New Trustees For Ancient Sefer Torah of the Rambam

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A special bais din appointed new members to the board of trustees that is officially in charge of the ancient Keter Aram Tzuva Torah scroll presumably used by the Rambam when he wrote hilchos Sefer Torah in Yad Hachazokah. Most of the former members have passed away.

Headed by Professor Ayal Jino of the Ben Tzvi Institute, the new board includes Chief Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef, Hebrew University President Professor Menachem Ben-Sasson, Rav Yaakov Yedid, a leader of the Aleppo community in Brooklyn, and Rav Avraham Dayan of the Aleppo community in Sao Paolo.

Syria’s Aleppo community guarded the sefer for centuries before it was smuggled to Israel in 1958, by which time major parts of it were lost.

{Matzav.com Israel News Bureau}


2 COMMENTS

  1. This article is very simplistic. First of all, we’re not sure if this is really the one the Rambam refers to. The Jews of Aleppo certainly thought it was, but obviously they wanted to believe it was. Second, to say “major parts of it were lost” is kind of beating around the bush. A fire broke out in the shul where it was kept, and community members, fearing it would be burnt, ripped pages off of it. This was in part because they treated it almost like an amulet. Over the ensuing decades, some of the “burnt” and “lost” pages made there way back to the museum, as a result of thieves’ guilt.

  2. The Aleppo Codex is not a Sefer Torah. A Codex is more similar to a Tanach. The Rambam references having written the 24 sifrei Tanach based on the sefer of Ben Asher, which the Aleppo Codex is considered by most to be.

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