Aleppo Codex, Leningrad Codex, Can Text be Authentic and Accurate?
Aleppo Codex, Leningrad Codex
What Text is Authentic and What is Accurate?
The two most relied upon versions of the Jewish Bible are the Aleppo Codex and the Leningrad Codex. In our daily lives, Jews are obligated to follow the legal obligations that we accepted upon the giving of the Torah (the Five Books of Moses). Our Sages teach us what copy of the Torah (and the rest of the Jewish Hebrew Bible) is authoritative. This is a precursor to the study and understanding of the Hebrew Bible. First, our Sages must determine what is the most authentic and accurate text that the children of Israel agreed to uphold. While division of the Hebrew Bible into chapters carries no weight in Jewish law, it is an important convention that enables Jews more easily to references specific chapters and verses.
The most authoritative manuscript of the Tanakh (Jewish Hebrew Bible) is the Aleppo Codex. It was written in Tiberias on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee around the year 920. Our tradition says the Aleppo Codex was proofread, read, and vocalized by Aaron Ben Asher. Our Sages teach that Ben-Asher produced the most accurate version of the masoretic text. Maimonides is said to have relied upon it in writing the requirements for writing a Torah Scroll. At the end of the 14th century the Aleppo Codex was taken to Aleppo, Syria, causing it to become known as the Aleppo Codex. During the anti-Jewish riots of December 1947 in Syria, the synagogue where it was kept was broken into and burned. The Aleppo Codex itself disappeared. In 1958 the Aleppo Codex was smuggled into Israel. Parts of the codex had been lost. Rabbi Mordechai Breuer reconstructed lost sections, on the basis of other trusted authentic manuscripts. My Rabbis learned directly from Rabbi Mordechai Breuer and taught me the most authoritative text and how it was reconstructed.
The Leningrad Codex is the oldest complete Hebrew bible. The Leningrad Codex (circa 1008 CE) was prepared by the school of Aharon Ben Moshe Ben Asher. The Leningrad Codex comprises the Tanakh with vowels (nikkud) and cantillation marks (trope). The Tiberian system for marking vowels in the Leningrad Codex is the same system used in Hebrew today. While there are older parts of Bibles, or biblical books, there is no older manuscript which preserves the whole Hebrew Bible. It resides in the city formerly known as Leningrad where it has been since the mid-1800’s. The Westminster Leningrad Codex (WLC) provides a method for academics to make corrections to the text. These corrections yield a more accurate, but potentially either more or less authentic text. The extensive use of footnotes transfers the responsibility for generating a meaningful rendition of the Leningrad Codex to the Hebrew Bible scholar who relies on that codex. My team uses my expertise and the Westminster Leningrad Codex as a source of corrections to the reconstructed Aleppo Codex.
My team at the Singing Torah has transliterated our corrected Aleppo Codex based on the traditions of textual accuracy and authenticity the I received from my Rabbis.
Fundamentals of the Hebrew Bible Quick Review
There are 24 books of the Hebrew Bible. These include the five books of Moses, known as the Torah. Eight books of the Hebrew Bible are the prophetic works. Eleven books of writings, which themselves include five scrolls. The order of the books of the Hebrew Bible differ in the Jewish tradition from the Christian version. The question of who wrote each book of the Hebrew Bible is discussed in the Talmud in the tractate called Baba Batra. The Torah scroll on parchment has no verse divisions and lacks the now conventional chapter divisions. It was first present in the Vulgate. It was invented in st. Jerome in 4th century. By the 13th century Christians started using it.
How is Aleppo Codex divided into Paragraphs?
In the Masoretic text, a Samach (stumah or closed) denotes a gap of space equivalent to nine letters, according to the Rambam. In contrast, a Peh (Patuch or open) denotes a new chapter where the next text is written on a new line. That system of breaking up passages is not always done contextually or thematically. There is a literary style to create a bracketing system using the text itself. The Hebrew expression translates to start and conclude with similar words.
What Reconstructor of Aleppo Codex Teaches about Meaning of Names of God
Rabbi Mordechai Breuer was known for developing Shitat Habechinot (“the aspect approach”) which suggests that differing styles and internal tensions in the Biblical text represent different aspects of God or Torah, which cannot be merged without losing their identity. According to Breuer, God wrote the Torah from “multiple perspectives … each one constituting truth, [for] it is only the combination of such truths that gives expression to the absolute truth.” This is the approach that my Rabbis have passed on to me and will be reflected in this blog.
Could an Authentic Aleppo Codex or Leningrad Codex have Grammatical Errors?
When you find a text that has grammatical errors, it is more likely to be authentic. Authentic is faithfulness to a text as it is received by that scribe. Because a scribe remains loyal to tradition received. When copying or transmitting books, the ego of the scribe compels a desire to correct that text. Such a correction is referred to as emendation. So, if you have a text that isn’t perfect within the Hebrew Bible canon, we can feel comfortable that is is authentic. Scribes trade off an accurate text against an authentic text. By correcting a text, it may become more accurate as it becomes less authentic. I first learned this from Professor Joel Elitzur of Ofrah, Israel, in a class on Biblical Hebrew language.
Mishneh Torah » Sefer Ahavah » Tefillin, Mezuzah, v’Sefer Torah » Chapter 8: Halacha 4
“Since I have seen great confusion about these matters in all the scrolls I have seen, and similarly, the masters of the tradition who have written down and composed [texts] to make it known [which passages] are p’tuchot and which are s’tumot are divided with regard to the scrolls on which to rely, I saw fit to write down the entire list of all the passages in the Torah that are s’tumot and p’tuchot, and also the form of the songs. In this manner, all the scrolls can be corrected and checked against these [principles].
The scroll on which I relied on for [clarification of] these matters was a scroll renowned in Egypt, which includes all the 24 books [of the Bible]. It was kept in Jerusalem for many years so that scrolls could be checked from it. Everyone relies upon it because it was corrected by ben Asher, who spent many years writing it precisely, and [afterward] checked it many times.
I relied [on this scroll] when I wrote a Torah scroll according to law.” Rambam said this in reference to what would later be called the Aleppo Codex.