The Lost Manuscripts: Unraveling the Mystery of the World's Largest Jewish Collection

David Sassoon was born in 1881 in India to his well-known mother, Flora Sassoon. His mother hired prominent rabbis to teach him Torah, as well as scholars in various other subjects. He fell in love with Hebrew literature and wrote in the introduction to one of his books: "The love of books and the honor for the great sages of the past have fueled my passion from childhood, and since then I have been diligently acquiring and preserving books and manuscripts from oblivion."

With his family's move to London, David Sassoon began collecting rare manuscripts from all over the world. Due to his wealth and connections, he was able to gather an extremely large and impressive collection of manuscripts, which eventually became known as the "Sassoon Collection." The Sassoon Collection is considered the largest collection of Jewish manuscripts. Scholars, researchers, and writers, from leading rabbis to Bialik, would visit his library in London.

One of Sassoon's great discoveries was a collection of poems by Rabbi Samuel HaNagid, which was unknown to the public until then. Sassoon edited and published it through Oxford University Press in 1934, dedicating the edition to his renowned mother, Flora Sassoon. The collection included manuscripts from Jewish communities in Germany, Yemen, Bombay, Persia, France, North Africa, and even Samaritan manuscripts. To obtain these manuscripts, he traveled globally, documenting his pursuits in a special travel journal that recounted his hunts for rare manuscripts. Sassoon worked tirelessly to map and catalog the manuscripts, publishing the entire list in a special book called "Ohel David."

In 1942, David Sassoon passed away. His son and daughter Flora (named after their grandmother) continued his work, but the grandchildren felt less connected to the mission and began selling various manuscripts. In 1975, an auction in Zurich was held, offering various manuscripts from the Sassoon Collection. Public figures exerted pressure on traders and entities in Israel to strive to purchase the manuscripts, ensuring they wouldn't disperse among anonymous buyers and unrecognized collectors, in an effort to preserve the spiritual treasures of the Sassoon Collection.

A sum of 1.25 million dollars was raised for Israel's National Library, enabling them to purchase a significant portion of the manuscripts offered for sale. However, many important manuscripts were sold to anonymous collectors, and their fate remains unclear, among them the ancient kabbalistic text "Harba de-Moshe," Maimonides' "Guide for the Perplexed" in Rabbi Samuel ibn Tibbon's handwriting, and about 30 other rare and unique books.

At a later stage, some Sassoon family heirs deposited their father's diaries and manuscripts in the National Library in Jerusalem. After several years, they requested to withdraw the deposit to sell it on the open market. The Israeli court prohibited them from taking the texts, citing cultural preservation and legal reasons. It's doubtful whether the court acted according to Jewish law, but it's clear that the Jewish literary world benefited from keeping the Sassoon Collection in a place where scholars and researchers could access it, in keeping with the founder's wishes, Rabbi David Sassoon.