Egypt day 5: Cairo Synagogues and Egyptian Museum

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Up and out a bit later than usual and off to Fustat, the old quarter of Cairo.

For me it was a bit disappointing that we were unable to visit the Genizah. The Genizah is being refurbished. The Genizah (literally meaning the treasury) is a treasury of old documents which contained Hebrew letters and which people didn’t want to throw away. So they were deposited in the Genizah. Holy books are buried but the fragments of the documents are an amazing pot pourri of social history. The documents were in Hebrew, Aramaic and Judea-Arabic. Fragments of ketubot (wedding contracts) are particularly interesting as they set out not only terms of the marriage – what each side will bring – but also what will happen in the event of divorce; they are a bit like prenuptial agreements.

The first European to note the collection was apparently Simon van Gelderen who visited the Ben Ezra synagogue and reported about the Cairo Genizah in 1752 or 1753. In 1864 the traveller and scholar Jacob Saphir visited the synagogue and explored the Genizah for two days. In 1896, the Scottish scholars and twin sisters Agnes S. Lewis and Margaret D. Gibson returned from Egypt with fragments from the Genizah they considered to be of interest, and showed them to Solomon Schechter at Cambridge. Schechter, already aware of the Genizah but not of its significance, immediately recognized the importance of the material. With the financial assistance of his Cambridge colleague and friend Charles Taylor, Schechter made an expedition to Egypt, where, with the assistance of the Chief Rabbi, he sorted and removed the greater part of the contents of the Genizah chamber. Agnes and Margaret joined him there en route to Sinai (their fourth visit in five years) and he showed them the chamber which Agnes reported was "simply indescribable".

The Genizah is attached to the Ibn Ben Ezra synagogue. This too was closed due to refurbishment. However, it had been agreed that somebody would open the main gate to let us look around the courtyard. However, the caretaker was late.



Back on the bus and on to the Maimonides synagogue, still in Fustat, old Cairo. This synagogue is where the famous Jewish philosopher Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides, also known as Rambam) was based when he migrated from Spain. To reach the synagogue we walked through the old city past all the vendors selling a variety of foods and household goods. Whilst there were a few tourist items on sale it was nice to see a real market for the people and not for the tourists. This synagogue was rebuilt in the 19th century and was named in the honour of Maimonides. In truth there was not much to see in there.



Back on the bus to see the only synagogue which is “active”, Sha’ar HaShemayim. Whilst there is no regular minyan at the synagogue it is where tourists can go to make up the minyan. However, as there were so many of us we were told by security that if we wanted to daven on Shabbat we would have to go on the bus, which was not an option for us.

The shul is a beautiful modern structure built in 1908. In 1947 Ovadia Yosef was appointed rabbi of the synagogue. At the same time he was appointed as the head of the beth din. Unfortunately, Cairo was lax in its religious observance and in particular kashrut. As a result there were many arguments and bad feeling with the community. Consequently in 1950 he resigned his position and returned to Israel.



Back on the bus to the Cairo Egyptian Museum. As we entered we encountered the massive statues of Pharaohs. Migo reminded us that a short beard indicates that the Pharaoh is alive and it also represents wisdom. The long beard indicates that the Pharaoh is dead. Rabbi Berman pointed out that the Pharaoh stands with his left foot out to indicate he is stamping out other nations. Compare this to two places in Tanach (once in Devarim and once in Joshua) where G-d says that he stands in this place to stamp out other nations.

We were at the museum to see three particular things: the Merneptah Stele, a moveable box, and the mask of Tutankhamun. To be honest the museum was a bit empty as a lot of the exhibits are being transferred to the new Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) which is supposed to open soon.

First we examined the Merneptah Stele - a huge granite stone with a lot of inscriptions. Migo pointed out an inscription which depicts (for the first time) the word Israel in a source besides the Bible. It reads that the Pharaoh was going to get rid of Israel! W. M. Flinders Petrie discovered the Merneptah Stele, also known as the Israel Stele or Victory Stele of Merneptah, in 1896 in the court of King Merneptah's temple at Thebes. The text records military victories in the north. These include a campaign in the Canaan region where the Israelites had previously taken over. The Stele proclaims their defeat by the Egyptians.

Then we saw an exhibit which required explanation by Rabbi Berman. There was a “box” from which four poles extended - so that it could be carried like a sedan chair. However, if examined carefully it would seem that there were stoppers at the ends of the four poles which extended from the box. In the book of Exodus we are told that the ark of the covenant in the portable mishkan has four poles BUT these poles may not be removed. Yet they were only extended when the mishkan was moving. Could it be that the poles of the ark in the mishkan were retractable like this exhibit? That would then explain the seeming biblical contradiction about the poles.

The highlight of the day was the Tutankhamun exhibit. The gold mask was exquisite - and the other jewels found in the tomb were also magnificent.

We managed to buy my one memento from our travels - the thimble for my collection. This shows the mask of Tutankhamun.

Back to the hotel and then to prepare for Shabbat. I decided not to attend shul and had a really lovely rest with Ellie. Don enjoyed the singing in the kabbalat shabbat service.

Dinner was a big surprise. The Hilton wanted to know what they could do for the group to apologise for the initially poor rooms. Cindy asked that they provide perfectly new real crockery and cutlery for our meaty meal. The table looked especially nice, with flower arrangements and real crockery and utensils rather than disposable plastic plates and cutlery.

The evening was very enjoyable and we had a reasonably early night with the knowledge that we could have a lie-in tomorrow. Yay! 😊

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