Mark Glickman on the Cairo Genizah

tonygill — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 08:00:40 +0000

What do you get when you combine Indiana Jones with The Da Vinci Code in an old Egyptian synagogue? Rabbi Mark Glickman, lead rabbi at Kol Ami (Woodinville, WA) and Kol Shalom (Bainbridge Island, WA), reveals the answer to this that he wrote about in his book Sacred Treasure, The Cairo Genizah. We begin with a discussion of just what a genizah is and why Jews consider writing to be so sacred that it must either be buried in a cemetery or collected in a special “attic” or antechamber known as a genizah. Rabbi Glickman then discusses a very special genizah that is located in the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo, Egypt. He recounts his own visit there in 2010 to describe what he saw, and then takes us back on a historical journey to the late 19th century when Rabbi Solomon Schechter stumbles upon fragments of an ancient and valuable manuscript known as the Ben Sirah document. This discovery came to Schechter’s attention via his association with two adventuring sisters. We review the life of Solomon Schechter and then detail his journey to Cairo to “re-discover” the voluminous contents of the Cairo Genizah and bring them back to Cambridge University, where they have been the center of investigation for over a century at the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit. Our discussion then moves on to some of the mundane (e.g., wedding certificates) and incredible discoveries that were contained within the nearly 200,000 documents shipped to England. The latter finds include the Damascus manuscript, heretofore unknown writings of Maimonides, and some Jewish hymns. Along this journey we also reflect upon the vibrancy of Judeo-Arabic culture, the significance of historical documents, and why religious pluralism can often be a good thing. Recorded: November 4, 2011.

Research On Religion » Ben Ezra synagogue

Mark Glickman on the Cairo Genizah