GENIZAH (lit. “hiding” or “hiding-place”): The
storeroom or depository in a synagogue; a cemetery in which worn-out and
heretical or disgraced Hebrew books or papers are placed. A genizah serves
therefore the twofold purpose of preserving good things from harm and bad
things from harming. Shab. 115a directs that holy writings in other than the
Hebrew and Greek languages require “genizah,” that is, preservation. In Pes.
118b “bet genizah” = “treasury.” In Pes. 56a Hezekiah hides (“ganaz”) a medical
work; in Shab. 115a R. Gamaliel orders that the Targum to Job should be hidden
(“yigganez”) under the “nidbak” (layer of stones). In Shab. 30b the sages
sought to hide (“lignoz”) as heretical the books of Ecclesiastes and Proverbs.
The same thing occurs in Shab. 13b in regard to the Book of Ezekiel, and in
Pes. 62 in regard to the Book of Genealogies.
In medieval times such Hebrew scraps and papers as were relegated to
the genizah were known as “shemot” (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 ẓiẓit, lulabim, and sprigs of myrtle, are similarly stored (comp. Shab. 63;
Yoma 16, as to the stones of the altar).
The Cario Genizah
The discovery by Solomon Schechter, on May 13, 1896, of a fragment of
the original Hebrew of Ecclesiasticus drew so much attention to the genizah
whence it came that the term “genizah” is now applied almost exclusively to the
hoard at the old synagogue of Fostat near Cairo. This was a church dedicated to
St. Michael until the conquest of Egypt by Chosroes in 616, when it became a
synagogue. To Benjamin of Tudela, in the twelfth century, it appeared “very
ancient.” Simon van Geldern (c. 1750), Heine’s ancestor, tells in his diary how
much impressed lie was by the wealth of possibility that lay hidden amid the
rubbish of the genizot there. In 1864 Jacob Safir visited it, and his “Eben
Sappir” describes how he spent two days ferreting among the ancient books and
leaves till the dust and ashes sickened him of the task; but “who knows what
may yet be beneath?” In 1888 E. N. Adler visited the synagogue, but did not
succeed in seeing more than a recess in the upper part of the right wall
containing the scroll of Ezra and a few other ancient manuscripts. He was
informed that all shemot were buried in the Jewish cemetery at Basatin. Shortly
afterward the synagogue was repaired by the Cairene community, and during its
renovation the old receptacle seems to have been rediscovered. It is a secret
chamber at the back of the east end, and is approached from the farthest
extremity of the gallery by climbing a ladder and entering through a hole in
the wall.
Taylor Schechter Collection
When Sayce visited the synagogue many of the contents of the genizah
had been thrown out and buried in the ground, through a part of which a road
was subsequently cut. This would account for the evident exposure to dampness
which some of the oldest fragments have undergone and for their earthy odor.
Sayce acquired many fragments from the caretakers of the synagogue, which are
now in the Bodleian Library. Other libraries and collectors, especially
Archduke Rainer, made similar acquisitions. E. N. Adler revisited the synagogue
on Jan. 3, 1896, under the escort of the chief rabbi, Rafaïl ben Shimon
ha-Kohen, and was allowed to take away with him a sack containing all the
parchment and paper fragments they had been able to gather in about four hours.
Some of these turned out to be of exceptional interest, and were published
shortly afterward. It was the identification of a Ben Sira text among the
Bodleian fragments in May of that year which induced Schechter to proceed to
Cairo in the autumn and bring back with him practically the entire written
contents of the genizah. These now constitute the bulk of the Taylor-Schechter
collection at the Cambridge University Library. About the same time Mrs. Lewis
and Mrs. Gibson, two learned sisters, known by their discoveries in the Mount
Sinai Monastery, visited Cairo, and returned to Cambridge, England, with a
large number of fragments, which they placed at Professor Schechter’s disposal
for the purpose of examination. Visits to the genizah in October, 1898, April,
1901, and February, 1903, merely brought to light printed matter; but if this
be found to include title-pages and colophons, some of it may prove to have
bibliographical value. Cyrus Adler of Washington during a visit to Cairo in the
year 1891 secured about forty pieces from a dealer; doubtless large quantities
of fragments from the same genizah remain in the hands of dealers in Cairo,
Jerusalem, and elsewhere; and are occasionally brought to Europe and to America
and offered for sale. Among the various buyers from the dealers may be
mentioned: Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Gibson of Cambridge, Dr. Neubauer, the late
Professor Kaufmann of Budapest, the trustees of the British Museum, Dr. Gaster,
Professor Gottheil of Columbia University, Judge Sulzberger of Philadelphia,
Mr. Amram, also of Philadelphia, and E. N. Adler.
Other Genizot
Most ancient synagogues had genizot. That of Feodosia in the Crimea is
an alcove on the ground floor at the back of the ark, approachable from the
outside of the building by a hole so small as only to admit of the entrance of
a very small boy. Search there proved fruitless, as it had been cleared a
generation previously by Firkovitch. At Bokhara the genizah is in the roof, but
disused copies of scrolls of the Law are walled up by stucco in arched alcoves
surrounding the interior of the building. At Teheran it is in an underground
cellar, so damp that papers turn to pulp in a few weeks; a ketubah or two were
all that resulted from a search in 1896. In a secret chamber in the eaves of
the roof of one of the chapels of the ancient synagogue at Aleppo (4th cent.?)
is the genizah of that famous city. In 1898 this was as full of dust as the one
at Cairo, but it is much less interesting and ancient. Its contents are
periodically removed, and are taken solemnly to the Jewish cemetery. Their
burial is locally supposed to induce a downfall of rain. At Rustchuk burials of
“shemot” take place every ten years, when a sermon is delivered, followed by a
banquet, and the right of burying each sack is sold as a “miẓwah”; one month
later a stone is laid over the place of burial, and inscribed as the genizah of
the year in question.
In Prague the genizah is also in the roof, over the historic banner
which records the bravery of the Bohemian Jews. The genizah is protected from
the designs of the desecrator or collector by a legend, devoutly believed, that
it is under the special protection of a “golem.”
Practise in the Orient
In the Orient generally, shemot are from time to time deposited
temporarily in some corner or cupboard of the synagogue, often below the ark or
“almemar.” When the collection grows too big, or when some special occasion
arises, such as a drought, the papers are solemnly gathered up and carried off
to the “bet ḥayyim” and buried there with some ceremony. With this custom is
associated the far older practise of burying a great or good man with a “sefer”
which has become “pasul” (unfit for use through illegibility or old age). In
Morocco, in Algiers, in Turkey, and even in Egypt, such paper-interments
continually occur, and not the least important part of the Taylor-Schechter
collection has come from the graveyard.
It was reported (1898) that the genizah at Rosetta had been
transported from the cemetery there and reburied at Alexandria by a pious Jew,
the last of the community to leave the Delta city. The spade-work of a night
succeeded in bringing to light some interesting material—an early “RIF,” a
Cretan ketubah, and part of a Naḥmanides printed in Portugal. The contents of
all these genizot are of the most varied description, and some, indeed, of
entrancing interest. Autographs of Saadia and Maimonides, of resh gola and
nagid, of gaon and heretic, the last-mentioned sometimes recalcitrant and
sometimes apologetic, are constantly to be met with. A vivid description of
such contents is given by Schechter in his “Hoard of Hebrew Manuscripts”—an
article contributed by him to the “Times” (London) of Aug. 3, 1897. (Elkan
N. Adler, “Genizah,” in The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the
History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the
Earliest Times to the Present Day, ed., Isidore Singer, 12 vols. [New York;
London: Funk & Wagnalls, 1901–1906], 5:612-13)
Further Reading:
John A. Tvedtnes, “Books in the Treasury,” in The Book of Mormon and Other Hidden Books: “Out of Darkness Unto Light” (Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2000), 155-66