Ahead of the auction on May 16, it will tour around the world, going on display in London, Tel Aviv, Dallas, Los Angeles and New York City.
Tuesday, May 16, 2023
25 Iyar, 5783
Omer: Day 40 - Hod sheb'Yesod
Tonight Count 41
Chumash Parshat Bamidbar, 3rd Portion (Bamidbar - Numbers 2:1-2:34)
Psalms Chapter 119, Verses 1-96
https://www.chabad.org/calendar/view/day.asp?tdate=5/16/2023
(119:1-96, the alef-to-lamed verses)
The auction house expects it to sell for between $30 and $50 million... If its price hits the upper end of that range, it could become the most valuable historical document ever sold at auction.
How high will it go?
Tuesday, May 16, 2023
In New Testament times (regardless of anyone's beliefs in these matters, I'm just pointing it out), 25 Iyar was "Ascension Day", as Easter Sunday was 16 Nisan -- Omer Day 1. (This year Easter Sunday is April 9th, so the Christian feast day date for 2023 is Thursday, May 18th.)
On auction day, 25 Iyar, the Chumash portion is Numbers 2:1-2:34, which is a key location concerning the rightful place of the 85-letter text that is framed by the inverted nuns:
R. Shimon Ben Gamliel says: This section will be uprooted from its place and written in its rightful place in the future (but for now it is in its correct location). Why is it written here? So as to separate between first and second retribution [3]. Second retribution is "and the people grumbled". First retribution is "and they traveled from the mountain of G-d (i.e., they eagerly run away from G-d's presence)". Where is it its appropriate place? Rav Ashi says: "In the section dealing with the disposition of the Israelites according to their banners and their travelling arrangements" (Numbers 1:52-2:34, Shabbath 116a).
Numbers 10:35-36
Located on scan page 12 of file 4 (Numbers), 3rd column from the right, lines 10-14.
Main page:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Tanakh-MS-Sassoon-1053
Lots of interesting details in there. Yinon appears to be written with a vav, for example (Psalm 72:17).
Num 1035. And it came to pass, when the ark set forward, that Moses said, Rise up, Lord, and let your enemies be scattered; and let them who hate you flee before you:
36. And when it rested, he said, Return, O Lord, to the many thousands of Israel:
How high will it go?
Be interesting if the Codex sold for $85 mil, same as for Ingenuity, on day where that text would be in its proposed "rightful place", along with the flags and traveling arrangements.
A related data point is that these are the opening verses for the reading on the day Donald Trump was born -- June 14, 1946 which was Flag Day and Sivan 15, the traditional date for the birth and passing of Judah.