A Conversation for The Hebrew Manuscripts of the Cairo Genizah

Peer Review: A9391070 - The Hebrew Manuscripts of the Cairo Genizah

Post 1

Azara

Entry: The Hebrew Manuscripts of the Cairo Genizah - A9391070
Author: Azara - U172739

This is my first submission to Peer Review after a couple of years' break! I would particularly welcome comments from reviewers who are familiar with Jewish traditions, which I may have unwittingly misunderstood. I intend to add a short references section to include the Cambridge Genizah website, but I need to check on the present Guide layout for that. With regard to the mysterious Scottish ladies in the footnote, their story is so interesting tht I intend to write a short entry about them as well, which, if accepted, can be linked later.

Azara
smiley - rose


A9391070 - The Hebrew Manuscripts of the Cairo Genizah

Post 2

Azara

Oh, and with regard to the capitalization of the word Genizah, I have tried to follow what seems to be general practice: when talking about genizahs in general, and the actual genizah room, the word is not capitalized; when referring to the specific Genizah collection (or Genizah documents, or Genizah material) the word is given a capital letter.

smiley - rose


A9391070 - The Hebrew Manuscripts of the Cairo Genizah

Post 3

echomikeromeo

I'm as secular as you can get and still be Jewish, so I may not be the best-qualified to comment on Jewish traditions. But...

<>

My understanding is that not all Sephardic Jews came from Spain. They were Middle-Eastern to start with - they only ended up in Spain through the influence that the Middle East (esp. the Abbasid Empire) had in Spain. Then, as they were expelled from Spain, they moved to Italy, and as they were expelled from Italy they moved back to the Middle East. Today, there are Sephardic families (like mine) who can trace their ancestry through the Middle East to the Mediterranean area to the Middle East again.


A9391070 - The Hebrew Manuscripts of the Cairo Genizah

Post 4

Gnomon - time to move on

Interesting!

smiley - smiley


A9391070 - The Hebrew Manuscripts of the Cairo Genizah

Post 5

Tonsil Revenge (PG)

I'd encountered this story before, in Biblical Archeology Review.
Fascinating.

What were the sister's names and who had been pilfering the genizah previously?

I'm curious about the Khazar conversion. I don't remember hearing about that.

And what happened to the rest of the genizah contents if only a little over half was removed?

Has there been a comprehensive volume of translations published?


A9391070 - The Hebrew Manuscripts of the Cairo Genizah

Post 6

Gnomon - time to move on

Hi Azara!

I think this entry is great and there is not much you can add to the content of it, so it is time to sort out the typos.

smiley - smiley

scholars beguan to notice --> scholars began to notice

Footnotes should come before the full stop at the end of the sentence, rather than just after. So instead of . at the start of the footnote, you should have . at the end.

I've always seen it spelled Fustat rather than Fostat.

very few burials were ever carried out, while the parchments -- the use of "while" here doesn't clearly indicate that this is introducing the second of the two unexplained things. I suggest it would be clearer if you word it as:

very few burials were ever carried out; and the parchments

"While it was always known in the Cairo community that these materials existed, the collection remained intact until the 19th century." -- the second half of this sentence doesn't seem to relate to the first half at all. It might make more sense if you said "remained undisturbed".


1890, the synagogue was rebuilt --> In 1890, the synagogue was rebuilt

Remove the space before the second footnote. It should look like "two Scottish scholars² showed".

smaller, but still significant quantities of fragments --> smaller, but still significant, quantities of fragments

The non-religious materials in both these languages and Hebrew includes -->
The non-religious materials in both these languages and Hebrew include

When the Sephardic Jews were expelled from Spain -- could you provide a date, or even a century, for this?

Byzantium -- perhaps a footnote explaining that this is Constantinople or Istanbul.


The 8th century conversion of the Khazar people to Judaism is well documented -- do you mean it is well documented in the Genizah or elsewhere?

St. Andrews --> St Andrews

"Since Judaism, unlike most Christian churches, does not encourage mass conversions" -- I'm not 100% happy with this, as it could be mis-interpreted as saying that Judaism was a type of Christianity. Maybe I'm just being particularly thick, though.

smiley - smiley G


A9391070 - The Hebrew Manuscripts of the Cairo Genizah

Post 7

Azara

Ok, I've finally got around to dealing with the comments above.
First of all, Gnomon's, since they were mostly small corrections:
Typos and footnote punctuation sorted out.
Fostat changed to Fustat.
Footnote about Byzantium added.
"Since Judaism, unlike most Christian churches, does not encourage mass conversions..."
I see what you mean--I've changed it to "Since Judaism, unlike the Christian tradition, does not encourage mass conversions.."

I will rewrite the bit about the Sephardic Jews of Spain to deal with both EMR's and Gnomon's comments.

Back soon!
Azara
smiley - rose


A9391070 - The Hebrew Manuscripts of the Cairo Genizah

Post 8

Azara

Ok, the reference to the Jews of Spain has been changed around, and the date of their expulsion added.

Now Tonsil Revenge's comments:
I've reworded the paragraph about Schechter and the rest of the collection to make it clearer that the whole collection was sold off from Cairo, not just the bit Schechter collected.

I'm not going to deal further with the Khazar conversion here, as I think it would be a bit of a distraction.

I mention that the various institutes are still working on cataloguing and transcribing the texts, so there certainly hasn't been a full translation of the complete collection yet.

I will put an entry into PR shortly about the two sisters, so I'm not going to expand the footnote in the entry about them.

I've added a couple of links, one to the main Taylor-Schechter Collection site, and one to some descriptions of individual manuscripts.

I hope that's everything covered now! I will, of course, be delighted to get comments from more reviewers.

Azara
smiley - rose


A9391070 - The Hebrew Manuscripts of the Cairo Genizah

Post 9

Azara

smiley - biroLinks added to:
University of Cambridge
Hebrew
Cairo
Islam
Arabic

smiley - biroand the names of the two Scottish sisters added to their footnote.

Azara
smiley - rose


A9391070 - The Hebrew Manuscripts of the Cairo Genizah

Post 10

McKay The Disorganised

Interesting.

smiley - cider


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Post 11

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Post 12

Gnomon - time to move on

smiley - bubbly


Congratulations - Your Entry has been Picked for the Edited Guide!

Post 13

There is only one thing worse than being Gosho, and that is not being Gosho

Well done smiley - cheers


Congratulations - Your Entry has been Picked for the Edited Guide!

Post 14

echomikeromeo

smiley - applause


Congratulations - Your Entry has been Picked for the Edited Guide!

Post 15

Azara

Thanks, everyone!

smiley - bubblysmiley - bubblysmiley - bubbly

Azara
smiley - rose


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