GENIZAH
Stay in the synagogues where the scrolls of Scripture were deposited, already worn out by use. After a time they were buried in consecrated ground to prevent their desecration.
In 1896 a large number of these scrolls were discovered in the geniza of the synagogue of ancient Cairo. A good part of them became part of the so-called Taylor-Schechter collection in the Cambridge University library.
This discovery was of considerable importance for studies of textual criticism, since among the writings of this geniza there was a large number of manuscripts older than the Ben-Aser codex.
About 120 of them carry the vocalization of the Babylonian school, while six have the punctuation of the Palestinian school.
Other of Cairo’s writings are found in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, in the British Museum, in the Library of the Israelite Alliance in Paris, etc.