Studies in Judaism : Second series / by S. Schechter.

  • Schechter, S. (Solomon), 1847-1915.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Studies in Judaism : Second series / by S. Schechter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    cemetery, or hid them in some sort of shed adjoining the synagogue. Happily for us, this process of “ hiding ” was not confined to dead or worn-out books alone. In the course of time the Genizah extended its protection to what we may call (to carry on the simile) invalid books ; that is, to books which by long use or want of care came to be in a defective state, sheets being missing at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end, and which were thus disqualified for the common pur- poses of study. Another class of works consigned to the Genizah were what we may call disgraced books, books which once pretended to the rank of Scriptures, but were found by the authorities to be wanting in the qualification of being dictated by the Holy Spirit. They were “hidden.” Hence our term “Apocrypha” for writings excluded from, or never admitted into, the Canon. Of course, such books came into the Genizah in a sound condition; but the period at which synods and councils were able to test the somewhat indefinable quality of inspiration is now so remote that these “external works” have met, by reason of long neglect, with the same fate of decom- position that awaited sacred books, by reason of long and constant use. Besides these sacred and semi-sacred books the Genizah proved a refuge for a class of writings that never aspired to the dignity of real books, but are none the less of the greatest importance for Jewish history. As we know, the use of the sacred language