The “Booklet” of Ben Sira: Codicological and Paleographical Remarks on the Cairo Genizah Fragments

Since the identification by Solomon Schechter of a leaf among the fragments from the Cairo Genizah acquired by Agnes S. Lewis and Margaret Gibson, the Hebrew Book of Ben Sira has been the object of intense scholarly interest. Further Genizah fragments belonging to six different manuscripts were discovered and used to reconstruct the Hebrew text and to compare it with the Greek and other translations and traditions. Attempts were made to explain the context of transmission of the text from antiquity to the Middle Ages. Some scholars considered that this context must have involved non-rabbinic “sectarian” Jewish groups, such as the Karaites. Surprisingly little attention has been paid so far to the manuscripts themselves, their material features and paleography. This paper is dedicated to Ben Sira as a book, as a physical object. The writing materials of the manuscripts, their formats, dimensions, script and handwritings are analyzed and then used as a source for reconstructing the milieu in which the manuscripts were copied and transmitted. Keywords: Cairo Genizah, Hebrew paleography.