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A genizah (; , also geniza; plural: genizot h or genizahs) Webster's Third New International Dictionary, 1961 is a storage area in a Judaism synagogue or cemetery designated for the temporary storage of worn-out Hebrew-language books and papers on religious topics prior to proper cemetery burial.
It is also believed by scholars such as S. D. Goitein to derive from the Persian term ganj, denoting "treasure," and something akin to the term "archive." In medieval Hebrew, it clearly designates the sense it carries today: a repository of discarded writings.
Genizot are typically found in the attic or basement of a synagogue, but can also be in walls or buried underground. They may also be located in cemeteries.Katzover, Yisrael. "The Genizah on the Nile". Hamodia Features, April 21, 2016, p. 14.
The contents of genizot are periodically gathered solemnly and then buried in the Jewish cemetery. 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 (either a book of the Tanakh, or the Mishnah, the Talmud, or any work of rabbinic literature) which has become pasul (unfit for use through illegibility or old age). The tradition of paper-interment is known to have been practiced by Jewish communities such as Moroccan Jews, Afghan Geniza, and Cairo Geniza.
In medieval times, Hebrew scraps and papers that were relegated to the genizah were known as shemot 'names', because their sanctity and consequent claim to preservation were held to depend on their containing the "names" of God. In addition to papers, articles connected with ritual, such as tzitzit, , and sprigs of myrtle, are similarly stored.
By far, the best-known genizah, which is famous for both its size and spectacular contents, is the Cairo Geniza. Recognized for its importance and introduced to the Western world in 1864 by Jacob Saphir, and chiefly studied by Solomon Schechter, Jacob Mann and Shelomo Dov Goitein, the genizah had an accumulation of at least 300,000 Jewish manuscripts and manuscript fragments dating from 870 to the 19th century. These materials were important for reconstructing the religious, social and economic history of Jews, especially in the Middle Ages.
In 1927, a manuscript containing Nathan ben Abraham's 11th-century Mishnah commentary was discovered in the genizah of the Jewish community of Sana'a, Yemen. Nathan had served as President of the Academy under the revised Palestinian Geonic period, shortly before its demise in the early 12th century CE. In 2011, the so-called Afghan Geniza, an 11th-century collection of manuscript fragments in Hebrew, Aramaic, Judaeo-Arabic and Judeo-Persian, was found in Afghanistan, in caves used by the Taliban.
In Germanic lands genizot have been preserved in buildings dating back to the early modern period and till today, dozens of genizot have been saved. Researchers began to study the material, soon realizing that these findings could provide insight into the life of Jewish rural communities from the 17th to 19th century. The and other researchers are dealing with the inventory, the digitization and the publication of the finds.
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