Thursday, March 1, 2012

More Stars of David in the Genizah Project

I already wrote in 2006-7 about two manuscripts from the Cairo Genizah whichinclude Stars of David, but now that The Friedberg Genizah Project is online it is awhole new game. I salute the organizers of this web site for theirextraordinary achievement. It took me sometime to register and install Java,but eventually I found a few more Genizah manuscripts which include Stars ofDavid:
T-S AS 54.138 (1v) shows a fine Star of David made from small lines.There's also  a rhombus in the same page.
T-S Misc 1.75 is a page from Psalms 64-66 and it has on the right side asmall vertical floral ornament which ends with a tiny Star of David made from oneline.
T-S 125.94 has two small Stars of David and one which is larger and init some Hebrew words from which I recognized the Hebrew words (in capitalletters): Morasha Kehilat Ya'acov. In one of the two small Stars of David Irecognized one of the two cursive Hebrew words - Tor.
T-S 135.169 has on the first from four leafs two Stars of David, onewith a point in its center. On the second leaf there are 5 jotted  Stars of David and in the center of the sixththere's a point in the center.
T-S 150.195 has at its bottom a few lines filled with small Stars ofDavid.
T-S 297.90 – according to its description it has a Star of David in amagical context in Arabic but I couldn't see the image.
Cambridge,CUL: Or.1080 1.63 2v1 Arabic letters Magic many stars of David on rows 2,4,5  Source of information: Gideon Bohak, Head of FGP Magic team

Cambridge,CUL: T-S Ar.53.21 - Arabic letters; Margins contain some jottings and drawingsof the Star of David and other symbols
Cambridge,CUL: T-S K1.5 Aramaic Hebrew, Magic, contain some drawings of the Star of David
Cambridge,CUL: T-S K1.62 Large star of David surrounding and surrounded by names of God
Sourceof information: Gideon Bohak, Head of FGP Magic team
The Cairo Genizah documents were written from about 870 C.E. to 1880 C.E.so it is hard to know when each of these Stars of David was drawn. Anyhow wehave so few instances of Stars of David from that period that this treasure addsa lot of interesting content for research.