A Mishnah/Sifra palimpsest from the Cairo Geniza

GENIZA FRAGMENT OF THE MONTH (APRIL 2025): A Hidden Layer of Sifra beneath the Mishnah: A Hebrew Palimpsest in the Cairo Genizah, T-S E2.51 (Elyashiv Cherlow).

Cambridge University Library T-S E2.51 preserves an early Eastern version of the Mishnah, Tractate Pesaḥim. The upper part of the same parchment leaf, housed at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, Heb. C. 27/27, contains the conclusion of Tractate ʿEruvin. Both pieces have been catalogued and occasionally cited for textual variants.1 Yet one striking feature has gone unnoticed: this leaf is a Hebrew palimpsest.

On the verso of the Cambridge fragment, the Mishnah was copied over an erased text. Beneath it – still partially visible – is a passage from the tannaitic midrash Sifra. Hebrew palimpsests are rare to begin with, and even rarer when both upper and lower texts are rabbinic compositions.2

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For many PaleoJudaica posts noting Cairo Geniza Fragments of the Month in the Cambridge University Library's Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit, start here (plus here and here) and follow the links.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on palimpsests (manuscripts with erased, overwritten text), see here and links.

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