Jewish Ideas Daily review: Alex Joffe

The Aleppo Codex and the Ownership of Tradition  Sept. 12, 2012 The Torah belongs to all Jews and, indeed, to anyone who cares to learn and live its ways. But it is not transparent.  Copyists make errors.  Torah scrolls lack vowels, making pronunciation and meaning uncertain. Matti Friedman’s new book The Aleppo Codex tells the story of the oldest and most authoritative …

Radio West Interview

August 2, 2012 KUER Radio West (Salt Lake City) Interviewer: Doug Fabrizio Around 930 CE, the most perfect copy of the Hebrew Bible was written. Over the centuries, it was stolen by Crusaders, ransomed to Egypt and eventually found a home in Syria, where it was protected by the Jewish community in Aleppo. Today it’s in Jerusalem, but how it …

Haaretz review: Stephanie Saldaña

And the codex was not consumed By Stephanie Saldaña, 06.08.12 Eight years ago, when I was living as a student in the Christian Quarter of Damascus, I would often wander across Straight Street to the Jewish Quarter of the city. Still known as Harat al-Yahud by the local residents, its narrow alleys were haunted with vacant houses and entire sections of …

New York Times “6th Floor” Q&A

  Matti Friedman on the Unsolved Mystery of the Aleppo Codex By JOEL LOVELL   Ronen Bergman’s article in our July 25 issue on the Aleppo Codex was occasioned and informed by the recent publication of “The Aleppo Codex: A True Story of Obsession, Faith and the Pursuit of an Ancient Bible,” by the Israeli-Canadian journalist Matti Friedman. Several readers …

New York Times: A High Holy Whodunit

A note from Matti: On July 25th, 2012, The New York Times Magazine published a story on the Aleppo Codex, headlined “A High Holy Whodunnit.” The article included several references to my book, The Aleppo Codex, but did not make clear to readers that the entire article was based on parts of the book. Responding to a complaint from my …

Weekend Bookworm review (Brisbane, Australia)

The Aleppo Codex is one of the books that is a struggle to classify. It is a great thriller, a fascinating piece of history, a captivating human drama and a beautiful study of religion and politics which will appeal to atheists and the apolitical alike. It is the true story the most perfect copy of the Hebrew Bible, written in …

The Advocate review: Carole Anne Blitzer

In the city of Tiberias on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee around the year 930 A.D., the swift scribe Shlomo Ben-Buya’a under the direction of the scholar Aaron Ben-Asher created a perfect copy of 24 books of the Old Testament in Hebrew. The codex, or book, represented generations of study and was meant to be a reference …

Jewish Tribune review: Paul Shaviv

TORONTO – Toronto-born Jerusalem journalist Matti Friedman has published a cracking good yarn. If you like historical detective stories or mysteries, The Aleppo Codex is an excellent example of the genre – and it’s not even fiction. Anyone who looks into the history of the text of the Hebrew Bible very quickly comes across the work of the Masoretes, rabbinical …

Maclean’s Review: Brian Bethune

Many medieval manuscripts have obscure pasts, but the Aleppo codex has a history that only became murky in the 20th century. A bound copy of the Tanakh (the Hebrew bible) more than a thousand years old, the codex was always considered the most authoritative representative of the tradition by which the Jewish Scriptures have been preserved. We know when and …

ForeWord Review: Claire Posner

The Aleppo Codex is part historical exposé, part international thriller, and part meditation on the passions awakened by religion and religious artifacts. In this book, Matti Friedman carefully outlines the epic journey of The Crown of Aleppo, the most perfect copy of the Jewish Torah. The Crown was inscribed in 930 AD by the scholar Aaron Ben-Asher and is thought …