NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD FINALIST
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.
One May day in 1896, at a dining-room table in Cambridge, England, a meeting 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 that has in many ways revolutionized our understanding of Jewish history, religion, and culture.
In Sacred Trash, MacArthur-winning poet and translator Peter Cole and acclaimed essayist Adina Hoffman tell the story of the retrieval from an Egyptian geniza a 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 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 panoramic view of nine hundred years of vibrant Mediterranean Judaism, Hoffman and Cole bring modern readers into the heart of this little-known trove, whose contents have rightly been dubbed the Living Sea Scrolls.
(With black-and-white illustrations throughout.)
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
ADINA HOFFMAN is the author of several books, including House of Windows: Portraits from a Jerusalem Neighborhood and Till We Have Built Jerusalem: Architects of a New City. She was named one of the inaugural (2013) winners of the Windham Campbell Literature Prize.
PETER COLE's most recent book of poems is The Invention of Influence. His award-winning translations include The Poetry of Kabbalah: Mystical Verse from the Jewish Tradition. He was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2007."About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
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