The Aleppo Codex: The True Story of Obsession, Faith, and the International Pursuit of an Ancient Bible by Matti Friedman

Jun 17, 2012 Lena rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

The Aleppo Codex is a thousand year old manuscript originally created to help Jews properly interpret their religious texts. For the six hundred years prior to 1947, it resided in a synagogue in the Syrian town of Aleppo. In the riots following the vote to create the State of Israel, however, its secure home was breached and the book thought to be destroyed.

The good news is that this priceless ancient book actually survived the riots. Today, 60% of it is in the hands of the Israeli government. W...more

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Mar 23, 2013 Jim Leffert rated it 3 of 5 stars

Journalist Friedman peels away much myth and misinformation to tell the eventful and in many ways tragic true story of the People of the Book's most cherished physical book--the more than 1000 year old Aleppo Codex. This handwritten 10th century codex preserves the authoritative Masoretic version of the 24 books of Jewish Bible on parchment, in clear calligraphy, with vowel and cantillation markings and scholarly annotations.

The Codex, produced by Aaron Ben Asher and colleagues in Tiberias, foun...more Journalist Friedman peels away much myth and misinformation to tell the eventful and in many ways tragic true story of the People of the Book's most cherished physical book--the more than 1000 year old Aleppo Codex. This handwritten 10th century codex preserves the authoritative Masoretic version of the 24 books of Jewish Bible on parchment, in clear calligraphy, with vowel and cantillation markings and scholarly annotations.

The Codex, produced by Aaron Ben Asher and colleagues in Tiberias, found its way from Tiberias to Jerusalem, where it was eventually plundered by the Crusaders when they captured the city around 1100. Egyptian Jews ransomed the Codex and brought it to Fustat, near Cairo. There, Maimonides utilized it as the source for his writings on the proper cantillation for the public Torah readings that are a key part of the cycle of Jewish communal worship. The Codex remained in Maimonides descendants' possession in Egypt until the late 14th century, when one of these descendants relocated to Aleppo in Syria.

Aaron ben Asher and his colleagues intended the codex to be a resource for rabbis and scholars but for the next six centuries, the Aleppo Jews treated it like a holy relic. They locked it away in an underground chamber beneath their synagogue, as a talisman that had the power to protect them from persecution and other calamities. Because the Aleppo Jews believed that disaster would befall them if they let the Codex out of their hands, they resisted attempts by prominent Zionists in the 1940’s to bring it back to Palestine. In addition they forbade scholars from reproducing it. At this time, the Aleppo community was under threat because of Syrian nationalism and opposition to Zionism. Alas, at the time that Israel became a state, an anti-Jewish riot led to the gutting of the main synagogue in Aleppo and the Codex was believed burned.

At this point, what happened exactly to the Codex is a tangled and murky story. The Codex actually survived—in fact, the Aleppo Jews had kept it hidden and eventually it was smuggled into Israel. There, Israeli president Yitzhak Ben-Zvi and his quasi-governmental Ben-Zvi Institute took possession of it, despite an outcry and an unsuccessful lawsuit from Aleppo emigrés, who insisted that it belonged to them. However, more than 1/3 of the Codex’s pages mysteriously turned up missing.

Friedman makes an impressive effort and succeeds to some degree in getting to the bottom of what actually happened. Did greedy and/or superstitious Aleppo Jews pillage pages or whole sections from the Codex? Is skullduggery on the part of the Israel’s government and establishment--supposed rescuers and keepers of the Codex--to blame? Eventually, we get a partial answer to these questions and more, including revelations of a cover-up and informed speculation that points the finger at particular parties. It’s not a pretty story, or a simple one, and it constitutes a chapter in the larger story of arrogance on the part the 1950’s and 1960’s Israeli government elites.

Despite efforts on his part to inject drama into the tale, Friedman manages to make the account of his investigations somewhat of a slog. Friedman the investigator is more of a virtuoso than Friedman the writer, with his cumulative “just the facts, ma’am” style of reportage. Only at the very end, as he sums up the tale, does Friedman let loose with an eloquent cri de coeur on behalf of this priceless but ill-treated cultural, religious, and scholarly treasure.
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Dec 01, 2012 Ellen rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Crown of Aleppo is a codex, that is a book of the Torah and writings prepared by a scribe in the 10th century, that is the exemplar for later Torah scrolls and writings. As one of the most precious manuscripts in existence, it was carefully protected by the Jewish communities from Jerusalem to Egypt to Aleppo, Syria where it was hidden for 600 years.

At the time of the UN vote to establish Israel, the Jewish community of Aleppo was attacked. The Codex was pulled from its hiding place and end...more

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Aug 24, 2012 Dale rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This story comes to life in the audiobook.

Published by Highbridge in 2012.
Performed by Simon Vance.
Duration: 7 hours, 27 minutes.

"The story of this book...should come as no surprise to any who have read it."

I'm going to be brutally honest here. I picked up this audiobook on a lark. I thought it sounded like it was going to be interesting but I have a little pile of audiobooks and this one was quickly heading to the bottom of the pile because I was having a serious case of buyer's remorse. It loo...more This story comes to life in the audiobook.

Published by Highbridge in 2012.
Performed by Simon Vance.
Duration: 7 hours, 27 minutes.

"The story of this book...should come as no surprise to any who have read it."

I'm going to be brutally honest here. I picked up this audiobook on a lark. I thought it sounded like it was going to be interesting but I have a little pile of audiobooks and this one was quickly heading to the bottom of the pile because I was having a serious case of buyer's remorse. It looked like a tedious bit of history and I was imagining a dry, boring lecture about an old book. I literally decided to listen to it just to get it out of the pile so I wouldn't have to dread listening to it any longer.

Happily, I was very wrong about this book.

In its roughest outline this is indeed a book about a very old book but it is much more than that. The story of the Aleppo Codex is told by Matti Friedman, an Israeli journalist through a variety of angles. Sometimes it is a mystery. Sometimes it is told as oral history. Sometimes the Codex itself is the prism used to look at Jewish history under colonial European rule or under Muslim rule in Medieval times or to look at the centrality of the Hebrew Bible, especially the Torah (the first five books) to the Jewish people throughout history.

The Aleppo Codex is the most perfect copy of the Hebrew Bible that was written by hand. It is not fancy, but it is precise and neat and it was created a thousand years ago. Over the centuries it has traveled here and there, surviving the sack of Jerusalem in one of the Crusades, re-surfacing in Egypt to be consulted by the famed Jewish scholar Maimonides and eventually working its way to the Jewish community in Aleppo, Syria. The Aleppo Jews treasured it and locked it away until an anti-Israeli riot broke out in Aleppo in 1947 and the Codex was scattered around the ruins of the synagogue in which it was stored. By the late 1950s the Codex was working its way to Israel and eventually to the Shrine of the Book where it sits on display.

Except, of course, for the fact that is not really there - at least not all of it...

Read more at: http://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/2012/...(less)

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Aug 05, 2012 Tony rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

THE ALEPPO CODEX: A True Story of Obsession, Faith, and the Pursuit of an Ancient Bible. (2012). Matti Friedman. ****.
The Aleppo Codes (book) was considered to be one of the most truthful renderings of the Torah and subsequent books of the Bible. It was used by Maimonides in his biblical work and studies. It is believed to have been composed in about 1100 A.D. It was kept secure in a special alcove in the temple at Aleppo, in Syria. In 1947, after the United Nations approved the partition of Pa...more

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May 06, 2013 Pamela rated it 4 of 5 stars

Fascinating true story of a 1,000+ year old bible that has created a lot of controversy relative to who has rights to ownership, how it should be protected, and how 40% of it went missing. The Aleppo Codex was a bound text originally written in 930 A.D.; it included the Torah and 19 other holy books, bound together for the first time in history, with important information about how it should be read & understood. The codex was in Aleppo, Syria from the 1400's to 1957, when it was brought to...more

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May 24, 2012 Paula Howard rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Aleppo Codex is about sacred scripture that is owned and protected by the Aleppo community. As WWII rages and Jews are being taken to the camps, there is also destruction of of synagogues. The Aleppo Community sends it the the Israel. The newly established Israeli government wants the document for them self not going the Aleppo rabbit in Jerusalem.

The Aleppo Codex ws very well written. Novel was not only about the path taken by the Aleppo The good of the State of Israel was considered more i...more

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Nov 06, 2012 Khaya rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: jewish, readablenonfiction, mysteriesthrillers

My original brilliant review was lost due to post-storm internet issues, so here is a far less brilliant synopsis.

The titular Aleppo Codex refers to what is probably the closest thing we have to an original bible. Written in 960, it includes the 24 books of the Hebrew bible with guiding notes on words that are written one way and read another or other ambiguities. Since its completion in 960, the Codex traveled around, was used by Maimonides, and eventually found its home for 600-something year...more My original brilliant review was lost due to post-storm internet issues, so here is a far less brilliant synopsis.

The titular Aleppo Codex refers to what is probably the closest thing we have to an original bible. Written in 960, it includes the 24 books of the Hebrew bible with guiding notes on words that are written one way and read another or other ambiguities. Since its completion in 960, the Codex traveled around, was used by Maimonides, and eventually found its home for 600-something years in the Jewish community of Aleppo where it was ferociously guarded. Sadly, this precious book disappeared in the Aleppo riots of 1947 where it was rumored to have been burnt. Although the Codex eventually resurfaced in the state of Israel, its purity was tainted by both murky dealings and significant sections that mysteriously went missing. Friedman, a determined journalist and researcher, wrote this non-fiction book describing his attempts to get to the bottom of the various mysteries around what happened to the Codex since 1947. Although Friedman could not provide conclusive answers to all of the questions, he managed to accumulate an unprecedented amount of evidence and information relating to the dark lacunae around the Codex.

Some of the reviews I read led me to expect a thriller which would immediately rope me in and keep me hanging on every word. Well, not exactly. This book was a bit of a slow burn for me as Friedman provided background and set up the situation. Although I've been more of a non-fiction fan lately, this is where fiction has the upper hand; an author who's sticking to the truth can't really make a story more gripping than it is. With that said, from about halfway in my curiosity began to intensify and I did find myself quickly turning the pages to see what I would learn next.

The other advantage of fiction is that it can provide a sense of closure that's not always possible in reality. While I closed the book feeling like I knew a whole lot more about the Codex than I had previously, and even feeling like I could make some educated and distinctly plausible guesses about what had happened to it, none of us will ever really know which can feel a bit frustrating after all that investigation.

This is a solid four-star read, though. I'm always happy when I find a book that manages to be both highly readable and not a waste of time. The topic was meaningful to me as a Jew with a sense of history. While not five stars, this short book didn't take up a lot of reading time and left me feeling glad I'd read it.(less)

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Aug 09, 2012 John rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

This is a well-crafted, tightly cinematic whodunit (who stole the Aleppo Codex?) told through conflicting memories in the style of Kurosowa's Rashomon, and which builds tension to a Hitchcockian ending. Some readers are troubled by the book's interleaving of past and present, but I thought it achieved great dramatic effect, increased the suspense, and added necessary historical context to the story. Friedman ends his detective story on a note of high moral outrage in simple, unadorned prose that...more

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Mar 26, 2013 Maggie Anton rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Aleppo Codex is a thousand year old manuscript originally created to help Jews properly read the Torah. For the six hundred years prior to 1947, it resided in a synagogue in the Syrian town of Aleppo. In the riots following the vote to create the State of Israel, however, its secure home was breached and the book thought to be destroyed. The good news is that this priceless ancient book actually survived the riots and this books tells us how.

The bad news is that the most important parts of...more

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Aug 24, 2012 Susan Segal rated it 4 of 5 stars

This could be one of those Nicholas Cage treasuer-hunt movies, but it's not fiction. It's the incredible story of how the oldest known, complete version of the Hebrew Scriptures ends up in Aleppo for 600 years under close guard, and then, upon the founding of the State of Israel, as the Arabs riot against the Jews and begin to expel them, what happened to the Codex. How did it get to Israel? Where are the missing parts? What is the underbelly of rare manuscript collecting like? How was the gover...more

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May 07, 2013 NLBHorton rated it 4 of 5 stars

I am a history geek and seminary graduate, and I really enjoyed The Aleppo Codex. It's well-researched, well-written, and enlightening. It provides an excellent historic context for understanding today's Middle Eastern conflict, as well as reveals aspects of the Jewish diaspora and state's early government that help me comprehend tensions in the region by adding layers of detail.

I've read extensively about the formation of the State of Israel—both contemporary and historic accounts—and this boo...more

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Jul 15, 2012 Julie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: own, non-fiction, signed-copy, bea

Friedman does an excellent job telling the remarkable story of a thousand year old Hebrew manuscript, known as The Crown of Aleppo. Along with the history of the codex itself, there is great background about the community of Aleppo Jews, an overview of Jewish populations in the Middle East, and Zionism. The most controversial aspect of the book’s history only occurred in the 20th century, when the manuscript was nearly destroyed in a riot that devastated the Aleppo synagogue, then transferred to...more

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Aug 08, 2012 Louise Silk rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

This was a fascinating book explaining the history of a thousand year old manuscript: The Aleppo Codex, originally created to help Jews properly interpret the Torah.

Prior to 1947, The Codex resided in a synagogue in the Syrian town of Aleppo. After the creation of the State of Israel and the destruction of the Syrian Jewish community, parts of the text found its way into the hands of the Israeli government.

Friedman writes a compelling story that traces the path of the Codex from its original g...more

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May 27, 2012 Ellen rated it 4 of 5 stars

A history of the Aleppo Codex and it's history from Spain to Syria. The superstition and secrecy of this codex and the belief of a destruction of a community if it is moved was fascinating. More integrating to me we're how the people of this community lived. What their occupation and family lives and what they did to protect the codex. I was unaware of Israel's role in recovering the Codex but also the great lengths dealers in Judica would go to purchase such rare documents. It was a little diff...more

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Oct 13, 2012 Gail rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: israel, nonfiction

This book is a thriller that I couldn't put down. The Aleppo Codex is a perfect copy of the Torah which was used to minimize scribal errors in transcribing Torah scrolls. Friedman explains the purpose of a codex, the history of this one and how it winded up in Aleppo. The controversy arises with the transfer of the Aleppo codex to Israel in the early 1950's.

The epigram of this book begins with a quote of Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose.

This book was chosen for the Dallas Jewish Book Communit...more

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Aug 15, 2012 Linda rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was excellent. The story of this book - the people and the incredible travesty of this ancient book is like some thriller movie. You can tell in the last few paragraphs - beautifully written, by the way - that the author is just plain mad. Mad that those who were supposed to take care of the book instead let it be raped. What a sad thing. Excellent work, great job of bringing this to light.

Wish there were some maps, as well as a timeline of the wars Israel was involved in. I have no kn...more

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Oct 17, 2012 Stephen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: recently-read

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. nd t cm t pss n th frtth yr, n th lvnth mnth, n th frst dy f th mnth, tht Mss spk nt th chldrn f srl, ccrdng nt ll tht th LRD hd gvn hm n cmmndmnt nt thm;

Imagine trying to translate text like that above into something coherent, let alone, the most important manuscript in the world to an entire race of people. Ancient Hebrew texts containing no vowels, kept scribes busy for centuries translating “The Crown”, the original version of the Torah, until considered complete around the year 900 Anno Dom...more nd t cm t pss n th frtth yr, n th lvnth mnth, n th frst dy f th mnth, tht Mss spk nt th chldrn f srl, ccrdng nt ll tht th LRD hd gvn hm n cmmndmnt nt thm;

Imagine trying to translate text like that above into something coherent, let alone, the most important manuscript in the world to an entire race of people. Ancient Hebrew texts containing no vowels, kept scribes busy for centuries translating “The Crown”, the original version of the Torah, until considered complete around the year 900 Anno Domini. During the crusades early in the first millennium AD, the final manuscript was taken to Europe and was moved various times over the subsequent years to locations around the Mediterranean until finally hidden for centuries, relatively unharmed, in a synagogue in Aleppo, Syria by a Jewish community. After the UN vote to create the state of Israel soon after the ending of the Second World War, widespread riots broke out resulting with the burning of the synagogue and the destruction of many invaluable treasures, artifacts and documents. Sometime after the Israeli government “acquired” the “Crown”, 40% of the pages, including some of the most significant chapters of the pentateuch, were found to be missing. Friedman’s work documents his investigation into the history of this sacred text, mostly after it’s discovery from its hiding place for centuries in Aleppo.

I had been waiting to get a hold of this acclaimed piece for a few months, and now can only say that I am somewhat disappointed, perhaps because I anticipated too much from it. I am reminded of another book detailing an extensive, 10 year research endeavor for another biblical relic, the Ark of the Covenant, that I read a couple of years ago titled, Sign and the Seal: The Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant by Graham Hancock. Like “Sign and the Seal”, Friedman’s work piques ones interest, however, leaves only a vague conclusion based on personal assumptions which I found rather disheartening.

Friedman displays his investigative journalist qualities, and obviously shows due diligence in satisfying his inquisitiveness on the subject, and perhaps got enough of the “run around” to make most people just give up on it (I thought it difficult to tell where the facts were delineated from the fabrications, which is not necessarily the fault of the author), though the author kept up his quest with unending persistence.

All in all, The Aleppo Codex was an okay read, but life is way too short to spend it trying to answer, unanswerable questions.

Steve D.(less)

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Jul 02, 2012 Daniel Farabaugh rated it 3 of 5 stars

I had mixed feelings about this book because I thought it was about the writing of the original codex when I first took it out of the library. It turned out to be about the moving of the Codex to Isreali and is much more of a conspriracy theory book then I supposed. The porblem with conspiracy theory books is that if you do not know the subject well (like I don't) they can seem very reasonable (like this one does) even if the arguments do not hold up under closer scrutiny. Thus, the mixed feelin...more

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Feb 12, 2013 Betty rated it 1 of 5 stars

I wish I could say I liked this book because the topic is so dear to me. But I honestly feel that what the author took over 300 hundred pages to say could have been said in less than 100 pages. There was an awful lot of repetition all through the book. The little bit of real proven history was interesting but there was so very little of it. Most of the book is pure speculation as to what happened to the missing pages of the book -- chapter after chapter saying the same thing. I only finished it...more

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Sep 01, 2012 Jenny Brown rated it 4 of 5 stars

While the story of the search for the codex makes a nice marketing hook and will attract many readers, what I found most interesting about this book was the light it cast on the Jewish communities in Arab lands and in the events surrounding the birth of Israel.

The author did his research very thoroughly and writes well. I'm not sure why I can't give it 5 stars--probably because I left the book with the feeling that it promised a bit more than it delivered.

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Aug 10, 2012 Brian rated it 3 of 5 stars

Fascinating story of the Aleppo Codex. A real whodunit! GREED knows no end. The writer does a good job of ferreting out the facts but the ultimate disposition of the best whodunits never really becomes clear. Greed triumphs over truth; the more greed the less truth is revealed. I am hung up on the human element of the story far more than the anthropological/religious/sociological aspects of the Codex itself. Still fascinating!

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Oct 08, 2012 Emma rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: received-from-publisher-author, listened-to, read-in-2012, around-the-world-in-52-books-readin

Do you like a good mystery? Do you like “serious” books about things that actually happened? Do you have lots of commuting time? Well, these are three reasons you have to listen to this book!

I decided to teach myself Biblical Hebrew a few decades ago, with the desire to see what the text did actually say, cleansed from all adaptations to Western tastes. This, plus my fascination for anything bookish, made this book really intriguing to me. I had no idea I was actually plunging into a real myster...more

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Mar 15, 2013 Shifra rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this well written expose of Matti Friedman. His attempts to discover what really happened to the manuscript of the first standardized text of the bible that had remained hidden in Syria for one thousand years until the announcement of the state of Israel. And then greed and faith and obsession arrives. HIghly recommend.

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Jul 28, 2012 Richard A is currently reading it · review of another edition

Shelves: old-testament, history

This is actually an MP3 unabridged audiobook. I have gotten through the Intro and first couple of chapters. It's a very interesting book. It begins with the creation of Israel and how that affected the existence and access to the Aleppo Codex (copy of the Old Testament in Hebrew from about 980 AD), which is a significant copy of the original text of the OT.

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Jun 08, 2012 Ann Chamberlin rated it 3 of 5 stars

I found the chronology in the beginning a bit confusing. The tragedy should not have taken me by surprise. Excavating in Israel in the 70s I saw how modern "scholarship" and "nation building" bulldozed anything after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD and plastered over anything beneath King Saul "for the tourists"--read "propaganda".

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Oct 15, 2012 Sherry Fyman rated it 5 of 5 stars

About two-thirds through I started to wonder why the author was taking so much time revisiting events in the circuitous journey of this valuable manuscript. And then his story started to come together and it really took off. As the expression goes -- you can't make this stuff up. His final thesis is positively jaw-dropping.

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Jul 11, 2012 Rabbi rated it 4 of 5 stars

The book read well, like a novel. It had the feel of being well-researched but I always find real mysteries leaving me with more questions than answers. For those in the know about the Israeli academic scene, this book will also open up one's eyes to the underworld of some of the star players who are deceased.

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Oct 18, 2012 Jerry Brown rated it 4 of 5 stars

A real-life who-done-it...or maybe more appropriate, who did what?--about an ancient Jewish Bible that made its way to Israel from Syria during the 1948 turmoil created by the creation of Israel.

Makes one wonder why people of all backgrounds don't work harder to protect each other's cultural treasures.

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Jun 11, 2012 Steve Gross rated it 2 of 5 stars

Not a very well-written book. The author keeps promising dramatic secrets and never delivers. He is also endlessly fascinated that he can interview people who have memories from 1947. Much better, and with photos, is Crown of Aleppo: The Mystery of the Oldest Hebrew Bible Codex by Hayim Tawil.

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