Manuscript including several different works and collections: Laws of Schechita, Midrashim and Tales, Segulot, and various collections. Yememinte script, Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic, probably by several different hands.

The manuscript contains various works and collections, including: a section from the Rambam’s introduction to the Mishnah; Laws of Schechita by the Rambam, with “Sherach” – commentary and translation (commentary up to the seventh chapter) – preceded by a decorated title page; Collections from Laws of Schechita; “Shochetei HaYeladim ” – laws of the knife and schechita; Sefer Sha’arei Kedushah, Laws of Schechita by Rabbi Yichya Salach – Maharitz; “A’atrats Ala Sheveim Tarfot”; Collections from the book of Zevah Toda, by Maharitz; Collections of midrashim, various tales and laws; Sefer Tzuror HaMor on Parashat Bereshit; Seder Ibbur Shanim, periods and zodiac signs; “Michemet Sades Zafar” (Month of the Zafar); Sefer Ra’ashim ve-Re’amim, and others.

Yemenite Jews, also known as Yemeni Jews or Teimanim (from Hebrew: יהודי תימן, romanized: Yehudei Teman; Arabic: اليهود اليمنيون), are Jews who live, or once lived, in Yemen, and their descendants maintaining their customs. After several waves of persecution, the vast majority of Yemenite Jews emigrated to Israel in Operation Magic Carpet between June 1949 and September 1950. Most Yemenite Jews now live in Israel, with smaller communities in the United States and elsewhere. As of 2024, only one Jew, Levi Marhabi, remains in Yemen, although Ynet cited local sources stating that the actual number is five.

Yemenite Jews observe a unique religious tradition that distinguishes them from Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardic Jews, and other Jewish groups. They have been described as “the most Jewish of all Jews” and “the ones who have preserved the Hebrew language the best”. Yemenite Jews are considered Mizrahi or “Eastern” Jews, though they differ from other Mizrahis, who have undergone a process of total or partial assimilation to Sephardic law and customs. While the Shami sub-group of Yemenite Jews did adopt a Sephardic-influenced rite, this was mostly due to it being forced upon them, and did not reflect a demographic or general cultural shift among the vast majority of Yemenite Jews.

Records referring to Judaism in Yemen started to appear during the rule of the Himyarite Kingdom, which was established in Yemen in 110 BCE. Various inscriptions in the Ancient South Arabian script in the 2nd century CE refer to the construction of synagogues approved by Himyarite kings.

At the beginning of the nineteenth-century, Yemenite Jews lived principally in Sana’a (7,000-plus), with the largest Jewish population and twenty-eight synagogues, followed by Rada’a, with the second-largest Jewish population and nine synagogues,[74] Sa’dah (1,000), Dhamar (1,000), Aden (200), the desert of Beda (2,000), Manakhah (3,000), among others. Almost all resided in the interior of the plateau. Carl Rathjens who visited Yemen in the years 1927 and 1931 puts the total number of Jewish communities in Yemen at 371 settlements.

Emigration from Yemen to Palestine began in 1881, and continued almost without interruption until 1914. It was during this time that about 10% of the Yemenite Jews left. Due to the changes in the Ottoman Empire, citizens could move more freely, and in 1869, travel was improved with the opening of the Suez Canal, which reduced the travel time from Yemen to Palestine. Certain Yemenite Jews interpreted these changes and the new developments in the “Holy Land” as heavenly signs that the time of redemption was near. By settling in the Holy Land, they would play a part in what they believed could precipitate the anticipated messianic era.

After the UN partition vote on Palestine, Arab rioters, assisted by the local police force, engaged in a pogrom in Aden that killed 82 Jews and destroyed hundreds of Jewish homes.

This increasingly perilous situation led to the emigration of virtually the entire Yemenite Jewish community between June 1949 and September 1950 in Operation Magic Carpet. During this period, over 50,000 Jews migrated to Israel.