The Taliban Geniza?

Everyone is familiar with the concept of the "lost tribes" of Israel that were scattered to the ends of the globe. This has led many over the past few hundred years in a quest to find them; India, China, Japan...(even organizations like Shavei Yisrael that are dedicated to finding these tribes and bringing them home to Israel).

This past Friday, Israel Channel 2 news reported a startling discovery; a cave in Afghanistan, with buried scrolls, manuscripts and fragments -- of Jewish origin.

The importance of this find could even rival that of the Cairo Geniza. (The earliest example of Yiddish writing was found in the Cairo Geniza).

The JPost has the scoop:

The scholarly world is abuzz over the discovery of ancient Jewish scrolls in a cave in Afghanistan’s Samangan province.

If the scrolls are authenticated, they may be the most significant historical finding in the Jewish world since that of the Cairo Geniza in the 19th century, Channel 2 Arab affairs correspondent Ehud Ya’ari reported Friday.

“We know today about a couple of findings,” Haggai Ben- Shammai, professor emeritus of Arabic language and literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was quoted as saying.

“In all, in my opinion, there are about 150 fragments. It may be the tip of the iceberg.”

The scrolls, which were part of a geniza – a burial site for sacred Jewish texts – date from around 1,000 years ago and are in Arabic, Judeo-Arabic and ancient Persian.

One scroll, a replica of which was shown to the cameras, was apparently a dirge written for an important person whose identity has not been determined.

“Where has he gone?” reads the text. “His family members are now alone.”

Other texts said to have been found include an unknown history of the Kingdom of Judea, passages from the Book of Isaiah and some of the works of 10th-century sage Rabbi Sa’adia Gaon.

In addition, rings with names such as Shmuel Bar-Yosef inscribed in Hebrew on them have surfaced.

The area in which the scrolls were discovered is on the Silk Road, a trade route that connected eastern Asia with the Middle East and Europe, and that Jewish merchants often traveled.

Ya’ari quoted sources as saying the scrolls had first been moved to Pakistan’s Peshawar province, and from there been sold to antiquities dealers in Geneva, London, Dubai and Jerusalem. (JPost)

The analysis of the scrolls and remnants will help determine in what time frame they were buried -- is this the work of lost tribes? Travelers along the silk route to the Orient? Where did the Jewish community that buried those fragments end up?


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Great way to start the week - Shavua tov!

Indiana Jones Hat-tip to AS, who pointed me to this

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Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Srugim Billboard Ads to be placed in Geniza

Srugim billboards are plastered all over the country (Bnei Brak, Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem, Kiryat Ono, etc.) and they have raised the ire of some. If you look closely, the background image of the show's stars is composed of the writing of a Sefer Torah. Some Srugim aficionados have even gone through the entire billboard ad, and discovered that some ads also includes G-d's name in the text.


Rabbis and Askanim decried the billboards, and demanded that the YES Satellite Broadcasting company (which produces Srugim) remove the billboards immediately. They even raised the issue with the Chief Sephardic Rabbi, R' Shlomo Amar.

Not wanting to offend religious citizens (potential viewers), or damage the Srugim name, YES announced they would remove the billboards with the background Torah Images. Immediately thereafter, the "Central Organization for the Geniza of Holy Texts" voiced their concern that the removed billboards would simply be "thrown away."

The Yated Neeman newspaper reported today that YES announced that they would arrange for a proper burial of all the removed billboards in accordance with the customs of geniza, and they sincerely apologized for the mishap.

No wonder Srugim's so successful.

If you didn't personally know about religious Judaism, you would swear this was being made up.

Hat-tip: Laizy, YNET, Yated Neeman.
Photo Credit: MyRightWord

PS: This was a better ad...click for better resolution.
(Updated and translated at Lurker's request)




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Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Mad Rantings of Jameel: Targetting Parsha Sheets

Last year, the big talk of the town for Lag Ba'Omer (yes, I'm still counting with a bracha...is RenReb?) was the hypothesis that the holiday is a sham. The scholar who challenged tradition was humiliated, scorned by many, and was forced to retract his hypothesis, apologize, and he's never been heard from again.

Wondering what to write about Lag BaOmer this year, I found myself in a quandary. Its a great holiday to blog about. One of my all time favorite tiyulim took place Lag BaOmer back when I was learning in yeshiva...I could scan in those pictures and post them, show you the route of the tiyul, explain why it was one of the greatest tiyulim of all time...

I could fast-forward to the present time, and explain why my kids go insane over Lag BaOmer every year (more than most Israeli kids), and what an amazing time they have.

In the meantime, I want to share a weekly rant of mine and show it's connection to Lag BaOmer as well.

I don't know what it's like in the USA, but here in Israel, entering shul on Erev Shabbat drives me insane.

It's not because I'm perpetually late to shul on Friday evening (don't forget to Vote for Shifra's "18 minutes before Shabbat" Best Humor Post at the JIB awards over here...or for my Elvis the Drug dealer post). It has nothing to do with needing to explain every single week to my 3 year old that the candy man only gives out candy on shabbat morning in shul and not Friday night.

Rather, it's the sight of the 57 different flavors, colors and variety of Parashat HaShavua sheets on tables in the shul.

I simply, can not stand them.

What started out as a nice idea 22 years ago, has ballooned into an insane custom that results in the cutting down of thousands of trees, a huge waste of paper, and worst of all, I can't get my older kids to concentrate of Friday night davening, because they would rather sit and read these sheets and look at the ads...than daven.

I am not alone.

Besides the Friday Night mayhem in shul, comes the endless bickering...

"Where's the YESHA parasha sheet?"
"Where's Kolech" (the feminist page)?
"You read Kolech? You are SO pathetic."
"Where's the Kach and Kahana Chai pages?"
"I'll swap you a Sephardi one for that full color cruise brochure"
"You read that?!"
"Who let this dreck into shul?"
"I'm going to burn all of these after shabbat"
"Where are the Torah Tidbits -- why are they gone already?"
"Which ones are for kids? Why is there nothing for kids this week?"
"Are there any left with the pull-out Hamsa poster?"
"Is that the normal Chabad one or the crazy messianics one?"

It never ends. Apparently, Lag Ba'Omer at Har Meiron is even worse than Friday nights at my shul, and tons of parasha sheets get distributed, and then dumped everywhere, littering the mountainside.

Which led to the creation of...(and I'm not kidding, this sheet was in shul this past Friday night...)

The Va'ad Halacha for Inyanei Geniza!

You know something is serious in Israel, if there's a "Va'ad" for it (an "organization").

My MDA/Hatzala cellular walkie-talkie has a Stamp on it -- certified to have no connection to the outlawed "internet," and formally approved "Kosher" by the Va'ad of Rabbis for Kosher Communications.

Is Hot Chanie walking around Meah Shearim in a too tight skirt? The Va'ad for tzniut (modesty) will chase her out of the neighborhood faster than you can say, "Hot Chanie didn't win a JIB award." (See Shifra's Hot Chanie Field Guide...she needs only 800 more page views to hit 100,000!!)

So whats this new Va'ad about? Geniza.

(Quick Wikipedia definition: A genizah or genizaHebrew: גניזה "storage"; plural: genizot) is the store-room or depository in a synagogue, usually specifically for worn-out Hebrew-language books and papers on religious topics that were stored there before they could receive a proper cemetery burial, it being forbidden to throw away writings containing the name of God (even personal letters and legal contracts could open with an invocation of God). In practice, genizot also contained writings of a secular nature, with or without the customary opening invocation, and also contained writings in other languages that use the Hebrew alphabet (Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-Persian, Ladino, Yiddish).

So because tons and tons of pages with G-d's name on it are being dumped everywhere, this Va'ad has decided to outlaw ALL PARSHA SHEETS this coming Lag BaOmer at Har Meiron!


Now if only we could outlaw all parasha sheets in shul, I'd be a much happier camper. (This may sound rather grinchy of me...but I can rant, right?)

A Happy Lag BaOmer to all....though I still need to post a bit later with more endorsements for the JIBs and the best posts.

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