The Aleppo Codex (the Keter ("Crown") Aram Tzova) is the oldest complete manuscript Hebrew Bible, though scrolls of individual books of the Tanakh are much older (see Dead Sea scrolls). Thus the Aleppo Codex is the most authoritative source document, both for the biblical text and for its vocalization and cantillation, and for mesorah ("transmission"), the tradition by which the Hebrew Scriptures have been preserved from generation to generation. See also Masoretic Text.

The Codex was copied by the scribe Shlomo Ben Buya'a in Palestine in the 10th century. The text was then verified, vocalized, and provided with the Masorah by Aaron Ben-Asher, the last and most prominent member of the Ben-Asher dynasty of grammarians from Tiberias, which shaped the most accurate version of the Masorah and the Bible. The Leningrad Codex, the other oldest complete Hebrew Bible, also is a product of the Ben-Asher scriptorium.

The Codex was the manuscript used by the rabbi and scholar Maimonides (1135-1204), when he set down the exact rules for writing scrolls of the Torah, Hilkhot Sefer Torah ("the Laws of the Torah Scroll") in his Mishneh Torah. This halakhic ruling gave the Aleppo Codex the seal of supreme textual authority. "The codex which we used in these works is the codex known in Egypt, which includes 24 books, which was in Jerusalem," he wrote.

History

The Codex has had an eventful history. It was looted from Jerusalem at the end of the 11th century and shipped to Egypt where Maimonides used it. Maimonides' descendants brought it to Aleppo, Syria, at the end of the 14th century. The Aleppo community guarded it zealously for some six hundred years. During the riots against Jews and Jewish property in Aleppo in December 1947, the community's ancient synagogue was burned and the Codex was damaged, so that no more than 295 of the original 487 leaves survived.

The missing leaves are a subject of fierce controversy. The Jews of Aleppo claim that they were burned. But scholarly analysis has shown no evidence of fire having reached the codex itself. Scholars instead accuse members of the Jewish community of having torn off the missing leaves and keeping them privately hidden. One "missing" leaf has turned up and been brought to Jerusalem since the anti-Jewish riots in 1947.

In January 1958 the Aleppo Codex was brought to Jerusalem, where it remains in the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum. The Aleppo Codex is the source for several modern editions of the Hebrew Bible, including "The Jerusalem Crown" (printed in Jerusalem in 2000, with a newly-designed typeface based on the calligraphy of the Codex and based on its page-layout).

External links

• Israel Museum shrine of the Book http://www.imj.org.il/eng/shrine/aleppo.html
• Mechon Mamre http://www.mechon-mamre.org/ - Electronic text of the Hebrew Bible based on the Aleppo Codex
• History of the Aleppo Codex http://www.bible-researcher.com/aleppo.html