From the Jewish library: Genizah tales

By Sheila Orysiek

SAN DIEGO — Ask any procrastinator – and he or she will tell you that which should be done today is better done tomorrow – or, better yet, in a thousand years. For countless generations the congregants of the ancient Ben Ezra Synagogue of Cairo, Egypt, never got around to cleaning out their Genizah (attic) and thank goodness they didn’t! In his book The Sacred Treasure of the Cairo Genizah published by Jewish Lights, Rabbi Mark Glickman tells the story about both the trove in the attic and the man who brought it to light.

The Genizah is only accessible by climbing a ladder, crawling through a hole in a wall and then jumping down to the floor of a dark dusty room. So, century after century the congregation simply kept tossing their “stuff” through the hole. When the synagogue was renovated the “stuff” was shoveled out into the street and then shoveled back in through the hole when construction was completed.

The weight of the documents caused some of it to dissolve into fragments and then became dust. No one really knew what was in the Genizah but rumors began to spread that it might be of value. Approximately one hundred years ago Rabbi Solomon Schechter, a Reader in Talmudic Studies at Cambridge University, decided to track down those rumors.

What Rabbi Schechter found was astounding: hundreds of thousands of documents which included sacred writings, long lost prayers, forgotten texts of various books of the Bible, letters, accounts, bills, contracts, ketubahs, school books, (including a bored child’s doodles), sheet music for a poem about Moses, questions from and responsa to widely dispersed Jewish communities, letters from David Maimonides to his brother Moses Maimonides, written and signed responsa by Moses Maimonides as well as hitherto lost sections of Ecclesiastes.

The sheer number of documents meant the collection had to be distributed to major University Libraries in several countries. A hundred years later the collection is still being catalogued, studied and preserved. One of the “lost” prayers has been restored and can be found on page 109 in the Siddur “Mishkan Tefilah.” The thousand year old sheet music, written by a convert to Judaism, was transcribed to modern notation. It is hauntingly beautiful. To read its history click here:

To listen to the music use this link, then when the page comes up click on the forward arrow “>” (wait for the voice to start singing):

Glickman’s book about this treasure is engagingly written and highly recommended.

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Sheila Orysiek is a freelance writer who specializes in coverage of the arts.  This column was written late last week, before she was hospitalized on Saturday, June 7, with a heart ailment.  The wishes and prayers  of San Diego Jewish World‘s staff (and we’re sure those of many readers) are for her speedy recovery.  Orysiek may be contacted via sheila.orysiek@sdjewishworld.com or via the comment section below.