Description - Sacred Trash by Adina Hoffman
Now in paperback, the dramatic story behind the discovery and reclamation of nine hundred years' worth of discarded Hebrew texts--parchment fragments of the Bible and Talmud, medieval poetry, legal and commercial documents, medical writings, and personal accounts of everyday middle-class life--rescued from a decaying manuscript repository in a once-vibrant Cairo synagogue.
NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD FINALIST
WINNER OF THE 2012 AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION'S SOPHIE BRODY AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN JEWISH LITERATURE
Sacred Trash tells the remarkable story of the Cairo Geniza-a synagogue repository for worn-out texts that turned out to contain the most vital cache of Jewish manuscripts ever discovered.
This tale of buried communal treasure weaves together unforgettable portraits of Solomon Schechter and the other modern heroes responsible for the collection's rescue with explorations of the medieval documents themselves-letters and poems, wills and marriage contracts, Bibles, money orders, fiery dissenting religious tracts, fashion-conscious trousseaux lists, prescriptions, petitions, and mysterious magical charms. Presenting a pan-oramic view of almost a thousand years of vibrant Mediterranean Judaism, Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole bring contemporary readers into the heart of this little-known trove, whose contents have rightly been dubbed "the Living Sea Scrolls." Part biography, part meditation on the supreme value the Jewish people has long placed in the written word, Sacred Trash is above all a gripping tale of adventure and redemption.
(With black-and-white illustrations throughout.)
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