There was an excellent Masoretic text in the synagogue of the Sephardim in Aleppo, Syria. It was compiled by the famous Ben Asher family and was prepared about the year 930 C.E.

Still, there was another Masoretic text based on the work of the Ben Asher family. It contained the entire Hebrew Scriptures, and, in fact, the decision had been made to use it as the basis for the third edition of the Biblia Hebraica. It had been copied in Old Cairo in 1008 (or, 1009) from the corrected clear books prepared by the master Aaron ben Moshe ben Asher, as the copyist Samuel ben Jacob himself mentions. Its owners did not ‘fear being cursed’ for having the Bible copied, as did the owners of the Aleppo Codex. They loaned their manuscript to Kittel and Kahle for two years. This manuscript is the very Codex B 19-A that is now preserved in the Leningrad Public Library.