^**w. 
 
 
 A Scroll of the Law Supposed 
 to have been Written by 
 j^airv>o>^^ies 
 
 --«>—■ --^A,' ■.■■^: 
 
 By 
 
 S. Roubin
 
 niin -)SD 
 
 yn mns 
 
 niDDn pD''D p n^D '3-i 
 
 A SCROLL OF THE LAW 
 
 SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN WEITTEN BY 
 
 MAIMONIDES. 
 
 EXPLANATIONS BY 
 
 DR. S. ROUBIN 
 
 SAN FBANCISCO, CAL. 
 
 U. S. or AMERICA. 

 
 
 EX LIBRIS 
 
 SAJJ CA RLOS 1/69 
 
 ROBERT ERNEST COWAN 
 
 i 
 *
 
 nnin isd 
 
 yi 3inD 
 
 nisDn ]))2'')2 p nt:;D 'dh 
 
 A SCROLL OF THE LAW 
 
 SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN WmTTEN BY 
 
 MAIMONIDES. 
 
 EXPLANATIONS BY 
 
 DR. S. ROUBIN 
 
 SUTK.O LIBK.jPLP2.lir 
 SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. 
 
 U. S. OF AMERICA.
 
 M. WEISS, 
 
 BOOK AND JOB PRINTK.R, 
 
 San Francisco, Cai,. 
 
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 PREFATORY. 
 
 IT may not be amiss to call the attention of all, to whom 
 -^this pamphlet is sent, to the foundation of the great 
 Sutro Library. 
 
 It is one of the largest collections of scientific and tech- 
 nical works, a veritable monument, in which all the labor 
 of the human mind since the earliest centuries up to this 
 date, is centered. The owner, Adolph Sutro, Esq. intends 
 to place this collection into a fire-proof building on one of 
 TO the most beautiful and attractive sites of the city, near 
 '- Golden Gate Park, and bequeath it with his blessing to 
 ^ posterit}'. 
 
 Q= In 1881, after many years of arduous labor on the Com- 
 
 ^ stock lode, Nevada, Mr. Sutro felt at liberty to gratify his 
 5 long projected plan of visiting the Orient. He made a 
 o very extended tour around the world, visiting China, Japan, 
 India, Palestine and Europe. To gratify another projected 
 scheme, that of establishing in San Francisco a free reference 
 library of scientific and technical literature, he collected 
 while travelling, all books, documents and curiosities worthy 
 of consideration, and being himself a man of high educa- 
 tion and of taste, his selections were intelligently made. 
 
 In December 1881, at various auction sales, amongst 
 them that of the great Sunderland library owned by the late 
 Duke of Marlborough, Mr. Sutro bought several thousand 
 volumes, and about '25 000 pamphlets and broadsides relat- 
 ing to the Avar between Charles I and the Parliament. This 
 collection, extending through the Cromwelian period to the 
 landing of the Prince of Orange, may be considered unique 
 in the United States. Mr. Sutro also bought largely at the 
 sale of the librarv of the Duke of Hamilton. 
 
 262806
 
 IV. 
 
 In Germany he made several large and important pur- 
 chases ; about 13,000 volumes from the Koyal Bavarian 
 library in Munich ; 9,000 volumes from the Carthusian Mon- 
 astery in Buxheim, and 6,000 volumes from the library of 
 the Duke of Dahlberg, Augsburg. During his stay in Europe 
 on this occasion, about 100,000 volumes were secured. Be- 
 tween this and his next visit to Europe in 1889, over 75,000 
 volumes were purchased through an agent in London. 
 
 In March, 1889, Mr. Sutro again started for Europe, via 
 Mexico, and in the City of Mexico made a purchase of about 
 13,000 volumes. On the day after his arrival in London, on 
 this occasion, he attended a sale of books and bought several 
 thousand volumes from the library of the late Frederick 
 Perkins of Chipstead place, Kent. This purchase was 
 largely drama and the fine arts. Since his return from this 
 second trip, several purchases of whole catalogues have been 
 made, among the latter the library of the late Kev. S. M. 
 Schiller Szinessy, Eeader of Talmudic literature in the 
 university of Cambridge, England, and also of the library 
 of the late Eev. G. Wells, Secretary of the Society of In- 
 dustrial Chemistry of England. The military library of San 
 Francisco has also been purchased. 
 
 The Sutro Library has now about 200,000 volumes, 
 amongst them books of the earliest editions, old MSS. in 
 many languages some illuminated, besides a great number of 
 antiquities in the line of numismatics, Egyptology, &c. 
 Relics from different parts of the world are stored up by 
 Mr. Sutro on the far western coast.
 
 INTRODUCTOEY EEMARKS. 
 
 Amongst the many valual)le MSS. possessed by the Sutro 
 Library of San Francisco, Cal., United States of America, 
 there are many scrolls upon which the Pentateuch is in- 
 scribed, which are of undoubted antiquity. One of these 
 scrolls is supposed to be the one mentioned by Mairaonides 
 
 in his codex CNn'' ]?2'D 12 '5 n'\')n ")3D mD^^H Hmn HX'O) 
 as having been written by himself. 
 
 In the following lines 1 venture to express my opinion re- 
 garding the authenticity of this scroll, emphasizing however 
 that I am submitting nothing that exceeds the barrier of a 
 tlieory, and that I have no convictions in the matter that can- 
 not be modified by the riper knowledge of European Archae- 
 ologists. 
 
 In the quoted passage from the Mishne Torah, Maimouides 
 speaks as follows : 
 
 p'D'CD ^1 '?3 nmi irrxn ni't:n wn ni^iin m;^Di'^^ 
 •D^c'Dm nnN* qii ^i '?:)d::' pD^cn p::i mr^VN nc-'sr 
 ^liixi -^1 nncy^ nc*t:n dmn!: ifion '^dS::' p^in pjDi 
 : Dn^pD nu'^VN* nc'C') wcc) nw:: rScn fi'^N itDon ^d 
 n'?nn3r jr'?:!'? pDcn^ nnnM mr^VN ccm i^v 
 
 ' ' The scroll of the Law which I myself have written con- 
 tains 226 columns of 51 lines each; the width of each column 
 is four fingers, (taking the Ezba as the width of the knuckle 
 of the middle finger). The Avidth of the columns on which 
 the Song of the Sea and the Song of Warnings are written, 
 is six fingers. The length of the whole scroll is 1366 fingers.
 
 — 6 — 
 
 The remaining six lingers* — after deducting the quantum of 
 226x6-|-2x2 — are for the marginal space at the beginning and 
 the end of the scroll. The hides on which the scroll is writ- 
 ten are buckskins. 
 
 The Sutro Scroll in question corresponds in every detail 
 with these ritual suggestions. 
 
 II. 
 
 PECULIAKITIES. 
 
 The correspondence of the arrangements of the columns 
 alone Avould not be sufficient ground wliereupon to base a 
 theory of the genuineness of the scroll, if there were not also 
 some peculiarities in the mode of writing aud shape of the 
 letters and certain derogations from the usual ritualistic laws 
 controlling the writing of a scroll for the use of the Syna- 
 gogue. Maimonides wrote a scroll for the purpose of serving 
 as a sample to other scribes and to illustrate the twenty rules 
 
 laid down by him. See ^-\''Cy '£} r\"D n):i''?n' 
 
 All the usual embellishments introduced by the scribes 
 
 *^nD1Dn fD mVD^ are left out in the scroll before us, for 
 instance: the crowns (pJiri) are altogether omitted; the mar- 
 gins between the columns are not always exactly two fingers 
 wide; neither majusculae nor minusculae are to be found. 
 
 The Cpii of i^')p>^ {Leviticus I: I ); the "tV of 'C'H 
 {Deutoronomy XXXII : 18) and others, are not smaller than 
 the other letters, nor are the VI of pflJl {Leviticus XI: 42) 
 and the IV of SlJ» {Numbers XIV: 18) bigger. The above 
 mentioned twenty rules are strictly observed and no other 
 rule is recognized. 
 
 In a great many places there are to be found, on the right 
 hand margins, three points of the shape of a tonic segolta 
 (.*.). A close examination convinced me that they indicate 
 the seven subdivisions of the weekly sections DHID' These 
 
 "See n''J1^''"'0 mnjn l. c where there is a just objeutiou to these diiueu- 
 sions. The glossiirist tinds only 4 fingers reuiMiuing, (after luy caleulatiou I 
 find 10 fingers for there can only be accounted for 225 colniuns).
 
 differ vvidel}' from the usual subdivisions — I found the same 
 order of division in many old MS8. of the Pentateuch {pos- 
 sessed by the Sutro Library) which bear the mark of the ritual 
 of the Arabian Jews who followed the codex of Maimonides, 
 and in which MSS. the jlVJinDI mmn^ are also regulated 
 after Maimonides's system. From the glosses to one of those 
 MSS. which appears to be a copy of the Sutro scroll {see 
 ch. VI-) is to be learned that there are three kinds of sub- 
 divisions of the weekly sections regulated respectively by 
 Ezra, the Gaonim and Maimonides, and at some future time I 
 intend to publish the characteristic differences between 
 them. 
 
 It is obvious to me that those points have been put there 
 by the same hand and are written with the same ink as the 
 rest of the MS. Those points may be considered as very 
 strong presumptive evidence establishing the integrity of the 
 whole as being written b}^ Maimonides, for no one else Avould 
 have allowed himself the liberty of putting points in a scroll 
 destined for ritual use. The purpose he had in view with 
 this notation is obvious. Every scholar in studying the 
 Codex might, at first sight, wonder at the forgetfulness of the 
 teacher to indicate the subdivisions of the weekly sections 
 DHID* He who has to control and note every ritualistic 
 rule should not have omitted such an important suggestion. 
 "We might infer from this fact that the scroll in question 
 belongs in point of fact to the original manuscript of the 
 Tyy\r\ nju*^ and is an intrinsic part thereof. 
 
 III. 
 
 SHAPE OF THE LETTERS. 
 
 The letters are of peculiar form; the {<3 has no tongue 
 entering out of the D but a small line coming down from the 
 head; the HV and j'^f are similar to those met wdth in older 
 MSS. coming from the Orient. The DO /ND and t]1p are 
 strikingly similar to those met with in the famous letter rec- 
 ognized to be the genuine manuscript of Maimonides, a fac-
 
 — 8 — 
 simile of wbich is given in the Ginze Oxford by M. H. 
 Bresslau. The VI is sometimes shapeless; the 10^ is formed 
 of a ti'n with a IV on the top. There are NtJ's which are 
 mfitiD'? and jl^H's which are ni!:"lpi'- (Those NtD's and n^H's 
 are also noted in many MSS. of the Pentateuch [possessed 
 by the Sutro Library] which are copies of this scroll and 
 seem to have been written as samples for scribes and to 
 preserve the maimonidian version.) 
 
 The hand of the unskilled and unprofessional scribe is 
 conspicuous everywhere in this scroll. The lines are not 
 evenly parallel, nor are the letters regularly vertical. The 
 work shows rapid execution, as if the writer cared more for 
 illustration of points than for calligraphic beauty and 
 neatness. 
 
 ly. 
 
 DIMENSIONS OF THE SCROLL. 
 
 The scroll has a height of 22 inches; each column is 15 to 
 16 inches high and 5 inches in width — the spaces included — 
 the length of the whole is 1090 inches ; the height is exactly 
 equal to the circumference. 
 
 Three fingers width are left as margin at the end. A piece 
 of skin is attached and stitched to it for the use of the roller; 
 this is in accordance vvith Maimonides's indication about the 
 margins. 
 
 The color of the hides is like that of papyrus, or similar 
 to the binding of a book in fair calf after fifty years wear 
 and exposure. The hides are stiff and brittle. 
 
 V. 
 
 SECTIONS niDinD") mninfi 
 
 The sections respectively bear the marks of the system of 
 Maimonides. One of the sections embarrassed the glossa- 
 rists nX'D i^DD and n*3^!:*^t^ r\^n:in namely that of LevitL 
 cus VII. 22. The 'T'OC* 'tD n"D mrD^n nprnn T says: 
 
 nz'iKn n-nn r\'^\^ .pnN* ^k n^-ii iDin ']'2'\'p r\n i^m 
 nam ^yspr^n Sn^i:'* 'jd "^n nun nDin .hd? niin nN*n
 
 — 9 — 
 
 Both glossavists agree that there must be an omission of 
 D'^n ^Dl "IDT^I and an error, that instead of Ct^ (ITl there 
 ought to be ^3C' [ni. In an old nptnH "1* printed in Con- 
 stantinople on parchment in the year 1509 — there occur in 
 deed the words )^'2C jm. But as in the scroll under discus- 
 sion and in many MSS. which bear the marks of the system 
 of Maimonides as far as the m^DinDI mninfi are concerned. 
 
 2^n '^Dl "l^TI is only noted as a IimntD, I looked for an 
 explanation of this curious discrepancy in six old MSS. of 
 the UpTnn 1^ written respectively in the years 1373, 1386, 
 1390 (possessed also hy the Sutro Library) ; and in them I found 
 neither ^Sh '?:)! "^^in nor n'"ip::ni '^yV^ but merely 
 "^NX'* ^JD ^N "1311 "ID"?^*! by which is meant the 22d 
 verse, and also the words ti*C'|rn. It is evident there- 
 from that there is an error in all the printed editions of the 
 
 n'p\ur\ ^\ (See 'c* nnit:.) 
 
 The Song of l^'TNIl is in this scroll condensed into 67 lines 
 instead of written in 70 as it is ordered in the npilin l^* 
 This derogation puzzled me very much, the more so, because 
 I found in the old MSS. of the Pentateuch mentioned above, 
 also only 67 lines. (See »C^ nnit2). 
 
 I found a solution in the already quoted old MSS. of 
 the nprnn T where the following words n^l^C* fOniDI 
 
 niD^C* D^u'u'l rX'D TiNm are to be found, and really all 
 the initial words given in illustration correspond exactly 
 with those of the scroll and of the MSS. In the old printed 
 Constantinople parchment is also given D^^''2C yet there is 
 a restriction by the glossarist CD '£3 H^^TtD^rtD mnjn) 
 
 o N*Dn x:nn xp amy "idi qi "^^ ^nn mj<n ni*t:*i 
 : r\yc'c* dtx'I y3t:'D ]''2r\^^ irr^n ni^ti'r y^^^ iJ^nD 
 
 We see therefore conclusively from these two facts that the 
 printed codices vary materially from the MSS.
 
 — 10 — 
 VI. 
 
 SCRIPTIO PLENA ET DEFECTIVA ")Dm ^^!2' 
 
 I examined all the words wliicli are under massoretic dis- 
 cussion, with regard to tlieir spelling full or defective, by the 
 oriental and the occidental schools on the one hand, and by 
 the Hileliau and the Jerusaleinite versions on the other hand, 
 and I found that this scroll gives credit to the Jerusaleinite 
 version, except when the Hilelian is seconded by the best 
 authorities. 
 
 I noticed furthermore a very remarkable thing. One of 
 the MSS. (possessed by the Sutro Library) of the Pentateuch 
 with both nilD!3 (magna et parva) written in zigzag shape 
 on the margins, corresponds exactly with this scroll with re- 
 gard to plena et defeftiva, m^^iriDI mmni, subdivisions 
 of the weekly sections ; mGlsS N5 mDlpI* D^ni and 
 finally to the initials and ultimates of the columns, i. e. those 
 words which are either the initials or the ultimates of the col- 
 umns in the scroll are also respectively the same in the MS. 
 But as the scroll has 51 lines to the column and the MS. has 
 only 20 to the column, the writer of the MS. has condensed 
 the contents of the 51 lines of the scroll into 50, so that the 
 11th line of every third page is the first line of every second 
 column of the scroll; and the first line of every sixth page is 
 the first line of every third column of the scroll. 
 
 It might be deduced from this remarkable coincidence 
 that the MS. is a true copy of the scroll. 
 
 The MS. appears to be very old, and has been restored 
 several times, once recently in the orient, as the scraps of 
 paper with which it has been mended look new, and some 
 bear an Arabic manufacturer's stamp. It is so carefully 
 mended that even wherever a letter appears to be damaged 
 there is to be found the substitution of the Avhole Avord, 
 either between the words or on the margin. From this fact 
 it may be supposed that the possessor of the MS. attached 
 a great value to it knowing- its great importance. The MS. 
 is gramatically and raassoretically the most carefully execu-
 
 — 11 — 
 
 ted piece of work, there is not a poiut omitted ; the m£3"1 
 are marked by a line on the top. 
 
 It contains also, as a preface, a treatise on the orthography 
 of the Hebrew language; and on the D''*2^*l2l all the marked 
 differences between Ben Asher's and Ben Naphtaly's ver- 
 sions; all the words which are Hp N7T yn^ and X^l Hp 
 ^^riDl the number of the letters of the Pentateuch in an 
 alphabetical form after R. Saadia; finally all the words which 
 have an nn5 with pIDS ^|1D"I HIIN*.* 
 
 Unfortunately there is neither name of writer nor date to 
 be found. 
 
 In that same MS. in Exodus XXV, are quoted two pas- 
 sages of the rrnn njJi^^S referring to the lamp of the tab- 
 ernacle, 
 
 ("ID 'f2 ':ii)"l 'n^ '0 'N*£3 HTH^n iTD 'H miD;^ -)3D) 
 This quotation of the second passage {')12 '0 J'fl) diifers 
 with the printed n^^nT] 1* in regard to the spelling of a 
 word, tharof D'n")D which means, after ^"Cn in I'HD mTOO 
 the name of a place, whereas in the MS. is written D'^m"lD 
 as it is in JD mm!: and in the "|n;^ (HliDn p^) and in two 
 MSS. of the nmn njt^'D which signifies cypress, the name 
 of a tree- 
 
 I found afterwards four more MSS. of the Pentateuch 
 which are also copies of the Maimonides scroll. All these 
 MSS. are noting every peculiarity of the scroll, even when a 
 letter is of an unusual shape. 
 
 "Many reasons induce me to suppose that this treatise had for author Abou- 
 l-Walid,Mervan Ibn Jauah and has been probably translated by Ibn Esra. 
 There is twice quoted the name of a book nmpn (probably nnplH by Chiug.) 
 It is an opuscule of 52 pages in 4o. The Sutro library is in possession of 
 three of this treatises, each attached to a MS. of the Pentateuch. The same 
 Massorah is attached to these MSS. and seem to have had for author the same 
 as that of the treatise. 
 
 To one of those MSS. is attached one more opuscule in Arabic treating 
 D^)0yt31 IIPJ (pi'obably by Jehuda Chiug), we have also three copies of the 
 latter. It is an opuscule of 17 pages in 4o.
 
 • 
 
 — 12 — 
 VII. 
 
 CONDITION OF THE SCEOLL. 
 
 The first nine columns are missing altogether, until Gen- 
 esis X : 18. 
 
 Four columns containing Genesis, from XXXV: 27 to 
 XXXIX : 10, are completed by a later writer, who essays a 
 faithful imitation of the original ; these are written on a hide 
 
 of red tanned leather (D^DIJ^D). Seven columns containing 
 Genesis, from XLI: 57 to XLVII: 16, are completed by a 
 comparatively recent hand, the writing being very nice, 
 markedly different from the original, on two fresh hides of 
 red tanned leather. (I discovered this section in a segrega- 
 ted condition, and no casual looker at it would have assumed 
 that it represents a substitution for the missing section of 
 the original scroll). 
 
 Fifteen columns containing Exodus, from VIII : 16 to 
 XXI: 26, are completed in a very old hand entirely similar 
 to the original, and even the section points mentioned above 
 are not omitted. The color of the hides on which those 15 
 columns are written are somewhat different from the original 
 — a little brighter. From the seams it can be judged that 
 the original 15 columns must have been in a very bad con- 
 dition, so that they needed restoration in order to preserve 
 such a document. 
 
 Two columns containing Exodus, from XXXIV: 23 to 
 XXXVI: 3, are also completed by another writer on red 
 tanned leather, and spaced in between the first and fourth 
 columns of one hide; ^ the writing differs from the original. 
 
 After a careful examination I have come to the conclusion 
 that the four restorations have taken place at four different 
 times very distant from each other, and probably by people 
 who knew the real value of the document. 
 
 *Sucli a kind of restoratiou makes the scroll to be excluded from the service 
 of the Synagogue, it is to be infered from this fact that the restorations was 
 more intended for the preservation of the scroll than for using it in the 
 Synagogue.
 
 — 13 — 
 VTTl. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE SCROLL. 
 
 The scroll belongs to a collection of antiquities once owned 
 by Shapiro, who some years ago obtained considerable noto- 
 riety for having tried to sell a supposed rare document of the 
 ten commandments to the museums of Europe for a very 
 high price, and who afterwards committed suicide after fail- 
 ing in his attempt, when the document had been denounced 
 as a fraud by the best experts. Mr. Adolph Sutro, while in 
 Jerusalem in the year 1884, casually learned from the Ger- 
 man consul at that place, that Shapiro had hypothecated his 
 antiquities with two bankers and that the latter were eager 
 to dispose of them, as Shapiro was then dead. Mr. Sutro 
 accordingly became the purchaser of about 150 MSS, most 
 of which are valuable relics from the Orient. The collection 
 consists mainly of 31 Pentateuchs with Arabic and Chaldaic 
 translations, some with ^b'"Ts and other commentaries and 
 nniDtD; 24 volumes of niin IUJ^'D some with Arabic com- 
 mentaries; 9 DHTID with poems by Jehuda Halevy, Solomon 
 ben Gabirol, Ibn Ezra and others; 25 different copies of 
 the ^njil tini*D a work very little known in the Jewish 
 literary world, never printed, but now being edited, I be- 
 lieve by Mr. Schechter, and many others. (A catalogue of 
 these various MSS. will shortly be published). 
 
 I question whether Shapiro knew the real value of the 
 scroll he possessed, if so, he would undoubtedly have spoken 
 of the matter to some of the archaeologists of Europe. 
 
 IX. 
 
 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 All the statements T have entered here are the results of a 
 close examination. Many eminent Hebrew scholars of San 
 Francisco corroborated them in a meeting called for that 
 purpose on February the 26tli of the present year. They 
 remain only to be verified by some of the renowned arch-
 
 — 14- 
 
 aeologists of Europe and America. For that purpose this 
 pamiDhlet, with a fac- simile of three columns, of about nine 
 tenths of the full size, is forwarded to the leading librarians 
 and archaeologists, and is at the service of every person 
 who is acquainted with such matters. 
 
 All are kindly requested to give in their opinion as to the 
 value of the scroll, as no scholar in San Francisco, including 
 the writer of this pamphlet, has deemed it right to express a 
 final and conclusive opinion, without availing themselves of 
 the wider knowledge and broader experience of eminent 
 experts.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below 
 
 '^94' 
 
 ^•^S 
 
 Form L-9-15to-2,'36 
 
 tTNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 AT 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 T rrj-o A Tt-xr
 
 a.i^wv X\.\^UI>/XXi. 
 
 R75S A scroll of the 
 
 law supposed to 
 have b een written by- 
 Ma imonides"^ 
 
 U';,SOyTHERf\J RtGIOIMAL LIBR/> 
 
 AA 000 642 86^ 
 
 <JJ^!^^^tK!! 
 
 -JAW-6