua ben Azdad yivarkhehu hai.” “I, Samuel ben Jacob wrote, vocalized and furnished
with masora this codex in honor of our teacher, Mevorah a-Kohen, son of Joseph, who is known as ben Azdad. May he be blessed to live long.” So, Samuel ben Jacob is the
scribe of our manuscript. He was a very famous calligrapher
and a very learned man. Why do I mention this? The point is that in the
vast majority of cases biblical texts were
transcribed by two scribes. One of them transcribed the text
proper in square consonant letters, while the other, the so-called masoret (derived from masoret, masora, meaning “passing on traditions and knowledge”) vocalized the text and framed
it with masora, that is, with comments which he wrote above,
below, and between the lines. Samuel ben Jacob was both a scribe
and an incredibly knowledgeable masoret who did all this work himself. We know that four manuscripts he
transcribed have survived to this day. One of them, by the way,
is also kept in Leningrad, in the Russian National Library,
like the “Leningrad Codex.” And this manuscript is also quite
unique, also calligraphically written. This is the Pentateuch with an
Arabic translation by Saadiya Gaon. Two other manuscripts
are in private collections. And there is one manuscript
in which he clearly noted that he edited it but did
not transcribe it himself. I mean, he is a real scribe, a highly paid calligrapher. Several documents with his name on
them were found in the Cairo Genizah. For example, there is a signed
acknowledgment of him receiving, if I am not mistaken, 25 dinars for
transcribing the Biblical manuscript of the Prophets and the Scriptures,
that is, without the Pentateuch. 25 dinars is a very large sum of money. Enough to rent a nice house with a garden and a swimming pool for five or six years. So, it is decent money. Only very high-quality
scribes were paid that much. Our Rabban Mevorah Kohen ben Yosef is also a well-known figure. He was apparently also very rich, since
he could afford such a commission, but besides he was a
respectable representative of the Karaite community in Cairo. His name also appears in several
documents in the Cairo Genizah. His high moral standards are
proved by the documents where he is mentioned as
the guardian of a minor. He tries to make sure that
the boy duly gets his money when he becomes an adult, that no one
deceives him, steals from him, etc. We see that the child was put into custody
of a man who was completely trusted, who was famous for his decency. Can you imagine that? Eight colophons like this. Now let us look at another colophon. This colophon has one extraordinary important new detail. It says here: “Shmuel ben
Yaakov, katavti, ve-nikadti…” It is repeated once again: “I wrote, vocalized and
furnished with masora this codex of the Bible.” “Min a-sforim a-mugahim
a-meovarim, asher asa a-melamed Aaron ben Moshe
ben Asher, noho be-gan Eden.” It is clearly written here that he
compared our codex with the one that was transcribed by the last representative of the dynasty of
masoretes, Aaron ben Asher. This is an extremely
important observation because Aaron ben Asher created the most
accurate verified version of the Bible. So, although this codex was transcribed about eighty years after Aaron ben Asher died, we
can almost completely trust both vocalizations and Masoretic
fragments recorded here. Well, let us also look at this
page from another perspective. I mean, it is a completely unique
masterpiece of illumination. The number of such
pages, framed in gold, decorated with geometric ornaments, in which various biblical
verses are inscribed, reaches sixteen in this
manuscript, if I am not mistaken. It is a fantastically
expensive manuscript. These pages are called carpet
pages, dapey shatih in Hebrew. These carpet pages were typical
for very expensive Qurans and very expensive Bible crowns. The manuscripts of the
Bible were called crowns. And I emphasize again that this codex is
important for us not only as a monument, but also as a monument based on which
biblical scholars can study this text. Now let us go back to the first
page and look at the bottom. Here, after the colophon, we see a dedicatory
inscription in darker ink. It tells us what happened
to this manuscript next. It says that this manuscript
– the manuscript mitzhaf – was purchased by Matzliah ha-Kohen, rosh yeshivat Geon Yaakov. Further down comes the year. “Shnat alef, tav, mem, li-shtarot(?).” We also know this man very well. He was the rector of the
famous yeshiva “Geon Yaakov” located in Fustat at that time. If we use modern chronology, that was 1135. Now we move on. We have 1010, 1008, 1135. If we look at the other blank page in this manuscript, at the very end, we will see several other entries. First of all, here is the year. The first record is in Judeo-Arabic,
that is, it is in Arabic, but written in Hebrew letters. This is where the year comes in, which
scholars read in different ways. We will read it as 1528. And below we see a record in different
ink, but made by the same person, which confirms that this
manuscript was donated to the Karaite community in Damascus. We see the word Dameshek,
Damesek in the last line. Here it is. We understand that it was
in Damascus at that time, the donation probably took
place in the XVI century. We move on. What do we know about it? When did Firkovich come to possess it? That is a very good question. Firkovich writes in his
book Avney Zikaron that this manuscript first appeared in 1840. This is when it was first mentioned. He tells the story. He writes the following: “On Thursday, on the 21st
day of the second Adar (S.I.: March 26, 1840) I took all the ancient books
and scrolls that I found, and also a very expensive
“Book of Twenty-four” written in the year 4770 in Egypt (S.I.: 1010) that I brought from Damascus.” That is where he mentions it. We know that he took this book
and showed it to the governor, Matvey Matveyevich Muromtsev. And we know that later, in 1845, Firkovich brought this manuscript to the
Odesa Society of History and Antiquities. We mentioned Pinner earlier, remember? What could he do? The catalog was complete. But he described this
manuscript separately and included it as a supplementum,
an addition at the end assigning it the number 19-B or 19-Bis. This is what the Pinner
catalog looks like. This is the very first
description of our manuscript. By the way, it is very good and detailed. The story progressed as follows. This manuscript remained in Odesa. But in 1863 it was transferred from Odesa to St. Petersburg, to the Imperial Public Library. It was done because Firkovich
sold his first collection to the Imperial Public
Library on condition that the manuscripts that are kept in Odesa would join this collection
in St. Petersburg. That is how our manuscript ended
up in the Imperial Public Library, where it was safely kept. In fact, we can say that it stayed
within the walls of the library. There were only two exceptions. Amazingly, in 1935, the manuscript was sent to Leipzig
for the two whole years. in Leipzig, the first critical edition of the entire Hebrew Bible was prepared. And it was clear for the
researches, Kahle and Kittel, that this manuscript was essential
for the task they had to accomplish. And the Bolsheviks did send a
Jewish manuscript to Nazi Germany. It was kept in Leipzig for
two years and in 1937 it safely returned back to the Bolsheviks. The next time it left the Imperial Public Library was during the Second World War. From July 1941 to October 1945, the manuscript, as part of
the manuscript collection, was evacuated to Melekes,
present-day Dimitrovgrad, the Ulyanovsk Region. So, in 1945, it returned to St. Petersburg again. The significance of this manuscript for
biblical studies is obvious, I think. Since it appeared, no scholarly
edition has been published without taking the version of the
Leningrad Codex into account. Let us have another look at its pages. Here, for example, is the
famous “Song of the Sea.“ It starts here. It is transcribed the
right way, in “bricks.” That is exactly how it should be. Look, the Biblical text Shir
Moshe is in the middle, with masora on the sides. Do you see these very long letters
lamed that resemble a giraffe’s neck? It is the Aramaic word leyta. It means that in the biblical text, if
there is a circle above the word – here, for example, you can clearly see it
in the word ve-anvehu in the middle – it will never appear in that
form in the Bible again. Let us take a look at the next page. This is the beginning
of “Song of the Sea.” We can see how it ends. This is the second page. And here is a part of this text. If we look up, we will see the
masora that shows where else in other parts of the Bible certain words
or phrases of this text will appear. But, to some extent, it already
looks as a geometric ornament. Let us take a look at another page. This is standard format, for example. Three identical columns. Between the columns, there is
the text of the small masora. Between the first and second column,
hatsi sefer is sort of framed, that is, the middle of the book is marked. The large masora is
above and below the text. At the very bottom, you can see alef,
tav, the so-called carry-over word (the first word of the next page). And let us now go back
again to this inscription and zoom in on the last line. Look, It says here: “Arur gonva” and “Arur mohra.” “Cursed be he who steals this manuscript. Cursed be he who sells it.” With these words I would like to end
our story about this manuscript today. I do hope no one will steal it,
I do hope no one will sell it, that it will be safely kept in the library and will also be available to researchers. The last thing I would like
to mention today is that, in addition to the vast scholarly
literature devoted to this manuscript, there are two facsimile editions of it. It is extremely important that these two facsimile editions are now available
in different libraries worldwide. Moreover, the entire
text of the manuscript can be now found on the Internet. I first saw this manuscript
when I was 33 or 34. And over the years, I have turned
to it several times, six or eight. The last time I saw it was
about three years ago. I mean, I have spent my whole life
kind of conversing with this manuscript. As the years passed by,
my reverence to it grew and so did my excitement
every time I opened it, as I realized what a unique masterpiece
I was holding in my hands. And when I read the biblical
text in this manuscript, I experienced such an aesthetic pleasure that the same text in other
versions could never give me. Good-bye. See you in the next episode. [TEN JEWELS] [More videos on our channel
"Ideas Without Borders" Beit Avi Chai Project]
