User:Dovi/Keter

From Hayim Tawil, p. 128.

"What we do know about the missing parts of the Crown is a mix of facts and speculation. Large sections are missing from the beginning and end of the codex, with pages also missing from several places in the middle. The fact that entire books of the Torah and large parts of several books are missing suggests that the Crown was dismantled purposefully but without care, perhaps during a hasty, opportunistic theft. As noted earlier, the section in Deuteronomy containing the curses was left virtually intact, as if the person or persons who took the rest of the Torah portions feared the implications of possessing that section of Deuteronomy."

In addition to the curses at the end of Deuteronomy, it is striking that in Jeremiah, the exact pages corresponding to the few chapters on comfort and redemption are missing from the middle of the book (as if the person or persons who took them wanted to possess material with good implications). If the codex was indeed dismantled "purposefully but without care" during a "hasty" theft, then that might explain not only why two pages are missing from precisely this part, but also why the third page following them has been partly torn away.

Furthermore, two pages were removed from Psalms (containing psalms 15-24). Among the missing psalms are 16 ("Protect me O God, for I seek refuge in You..."), 18 (David's song), 20 ("May the Lord answer you in time of trouble..."), 23 ("The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want...") and 24 (which is famously chanted as "the prayer for livelihood" in the eastern tradition). If a person wanted to hastily remove some pages containing important psalms, or psalms with good omens, then these two pages would be likely candidates to be snatched.