Around the 8th century, Jewish scribes in the Land of Israel and Babylonia began producing codices—handwritten, bound books—of the Hebrew Bible, complete with markings to denote vowels, how the text should be chanted, punctuation, chapter divisions, and marginal notes for future scribes. Unlike scrolls, these were for study rather and reference rather than ritual use. One of the oldest, and certainly the most famous, of these is the Aleppo Codex, which—after being carefully safeguarded for centuries by Syrian Jews—now only exists in fragments, which do not include most of the Five Books of Moses.

The oldest near-complete codex of the Pentateuch was found in Lailashi in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, and includes extraordinary calligraphy and micrographic art. Ori Soltes explains some of the history of Georgian Jewry, which traces its roots to the aftermath of the destruction of the First Temple, and the mystery of the codex’s origins. George Khan delves into the technical and linguistic features of the text, which will be of interest to those who read the Torah in synagogues, while Debra Band examines its artistry. (Video, 65 minutes.)

Yesterday, the beepers used by hundreds of Hizballah operatives were detonated. Noah Rothman puts this ingenious attack in the context of the overall war between Israel and the Iran-backed terrorist group:

[W]hile the disabling of an untold number of Hizballah operatives is remarkable, it’s also ominous. This week, the Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant told reporters that the hour is nearing when Israeli forces will have to confront Iran’s cat’s-paw in southern Lebanon directly, in order to return the tens of thousands of Israelis who fled their homes along Lebanon’s border under fire and have not yet been able to return. Today’s operation may be a prelude to the next phase of Israel’s defensive war, a dangerous one in which the IDF will face off against an enemy with tens of thousands of fighters and over 150,000 rockets and missiles trained on Israeli cities.

Seth Frantzman, meanwhile, focuses on the specific damage the pager bombings have likely done to Hizballah:

This will put the men in hospital for a period of time. Some of them can go back to serving Hizballah, but they will not have access to one of their hands. These will most likely be their dominant hand, meaning the hand they’d also use to hold the trigger of a rifle or push the button to launch a missile.

Hizballah has already lost around 450 fighters in its eleven-month confrontation with Israel. This is a significant loss for the group. While Hizballah can replace losses, it doesn’t have an endlessly deep [supply of recruits]. This is not only because it has to invest in training and security ahead of recruitment, but also because it draws its recruits from a narrow spectrum of Lebanese society.

The overall challenge for Hizballah is not just replacing wounded and dead fighters. The group will be challenged to . . . roll out some other way to communicate with its men. The use of pagers may seem archaic, but Hizballah apparently chose to use this system because it assumed the network could not be penetrated. . . . It will also now be concerned about the penetration of its operational security. When groups like Hizballah are in chaos, they are more vulnerable to making mistakes.