The Aleppo Codex: A True Story of Obsession, Faith, and the Pursuit of an Ancient Bible

251 Pages·2012·1.93 MB·English

by  Matti Friedman

The Aleppo Codex
A True Story of Obsession, Faith, and the Pursuit of
an Ancient Bible
BY
Matti Friedman
2012
ALGONQUIN BOOKS OF CHAPEL HILL
For my parents, Imogene and Raphael Zev, and my
wife, Naama
Until then I had thought each book spoke of the
things, human or divine, that lie outside books. Now I
realized that not infrequently books speak of books: it is
as if they spoke among themselves. In the light of this
reflection, the library seemed all the more disturbing to
me. It was then the place of a long, centuries-old
murmuring, an imperceptible dialogue between one
parchment and another, a living thing, a receptacle of
powers not to be ruled by a human mind, a treasure of
secrets emanated by many minds, surviving the death of
those who had produced them or had been their
conveyors.
— UMBERTO ECO, The Name of the Rose
This is a work of nonfiction. Quotations from
documents, recorded materials, and my own interviews
appear inside quotation marks. In acknowledgment of the
inexact nature of memory, quotations recalled by those
interviewed do not. Notes on sources appear at the end.
CONTENTS
Dramatis Personae
Introduction
Part One
1. Flushing Meadow
2. Aleppo
3. The Fire
4. The Swift Scribe of Tiberias
Part Two
5. The Treasure in the Synagogue
6. The Jerusalem Circle
7. The Sack of Jerusalem
8. The Jump
9. The President
10. The Merchant’s Mission
11. Maimonides
12. Alexandretta
13. The Brown Suitcase
Part Three
14. The Trial
15. A Religious Man
16. Our Last Drop of Blood
Part Four
17. The Book
18. The Keepers of the Crown
19. The Officer and the Scroll
20. Exodus
Part Five
21. Aspergillus
22. Brooklyn
23. The Fog Grows
24. The Agent’s Ivestigation
25. The Collector
26. The Magicians
27. A Deal at the Hilton
28. Room 915
29. Money
Part Six
30. The Missing Pieces
31. Silo
32. The Institute
33. Bahiyeh
Acknowledgments
Notes on Sources
Photo Credits
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
ASHER BAGHDADI: Sexton of the great
synagogue of Aleppo.
BAHIYEH BAGHDADI: The sexton’s daughter.
SHAHOUD BAGHDADI: The sexton’s son.
DAVID BARTOV: President Ben-Zvi’s chief of
staff.
ITZHAK BEN-ZVI: Israel’s second president
(1952–63), a scholar, and the founder of the Ben-Zvi
Institute.
MEIR BENAYAHU: An aide to Ben-Zvi and the
institute’s first director.
UMBERTO CASSUTO: A Bible professor sent to
Aleppo in 1943 to study the codex.
ITZJAK CHEHEBAR: A prominent rabbi who fled
Aleppo in 1952 and went on to lead the exile community
in Buenos Aires until his death in 1990.
EDMOND COHEN: An Aleppo accountant
responsible for concealing the codex in the 1950s.
IBRAHIM EFFENDI COHEN: An Aleppo textile
merchant responsible for concealing the codex. Edmond
Cohen’s uncle.
MOSHE COHEN: Edmond Cohen’s son. Escaped
Syria in 1972.
MURAD FAHAM: The Aleppo cheese merchant