Cairo Genizah : Commentary; colophon

Saʿadya Gaʾon

Cairo Genizah

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Recto: Saʿadya Gaʾon’s commentary on Exodus 12:1. Verso: contains two colophons. The first, decorated, indicates that the book was part of the pious property of the community of Urmiya (Orūmīyeh), in the modern day province of West Azerbaijan, Iran: אלכלאם פי החדש הזה מן קול סעדיה בן יוסף אלפיומי תנוח נפשו בגן עדן. קדש לייי לכנסת ארמיה. To this has been added a second colophon, by Ephraim b. Azariah (ʿAzaryahu), who received the book from Baruḵ b. Israel the Ḥazzan in the city of Marāgheh (מראג׳ה). Baruḵ had taken the book from Urmiya because 'no community remained there that knew how to read it, even one word in the Arabic (Hagri) language'. This colophon is partially vocalised with simple Babylonian vowels. The colophon is translated in Hirschfeld (1904: 293-294). Contrary to Hirschfeld، Ephraim b. Azariah does not follow his name with 'the mean disciple. Peace', which presumably means he was reading צעיר תלמיד ושלום، Instead, it should be read צעיר תלמידי ירושלם, 'the least of the scholars of Jerusalem'. </p>