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Genizah

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A genizah (or geniza; Hebrew: "storage"; plural: genizot or genizoth or genizahs) is the store-room or depository in a synagogue (or cemetery), 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, Judeo-Spanish, Yiddish).

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A genizah (or geniza; Hebrew: "storage"; plural: genizot or genizoth or genizahs) is the store-room or depository in a synagogue (or cemetery), 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, Judeo-Spanish, Yiddish). This custom also included the periodic solemn gathering of the contents of the geniza, which were then buried in the cemetery or "bet ḥayyim." Synagogues in Jerusalem buried the contents of their genizot every seventh year, as well as during a year of drought, believing that this would bring rain. This custom is associated with the far older practice of burying a great or good man with a "sefer" which has become "pasul" (unfit for use through illegibility or old age). In Morocco, in Algiers, in Turkey, and even in Egypt, such paper-interments had been practiced. By far, the best-known genizah, which is famous for both its size and spectacular contents, is the Cairo Geniza, discovered in 1864 by Jacob Saphir, and chiefly studied by Solomon Schechter and Shlomo Dov Goitein.