Book Notes: Targumic Manuscripts in the Cambridge Genizah Collections, Michael L. Klein

<plain_text><page sequence="1">Book Notes Targumic Manuscripts in the Cambridge Genizah Collections, Michael L. Klein (Cambridge University Library Genizah Series, 8; General Editor, S. C. Reif; 1992) xvi + 136 pp. 24 pi. ?60 ($99.95). Any publication of descriptive matter regarding the Cairo Genizah in Cambridge deserves brief notice in the Society's Transactions, inasmuch as the wholesale transfer of the fragments to Cambridge by Schechter a century ago itself consti? tutes an important item in Anglo-Jewish history. An additional justification for recording the appearance of this volume lies in the circumstance that the English Bible-translators, from those commissioned by King James onward, have taken due note of the Aramaic targums as embodying the officially endorsed Jewish interpretation of the text: although it must be allowed that the translators will have used the targums as printed in the great 'rabbinic' bibles rather than resorting to MSS. The succinct descriptions and indexing are admirable; and since one aspect of genizah studies concerns the matching up of fragments from other collections, stretching from New York to St Petersburg, with those in Cambridge, particularly to be welcomed is the reproduction of decorative features such as those used around pericope-hezdings, and the noting of symbols used (differing arrangements of a multiple yodh) to represent the divine name. Raphael Loewe</page></plain_text>