Genizah

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A genizah (or geniza; Hebrew: גניזה "storage"; plural: genizot or genizoth or genizahs)[1] is a storage area in a Jewish synagogue or cemetery designated for the temporary storage of worn-out Hebrew-language books and papers on religious topics prior to proper cemetery burial.

A possible geniza at Masada

Etymology

The word genizah come from the Hebrew root g-n-z, which means hiding, and originally meant "to hide" or "to put away". Later, it became a noun for a place where one put things, and is perhaps best translated as "archive" or "repository".

Description

Genizot are temporary repositories designated for the storage of worn-out Hebrew-language books and papers on religious topics prior to proper cemetery burial, it being forbidden to throw away writings containing the name of God (even personal letters and legal contracts could open with an invocation of God). In practice, genizot have also contained writings of a secular nature, with or without the customary opening invocation, and also contained writings in other Jewish languages that use the Hebrew alphabet (Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-Persian, Judeo-Spanish, Yiddish).

Genizot are typically found in the attic or basement of a synagogue, but can also be in walls or buried underground. They may also be located in cemeteries.

The contents of genizot are periodically gathered solemnly and then buried in the cemetery or "bet ḥayyim." Synagogues in Jerusalem buried the contents of their genizot every seventh year, as well as during a year of drought, believing that this would bring rain. This custom is associated with the far older practice of burying a great or good man with a "sefer" (either a book of the Tanakh, or the Mishnah, the Talmud, or any work of rabbinic literature) which has become "pasul" (unfit for use through illegibility or old age). The tradition of paper-interment is known to have been practiced in Morocco, Algiers, Turkey, and Egypt.

Modern genizah on street in Nachlaot, Jerusalem

By far, the best-known genizah, which is famous for both its size and spectacular contents, is the Cairo Geniza, brought to the attention of Western scholars by Jacob Saphir, and chiefly studied by Solomon Schechter and Shlomo Dov Goitein.

History

The Talmud (Tractate Shabbat 115a) directs that holy writings in other than the Hebrew language require "genizah," that is, preservation. In Pesachim 118b, "bet genizah" = "treasury." In Pesachim 56a Hezekiah hides ("ganaz") a medical work; in Shabbat 115a R. Gamaliel orders that the Targum to the Book of Job should be hidden ("yigganez") under the "nidbak" (layer of stones). In Shabbat 30b, there is a reference to those rabbis who sought to categorize the books of Ecclesiastes and Proverbs as heretical; this occurred before the canonization of the Hebrew Bible, when disputes flared over which books should be considered Biblical. The same thing occurs in Shabbat 13b in regard to the Book of Ezekiel, and in Pesachim 62 in regard to the Book of Genealogies.

In medieval times, Hebrew scraps and papers that were relegated to the genizah were known as shemot or "names," because their sanctity and consequent claim to preservation were held to depend on their containing the "names" of God. In addition to papers, articles connected with the ritual, such as tzitzit, lulavim, and sprigs of myrtle, are similarly stored.

According to folklore, these scraps were used to hide the famed Golem of Prague, whose body is claimed to lie in the genizah of the Altneushul in Prague

The Cairo Geniza, which was discovered in 1864 in old Cairo, had an accumulation of almost 280,000 Jewish manuscript fragments, which were written from about 870 AD to the 19th century. These materials were important for reconstructing the religious, social and economic history of Jews, especially in the Middle Ages.

In 2011, the so-called Afghan Geniza, an 11th century collection of manuscript fragments in Hebrew, Aramaic, Judeo-Arabic and Judeo-Persian, was found in Afghanistan, in caves used by the Taliban.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Webster's Third New International Dictionary, 1961
  2. ↑ "Ancient manuscripts indicate Jewish community once thrived in Afghanistan". CBS News. Retrieved 4 December 2013. 

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.