Sacred Treasure - the Cairo Genizah

In 1896, Rabbi Solomon Schechter of Cambridge University

stepped into the attic of the Ben Ezra Synagogue

in Cairo, Egypt, and there found the largest treasure

trove of medieval and early manuscripts ever discovered.

He had entered the synagogue's genizah its

repository for damaged and destroyed Jewish texts

which held nearly 300,000 individual documents,

many of which were over 1,000 years old.

Considered among the most important discoveries

in modern religious history, its contents contained early

copies of some of the Dead Sea Scrolls, early manuscripts

of the Hebrew Bible, and other sacred literature.

The importance of the genizah's contents rivals that of

the Rosetta Stone, and by virtue of its sheer mass alone,

it will continue to command our attention indefinitely.

This is the first accessible, comprehensive account of this

astounding discovery. It will delight you with its fascinating

adventure story why this enormous collection was amassed,

how it was discovered and the many lessons to be found in its

contents. And it will show you how Schechter's find, though

still being "unpacked" today, forever transformed our knowledge

of the Jewish past, Muslim history and much more.