World’s oldest-know Jewish prayer book goes on public display

Two pages from the oldest known ‘siddur’ (Jewish prayer book), believed to be 1,200 years old, that will go on public display for the first time.

DPA/Jerusalem

The world’s oldest known Jewish prayer book, or siddur went on display in Jerusalem yesterday.

It is the first time the 1,200-year-old book is shown to the general public in Israel.

It belongs to Steve Green, the chairman of the Museum of the Bible, which is under construction in Washington, who owns one of the world’s largest private collections of rare biblical artefacts.

Green presented the prayer book during a ceremony at Jerusalem’s Bible Lands Museum.

According to carbon tests, the 50-page book in Hebrew dates to the first half of the ninth century and stems from the Middle East, the museum said.

It was during this period that Jewish spiritual leaders for the first time wrote an orderly liturgy for use in the synagogue and at home.

It contains three main parts, the morning service, liturgical poems and the Haggadah - a text describing the Jews’ exodus from Egypt and traditionally read at the Jewish Passover dinner.

Such prayer books still serve as the basis for the prayer service in Jewish communities in Israel and around the world.

It is still in its original binding. Study of its text is due to be completed in 2015.

“This is a real treasure of the Jewish people,” said Amanda Weiss, the Bible Lands Museum’s executive director.

The event marks the final month of a year-old exhibition at the museum, The Book of Books, which shows visitors the most important biblical texts ever to be seen in Israel in one show.

It includes fragments from the earliest known New Testament scriptures and original pages from the Gutenberg Bible, the first major book printed in the West. The exhibition closes after the Jewish holiday season in late October.

Afterwards, the prayer book is to go permanently on display at the Museum of the Bible in Washington.