The Jerusalem Crown The manuscript usually referred to as the Aleppo Codex (PDF 2KB) in the scientific community is also known as keter (crown; arabic taj): 'Crown of Aleppo' or 'Crown of ben Asher'. It is the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible and was written in the early 10th century in Tiberias. The vocalization signs and accentuation marks as well as the Masorah — a system of comments cross-referencing the spelling and the occurrence of particular words — were inserted by Aaron ben Asher, the most famous grammarian and scribe of his time, who, whilst doing this, also proofread it several times. Thus, due to its known textual accuracy, the keter became the most authoritative text. The codex was stolen in the 11th century and brought to Egypt. It is believed that Maimonides copied from it in Cairo when he wrote his own torah scroll. There are also indications that he referred to the Aleppo Codex when he was formulating the hilkhot sefer tora section of the Mishneh Torah, his main work. From Cairo the codex was moved to Aleppo in the 14th century where it remained in the Jewish community for more than 500 years. The community held the keter in very high esteem — there was a strong belief that the manuscript symbolized its well-being. In 1956, the Hebrew University Bible Project in Jerusalem added a further dimension to the interest in the Aleppo Codex. The project planned a scientific edition of the Bible based on the Aleppo Codex. Biblical scholars generally have been using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia which relied on the Leningrad Codex. When in 1947 anti-Jewish riots took place in Syria as a reaction to the United Nations resolution to divide Palestine and the synagogues in Aleppo were burnt, the manuscript was in great danger: Presumably damaged, it was hidden until it could be brought to Israel in 1958. Unfortunately, a considerable portion — almost the entire pentateuch — was missing. It is due to nearly 20 years of dedicated work by the renowned Scholar Rabbi Mordechai Breuer that the lost parts could be reconstructed. Keter Yerushalayim, the Jerusalem Crown, is the first edition of the Aleppo Codex as a printed Bible (Sample page PDF 1.4 MB). It was the Jerusalem publisher Nahum Ben-Zvi who originally had the idea of a book edition when the facsimile of the codex was published in 1976. A new typeface, derived from the calligraphic square script of the codex, was especially created by Zvi Narkiss. As the codex itself, the Jerusalem Crown is laid out in three columns. The census for the chapters and verses as well as the names of the weekly torah portions and their divisions for the synagogal reading were added subsequently. In a short appendix Rabbi Mordechai Breuer explains the principles of the text reproduction and lists the deviations from the Leningrad Codex. Dr. Mordechai Glatzer, a worldwide recognized expert in the history of printing, edited the companion volume (Sample chapter and table of contents PDF 2.2 MB) . It contains contributions on various aspects of the manuscript's significance and in-depth descriptions of its history. Notably Dr. Yosef Ofer's introduction to the Masorah clarifies where the codex's authority stems from and why its text can be regarded as nearly error free. The realization of the Jerusalem Crown project was made possible through the generosity of the publisher Thomas Karger and the Karger Family Fund, Basel. Contents of the Companion Volume: Thomas J. Karger: Sponsor's Personal Note Menahem Ben-Sasson: The Bible and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Nahum Ben-Zvi: The Making of a Book. Producing the Jerusalem Crown Yosef Ofer: The History and the Authority of the Aleppo Codex Yosef Ofer: The Jerusalem Crown and its Editorial Principles Mordechai Glatzer: The Book of Books — From Scroll to Codex and into Print Mordechai Glatzer: Epilogue Glossary