Linguistic (and Historical) Geekery of the day
For those who like linguistic geekery and Jewish history: behold this fragment of a 11-12th century Byzantine manuscript from the Cairo Geniza, taken to Cambridge by Solomon Schechter at the end of the 19th century. It is Hebrew (commentaries on the first two books of the Torah) with Judeo-Greek marginal glosses in Hebrew characters, and Judeo-Greek interlinear glosses in Greek characters. And what is it that you see on the very top?
A Shirt!!! (I can also explain what it is, and the other marginal glosses/doodles, if you are interested. :)
UPDATE: so, an explanation of the shirt: the Hebrew text deals with mystical (pre-Kabbalistic, but likely in a similar vein) interpretations of services in the Temple. The square glosses to the left and bottom of the manuscript each give the name of one of the twelve tribes and a precious stone that corresponds to that tribe, indicating the Hoshen of the ha-Kohen ha-Gadol, the Great Priest. The shirt I take to be one of the special vestments of the Great Priest, most likely the efod, a vest with two k'tephot (patches) on the shoulders - which you can see illustrated; each of the k'tephot bore an onyx stone with inscriptions of the names of the twelve tribes. The thing to the right of the shirt I take to be the mitznefet (turban), which was flat, though it could also be the avnet (sash). (ETA: looking at this again, the avnet is most likely drawn at the bottom of the shirt, and the rectangular thing to the right is indeed the mitznefet).
Isn't this cool?
A Shirt!!! (I can also explain what it is, and the other marginal glosses/doodles, if you are interested. :)
UPDATE: so, an explanation of the shirt: the Hebrew text deals with mystical (pre-Kabbalistic, but likely in a similar vein) interpretations of services in the Temple. The square glosses to the left and bottom of the manuscript each give the name of one of the twelve tribes and a precious stone that corresponds to that tribe, indicating the Hoshen of the ha-Kohen ha-Gadol, the Great Priest. The shirt I take to be one of the special vestments of the Great Priest, most likely the efod, a vest with two k'tephot (patches) on the shoulders - which you can see illustrated; each of the k'tephot bore an onyx stone with inscriptions of the names of the twelve tribes. The thing to the right of the shirt I take to be the mitznefet (turban), which was flat, though it could also be the avnet (sash). (ETA: looking at this again, the avnet is most likely drawn at the bottom of the shirt, and the rectangular thing to the right is indeed the mitznefet).
Isn't this cool?
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