The Aleppo Codex was the most revered copy of the Hebrew Scriptures and the foundation of the Masoretic Hebrew text. It was written about 930 AD in Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee by a scribe named Shlomo ben Boya. The Masorete scribe Aharon ben Asher added the vowels, the cantillation marks and the Masoretic notes. Aharon ben Asher was the Master Masorete scribe and his work was “unparalleled in proficiency and expertise”. The greatest medieval authority on Jewish law, Maimonides (1138-1204) referred to the Aleppo Codex when he wrote his Mishneh Torah. For many years it remained the property of ben Asher. In 1099 it was seized by the Crusader conquerors of Jerusalem. It appears briefly at a synagogue near Cairo, Egypt where Maimonides used it. In the end of the 15th century, it is in a synagogue in Syria (Aleppo). It remained there for almost 600 years until December 1st, 1947. Two days before, on November 29th, 1947, the UN passed by 2/3 vote the resolution to partition the Holy Land thus creating a Jewish state for the first time in almost two millennia. Also on the exact same day, Hebrew University Professor Sukenik bought the first of three Dead Sea Scrolls and took them to Jerusalem. It was nothing short of miraculous that the 2,000 year old Isaiah Scroll, which prophesied the return of Israel to her land, surfaced on the exact same day that Jewish sovereignty was re-established! Within two days, however, anti-Jewish riots broke out in the Arab world including Aleppo, Syria. The 1,000 year old Aleppo Codex of Aharon ben Asher, known as “the Crown”, was destroyed by rioters who destroyed the Great Synagogue in Syria. Through the years fragments of the Aleppo Codex have been found and the Israel Museum carefully collects them, trying to re-construct the great Aleppo Codex. If you would like to view these remnants online, visit the Aleppo codex website at: www.aleppocodex.org.
This post is a brief exert from the article, “The Shattered Crown: The Aleppo Codex” from the Sept/Oct 2008 issue of the Biblical Archaeology Review – http://www.bib-arch.org
