Sacred trash : the lost and found world of the Cairo Geniza

312 Pages·2011·14.133 MB·English

by  Adina Hoffman

$26.95 U.S.A,
$31.00 Can,
ne May day in 1896, at a dining-room
table in Cambridge, England, a meet- —
ing took place between a Romanian-
born maverick Jewish intellectual and twin |
learned Presbyterian Scotswomen, who had
assembled to inspect several pieces of rag
paper and parchment. It was the unlikely start
to what would prove a remarkable, continent-
hopping, century-crossing saga, and one that in
many ways has revolutionized our sense of
what it means to lead a Jewish life.
In Sacred Trash, MacArthur-winning poet
and translator Peter Cole and acclaimed essay-
ist Adina Hoffman tell the story of the retrieval
from an Egyptian geniza, or repository for
worn-out texts, of the most vital cache of
Jewish manuscripts ever discovered. This tale
of buried scholarly treasure weaves together
unforgettable portraits of Solomon Schechter
and the other heroes of this drama with explo-
rations of the medieval documents themselves—
letters and poems, wills and marriage contracts,
Bibles, money orders, fiery dissenting tracts,
fashion-conscious trousseaux lists, prescrip-
tions, petitions, and mysterious magical charms.
Presenting a panoramic view of nine hundred
years of vibrant Mediterranean Judaism, Hoff-
man and Cole bring modern readers into the
heart of this little-known trove, whose contents
have rightly been dubbed “the Living Sea
Scrolls.” Part biography and part meditation on
the supreme value the Jewish people has lori
placed on the written word, Sacred Trash
is above all a gripping tale of adventure and
redemption.
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2021 with funding from
Kahle/Austin Foundation
https://archive.org/details/sacredtrashlostfO00Ohoff

JEWISH ENCOUNTERS
Jonathan Rosen, General Editor
Jewish Encounters is a collaboration between Schocken and
Nextbook, a project devoted to the promotion of Jewish litera-
ture, culture, and ideas.
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POTMLS Sae ID)
THE LIFE OF DAVID - Robert Pinsky
MAIMONIDES : Sherwin B. Nuland
BARNEY ROSS - Douglas Century
BETRAYING SPINOZA ~- Rebecca Goldstein
EMMA LAZARUS - Esther Schor
THE WICKED SON - David Mamet
MARC CHAGALL -: Jonathan Wilson
JEWS AND POWER -: RuthR. Wisse
BENJAMIN DISRAELI - Adam Kirsch
RESURRECTING HEBREW «:: Ilan Stavans
THE JEWISH BODY - Melvin Konner
RASHI - Elie Wiesel
A FINE ROMANCE - David Lehman
YEHUDA HALEVI - Hillel Halkin
HILLEL - Joseph Telushkin
BURNT BOOKS - Rodger Kamenetz
THE EICHMANN TRIAL - Deborah E. Lipstadt
SACRED TRASH - Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole
FORTHCOMING
THE WORLDS OF SHOLOM ALEICHEM -: Jeremy Dauber
ABRAHAM -: Alan M. Dershowitz
MOSES - StephenJ .D ubner
BIROBIJAN - Masha Gessen
JUDAH MACCABEE -: Jeffrey Goldberg
THE DAIRY RESTAURANT -: Ben Katchor
JOB - Rabbi Harold S. Kushner
ABRAHAM CAHAN ‘:: Seth Lipsky
SHOW OF SHOWS .- David Margolick
MRS. FREUD - Daphne Merkin
DAVID BEN-GURION -: Shimon Peres and David Landau
WHEN GRANT EXPELLED THE JEWS -: Jonathan Sarna
MESSIANISM -: Leon Wieseltier

Sacred Trash