Last update - 00:00 03/12/2006
Anonymous contribution keeps Bar-Ilan U. Bible project afloat
By Ofri Ilani, Haaretz Correspondent
The first attempt in 500 years to update the Bible was in danger of being eliminated by continued budget cuts at Bar-Ilan University, but was saved at the last minute by an anonymous contribution.
On the shelf in Professor Menachem Cohen's office at Bar-Ilan University sit nine volumes of an edition of the Bible with numerous commentaries known as Mikra'ot Gedolot.
Over the last 15 years, Cohen, 78, edited this edition, which includes the books of Genesis, Joshua, Judges, Ezekiel and Psalms, and, shortly, Exodus.
The traditional version of Mikra'ot Gedolot is based on an edition that was printed in Venice in the 16th century by Yaakov Ben-Haim.
However, that version contains numerous errors, which crept in over the generations.
"You read this and you don't understand a word," Cohen says, as he points out a verse and its commentary by Rabbi Levi Ben Gershon (the Ralbag) that describes the Temple windows.
"Suddenly in the Ben-Haim version almost 600 words are missing - a whole page was torn out. But they continued to copy it and skipped over it without noticing," Cohen says. "Ben-Haim did good work illuminating the Mikra'ot Hagedolot, but he worked in a hurry. And so in the books people have at home, there are hundreds of thousands of mistakes in the commentaries, and perhaps 1,500 mistakes in the version of the Bible itself. I decided that we cannot bequeath such a faulty version to future generations."
To overcome the textual errors in the biblical verses, Cohen and his assistants use the Aleppo Codex, the most ancient version of the traditional Hebrew Bible known as the Masoretic text.
The codex was written in Tiberias more than 1,000 years ago. It was then transfered to Egypt where Maimonides used it.
Subsequently, it migrated to Aleppo, Syria, where it was preserved by the Jewish community for hundreds of years. Although it was partially damaged in a fire in 1948, it eventually arrived in Israel and is on display at the Shrine of the Book in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
The research students taking part in the project go over the text word by word to identify changes. Among other things, they correct Rashi's commentary, distinguishing between authentic commentaries and statements that were added over the years.
The result has been the publication of one volume every year. The project has won praise from Jewish scholars across the board, from secular to ultra-Orthodox experts.
Although Bar-Ilan University considers the research its flagship project, due to the decision last month to cut budgets to higher education, the university informed those working on the project that it would have to be closed because of its high cost.
Intense efforts all through last week by the university finally bore fruit when a donor was found to contribute the approximately $250,000 needed to finance the project for the coming year.
"In the period of David Ben-Gurion, the state saw projects involving the Bible and the sources as national projects," Yerach Tal, advisor to Bar-Ilan University President Moshe Kaveh, who dealt with the funding issue, says. "Now if someone has funding, it is mainly for science projects. For years we carried this project, despite its high cost. But with cuts swelling, there's no choice and you have to start closing projects."
The university is now working to raise the additional money - estimated at about $1 million, to see the project through to completion. "We are even ready to name the next volume after the individual who is ready to contribute," Tal says.