| Because of their devotion to the Torah, also | | | | Because of a long gap of time in which few |
| known as the Five Books of Moses, the Jewish | | | | fragmented pieces of papyrus and leather have |
| people have been called the People of the Book, | | | | survived, it does not appear that the Jews |
| with a reputation for lovers of scholarship and | | | | adopted the codex form for their manuscripts |
| learning. | | | | until the middle of the tenth century. |
| The oldest surviving Hebrew manuscripts that we | | | | According to Dr. Ezra Chwat, The Department |
| know of today are the Qumran scrolls also | | | | of Manuscripts/ Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew |
| known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, dated as early as | | | | Manuscripts in Jerusalem, tens of thousands of |
| circa 250 -150 BCE. These ancient scrolls, written | | | | dated and undated Hebrew manuscripts (not |
| on papyrus and parchment, included biblical | | | | including genizah fragments) have survived and |
| manuscripts, commentaries on biblical, apocryphal, | | | | can be found in collections throughout the |
| juridical, liturgical and hymnal works and even | | | | world. Nearly all have been collected in the 70,000 |
| fantasy. These ancient manuscripts are witness | | | | reels of microfilm in the Manuscripts Ept. of the |
| to the presence of the ancient Hebrews in the | | | | National Library of Israel, Jerusalem. The variety |
| land of Israel. | | | | of scripts used demonstrates the diversity of |
| There is a gap of nearly a millennium between the | | | | exiled Jews and their scribes. Differences in |
| Dead Sea Scrolls and the next dated fragments | | | | script style, shape and technique show the |
| of Hebrew manuscripts. These 9th century | | | | variations of the scribal practices in different |
| fragments were found in a Cairo genizah. There | | | | regions. |
| is a Torah prohibition against destroying the | | | | The different communities - Ashkenazi, Sephardi, |
| written name of G-d, and therefore there is a | | | | Italian, Byzantine, Yemenite and Persian- |
| special depository, called a genizah (hidden place), | | | | developed their own style of script, each of which |
| in most synagogues to store old unusable prayer | | | | could be written in a square, semi-cursive or |
| books and other text. | | | | cursive form. However, due to Anti-Semitism |
| At the beginning of the Middle Ages, Hebrew | | | | creating community upheaval via expulsion by |
| books still took the form of scrolls. However, in | | | | force or emigration by choice, Hebrew |
| the early Middle Ages, the Romans invented the | | | | manuscripts would be written in the native script |
| codex, a revolutionary format in which a number | | | | of the scribe and not necessarily that of the |
| of sheets of parchment (and later paper) were | | | | community. Eventually the manuscripts written in |
| folded and bound together to form a more | | | | single community could be written in any type. |
| compact, easily used, carried and stored book. | | | | |