Kulmus Publishing

08/27/2025

My latest article has been published in Manuscript and Text Cultures (Oxford - yes the ‘other side’. All about educational materials in the Cairo Genizah. Open Access.

An open access journal for scholars of manuscripts, epigraphy, and texts from various pre-modern cultures operated by the Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures at The Queen's College, Oxford.

07/02/2025

My latest piece for the Cambridge Genizah Unit. https://www.facebook.com/100064538716059/posts/1137011091793504/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v

June's Fragment of the Month is definitely not a Genizah fragment. Instead, it perfectly demonstrates why the Jewish concept of Genizah emerged, and why it was felt necessary to protect sacred texts from profanation. Thanks to Marc Michaels for this 'abject' lesson in safeguarding your holy articles:

https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/departments/taylor-schechter-genizah-research-unit/fragment-month/fotm-2025/fragment-4

06/15/2025

If you were in shul this weekend or davenning at home then you would likely have seen the two inverted nuns (that’s the letter נ) enclosing Num. 10:35-36. But did you know what they were for, originally and subsequently. Curious? Find out in Sefer Binsoa. https://www.lulu.com/shop/marc-michaels/sefer-binsoa/paperback/product-23206312.html paperback or
https://www.lulu.com/shop/marc-michaels/sefer-binsoa/ebook/product-19qpmen4.html for the PDF version.

Aside from their familiar use in the service at the opening and closing of the Ark, two verses from the sedra B’ha’alot’cha are unique. For, in the majority of Torah scrolls Bamidbar l0:35-36 is encased between two critical marks, each taking the form of an inverted nun, as if they are in pare...

03/31/2025

My article on the oldest megillat Esther on the planet is now available in Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies (COMSt) Bulletin, open access, at https://www.fdr.uni-hamburg.de/record/17172/files/comst-bulletin-10-033-048.pdf?download=1

03/07/2025

Purim is coming - read about the restoration of a special megillah held in the Tyburn convent and the parallels between the megillat Esther and their story. https://www.lulu.com/shop/marc-michaels/restoring-the-tyburn-megillah/paperback/product-22816954.html paperback (also available as a PDF)

Jewish scribes don’t often encounter Roman Catholic nuns. In a truly interfaith endeavour Sofer STa"M Mordechai Pinchas (Marc Michaels) chronicles the restoration of a several hundred year old manuscript of the book of Esther belonging to the Tyburn Convent by Hyde Park.

02/14/2025

12/23/2024

Well, a high note to end the secular year on. My identification of what is likely the oldest Megillat Esther on the planet. A new Genizah Fragment of the Month.
https://www.facebook.com/100064538716059/posts/992642402897041/?app=fbl

It's still December, almost Hanukka, and Marc Michaels has produced an impressively named Fragment of the Month – could this be the earliest Esther scroll we have (not just in the Genizah)?

https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/departments/taylor-schechter-genizah-research-unit/fragment-month/fotm-2024/fragment-10

09/23/2024

Just had my first outing of a new presentation that I just gave at the virtual ‘ToRoll - Creating Holiness’ 3 day seminar out of Berlin. Will also be a more detailed paper in an accompanying publication in due course. Seemed to go down well. If you are interested in a repeat performance then contact me.

09/13/2024

Click the link for a free download of the DOT ON THE OT - my biblical tribute to the Cat In The Hat. For the young at heart. http://bit.ly/2SFqoDs

09/08/2024

My latest academic article has just been published in Brill’s Review of Rabbinic Judaism. All about the halakhic implications around transgender and gittin (Aramaic Jewish divorce documents). Open Access. Click to download from Brill. https://brill.com/view/journals/rrj/27/2/article-p155_3.xml

08/27/2024

My article about what is likely the oldest Megillat Esther extant has been peer reviewed and accepted for publication in Issue 10 (2024) of Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies journal. That issue will be dedicated to the memory of the late Professor Malachi Beit-Arié.