The oldest prayer book in the world, approximately 1,200 years old, was presented last night to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu was the first person in Israel to see the siddur and among the few in the world who had the privilege of holding it in his hands, flipping through the ancient prayer pages and reading from it.
""This prayer book is an extremely important find. It is written in Hebrew and contains the prayers that the people of Israel pray even in our own day. There is a connection here between our past and our present, and this is something of great value," Netanyahu said.
The ancient manuscript, which includes a collection of Jewish prayers, is the oldest of its kind discovered to date. The Siddur consists of about 50 leaves written on parchment in ancient Hebrew with punctuation and vowels in the Babylonian language and is still in its original binding.
The ancient prayer book is believed to have been written around 840 CE, during the time of the Babylonian sages, including Rabbi Saadia Gaon, who was the Jewish center at the time. The siddur is attributed to the period of Rabbi Amram Gaon, who is considered to have written one of the first siddurs. The ancient siddur is divided into three main chapters, including parts of the Shacharim prayer for Shabbat, piyyutim, and the Passover Haggadah.
The siddur was presented to the Prime Minister by Amanda Weiss, Director General of the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem, and Mr. Steve Green, Chairman of the Green Collection, who loaned the siddur for display at the museum.
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