Where did the Kaifeng Torah scrolls originate? Although the Kaifeng Jewish community was founded by Persian Jews, it seems very unlikely that the extant Torah scrolls are descended from what scrolls or books they brought my Central Asia. It seems that several times in the history of the community, they needed to start collecting scrolls and books after a major Yellow River flood destroyed them. We read in the 1489 and 1519 stone inscriptions that after the flood of the middle 1400s, the community was gifted one scroll a replacement scroll from Jews (or Jewish communities) in Ningbo and Yangzhou. Are all the Torah scrolls of the Kaifeng Jews the descendants of these two scrolls? If so, where did they come from?
Both Ningbo and Yangzhou are coast cities. Did these scrolls arrive via the sea? This video explores some of the unique features of Yemenite Torah scrolls. For the most part, Yemenite scrolls follow the spelling of the Aleppo Codex. For one example, at least, they do not, the name Potiphera, the father of Asenath, Joseph's Egyptian wife. The Aleppo Codex, and most other bibles and Torah scrolls, render this name as two words:
This name is one word in both Yemeni and the two Kaifeng Scrolls (VS and SMU) that I have examined, render the name in one word:
Are there any other close similarities between Kaifeng and Yemeni Torah scrolls? And if there are, does this meant that the ancestor of the Kaifeng Torah scrolls created in the 1600s was from Yemen, coming to China by way of a sea route? This is possible, but requires more investigation. But this seems potentially fruitful. After all, strong influences from Yemen have been found in Kaifeng siddurim. Perhaps later in the life of the Kaifeng Community, until the coastal communities disappeared, Yemeni influences were predominate.
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