The Aleppo Codex
The Aleppo Codex was written in Tiberias around 930 CE. The manuscript is located in the Israel Museum and is owned by the Ben-Zvi Institute of Jerusalem.
The Aleppo Codex is the oldest known manuscript of the Bible that has been preserved in its entirety. The text of the Bible in the Aleppo Codex was copied by the author, Shlomo ben Boya. At the end of the work, the Masoretic scribe, Aharon ben Asher, added the three components of the Tiberian tradition: vowel points, cantillations and Masorah.
It is generally accepted that the wording of the Aleppo Codex is the most precise version of the Bible we have in our possession. Both traditional and historical research have confirmed that this is almost certainly the manuscript that Maimonides used when writing the Mishneh Torah. The Rambam said: "And the book that we relied upon in these words is the well-known book in Egypt, which includes four and twenty books that were in Jerusalem for several years from which the books were proofread.” (Maimonides, Hilkhot Tefillin and Mezuzah and Sefer Torah, chapter 8).
The Aleppo Codex was kept in Jerusalem until the Crusaders captured the Holy Land. It was taken by the Crusaders and sold in the slave market in Ashkelon. The Aleppo Codex was eventually bought by the Jewish community in Cairo, where Maimonides came in contact with it. It was later transferred to the Syrian city of Aleppo by the rabbi's great-grandson. It was preserved in the Great Synagogue of Aleppo until the Israeli War of Independence. In 1957 it was smuggled out of Syria with the assistance of the Mossad. The Aleppo Codex was transferred to the authority of Mr. Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, the second President of the State of Israel.
Courtesy of the Ben-Zvi Institute, Photographer: Ardon Ben Hama.
