This is a documentary detective story that describes the journey of the Codex of Aleppo—a unique tenth-century Hebrew Bible used by Maimonides himself—from its hiding place in the synagogue of an ancient Syrian city to the newly formed State of Israel. The author, Associated Press journalist Matti Friedman, collected many documents and eyewitness accounts that allowed him to put forward the original version of what happened to this manuscript when a crowd of rioters threw the holy book out of the looted and burned Aleppo synagogue and it was discovered already in Israel, far away not in full form. Where have hundreds of sheets of sacred text gone, which have enormous value, not only spiritual, but also quite material? Were they destroyed by a riotous crowd of Arabs? Was it stolen by dishonest couriers and agents of the Israeli immigration service? What is the role of officials of the new state in the fate of the manuscript? The author offers completely unexpected answers to these questions.