Who would have suspected that twin Scottish sisters, born in 1843, would have added so much to scholastic knowledge of Jewish Biblical, Talmudic and Rabbinic text! Brought up by their father, who invested in their education and left them a generous inheritance, they revelled in learning foreign languages and travelled extensively. This led them to Egypt and, via a stay in a monastery, to the caretaker of the Synagogue. We have them to thank for an unprecedented glimpse of medieval life in the Middle East and for the most important single collection of medieval Jewish manuscripts.
On May 5th members of Stanmore and Belmont shuls drove up to the University of Cambridge Library for a fascinating introduction to the history of the Cairo Geniza, led by Dr Melonie Schmierer-Lee.
The Cairo Geniza was a hole in the wall at the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo, hiding a huge depository, used from the 11th century. Into the huge space people would deposit holy scripts which could not be thrown away, together with other pieces of writing which somehow made it there – children’s school exercise books, shopping lists, marriage contracts, divorce deeds, business letters and much more – all of which places the history of both religious and secular life in our hands.
Cambridge University has approximately 200,000 (2/3) of the documents from the Geniza. Some are beautifully restored and preserved, others are tiny scraps of a jigsaw yet to be completed. To see an original manuscript in Maimonides’ handwriting and Torah portions written in Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic, mainly on vellum and paper, but also on papyrus and cloth, was jaw-dropping! To gaze at an ancient Haggadah, so familiar – yet with an extra 5th question – humbling. The few photos we took give only a small flavour of what we saw, but truly an amazing way to spend Bank Holiday Monday!
Fiona Redhouse