The Crown of Aleppo

 The Aleppo Codex 

By Matti Friedman

The Aleppo Codex has had a sweeping history going back to medieval times up to the present. The Codex was the property of the Jewish community in Aleppo. The Jews of Aleppo were there since the Assyrian conquest of northen Israel. It used to be called Aram Tzovah and the Jews were there well before the advent of both Christianity and Islam. While they had sojourned there they were in possession of one of the most accurate codices of the bible. The Crown of Aleppo as it was called used to be housed in the great synagogue inside of a grotto locked behind a safe. It remained whole and intact for centuries after Rabbi Ben Asher write it in Tiberiius.

The History of the Codex took a dramatic turn when after the UN voted in the state of Israel the Arab mobs of Aleppo rioted burned the synagogue an destroyed the safe it was housed in. These events signalled for the Jews that things were going to take a turn or the worse. After having lived there for millennia now they were being turned out by the Syriuan government. They lived under restrictions , discrimination and oppression. Unable to safely live in what was their home since Assyrian times the Jews would have to flee to Israel or somewhere else. Unable to make a living and hain their businesses shunned many made their way out through Lebanon or turkey. The route to freedom was perilous. Often times smugglers would abandon people once they got their money or they could even turn them over to the Syrian authorities. The Jews left behind money, property and valuables. The Codex was also left behind. Today it is housed in Israel at the Ben Tzvi institute, forty percent of it is missing. It was thought to have ben burned in fire but closer examination shows that it was not burned. In fact it was rescued by a certain Aleppo Jew and housed with a jewish merchant named Yakov Hakohen. He held on to it for a god long time.

A jew named Faham smuggled it out. He was told by the community to give it over to a religious or righteous person, supposedly. Once in Israel a man who was in charge of immigration. He took charge of it and had it sent to the Ben Tzvi institute.  A legal battle ensued afterwards. The Aleppo community wanted control over the codex because they felt it was theirs. The government of Israel felt it should be kept somewhere safe where it can be studies and learned from. Eventually it was stored in the Ben Tzi institute with partial ownership goin to the Aleppo Jews. This underscore the negative treatment experienced by Middle Eastern Jews upon their arrival to Israel. In many cases their holy books were taken and never returned. They were housed in less desirable areas, given menial jobs and in general loked down upon.

The big mystery is what happened to the missing 40% of the Codex.   At first it had been thought to have been burned by fire. Further analysis showed mold damage no fire damage. Whan Jacob HaCohen had it there was no mention f missing ages. No one ever reported it until after it had been housed in the Ben Tzvi institute. One possible theory is that the theft of the pages was an inside job and that somone rom the institute  stole them. The pages themselves were of value.  there have been many cases of inside theft from Israeli istitutions.

The codex started out in Tiberius then moved to jerusalem. After the crusaders sacked the city the Jews made arrangement to have it moved to Fostat Egypt. Maimonides used it for his studies while iving in Egypt.

Afte things became dangerous in Egypt it was moved to Aleppo. There are still many pages missing and there is plenty of blame to go around. Could it be that Syrian mobs destroyed tha part of the codex or that someone picked u the pages from the ground. Perhaps the smugglers took the liberty o stealing pages. Or most firghtening is that Israeli institution in charge o guarding the Jewish patrmony were the ones who took pat i the theft of the missing pages.