Special letters

The principal division of these abnormal letters is into small ("ze'ira") and large ("rabbati") letters, as indicated in the lists which are given below. The former appear to belong to an older Masorah than that which provides for the large letters, and should be classed with the "qere" and "ketib."

The Encyclopedia Judaica tells us that there are 17 places in the Torah where a letter is written extra-large or extra-small. There are six minuscules and eleven majuscules.

Apart from those there are a few other peculiarities, like the 9 inverted nuns (Num 10:35-36 and Psa 107:23-28, 40) and the broken vav (Num 25:12) and the specially shaped qof (Ex 32:25, Num 7:2).

See [YH] for more typesetting detail.

Enlarged letters

Traditionally, some letters in the Hebrew Bible are written enlarged.
The details on precisely how many, and which ones varies.
(Ashkenazic manuscripts have many more large letters than Sefardic mss. See also [MC].)
It has been suggested that there should be one large copy of each letter in the Torah, or in the entire Tanach.
Below a list.

The traditional enlarged letters

Other enlarged letters in the Torah

Small letters

Sarah

Bereshit (Genesis) 23:1-2 And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old: [these were] the years of the life of Sarah. And Sarah died in Kirjath-arba; the same [is] Hebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.

The end of the verse says that Avraham Aveinu came to eulogize Sarah Imeinu, וְלִבְכֹּתָהּ and cry over losing her. וְלִבְכֹּתָהּ is inscribed with a small letter kaf. The commentary Baal Haturim says the little letter is telling us Avraham cried only a little because Sarah was an elderly woman. Hakham Shimshon Rafael Hirsch says that the word וְלִבְכֹּתָהּ, and to bewail her, is written with a small kaf to suggest that although Avraham's grief was infinite, the full measure of his pain was concealed in his heart and the privacy of his home.

Raised letters

There are four words having one of their letters suspended above the line. One of them, (Judges 18:30), is due to an alteration of the original out of reverence for Moses; rather than say that Moses' grandson became an idolatrous priest, a suspended nun was inserted to turn Mosheh into Menasheh (Manasseh).

The ע in Psa 80:14 is the middle letter of the book of Psalms.

Unexpected dagesh

Resh with dagesh is seen in 1 Sam 1:6 הַרְּעִמָהּ, 1 Sam 10:24, 1 Sam 17:25, 2 Reg 6:32 הַרְּאִתֶם, Prov 3:8 לְשָׁרֶּךָ, Prov 14:10 מָרַּת, Eze 16:4 לֹא־כָרַּת, ibid. שָׁרֵּךְ, Cant 5:2 שֶׁרֹּאשִׁי, Prov 15:1 מַעֲנֶה־רַּךְ, and Psa 52:5, Prov 11:21, Jer 39:12 רָּע, Ezr 9:6, Hab 3:13 רֹּאשׁ, 2 Chron 26:10 מִקְנֶה־רַּב, Job 39:9 רֵּים.

(For ayin with dagesh, see below.)

ketiv and qere

In Jes 9:6 there is a final mem in the middle of the word לְםַרְבֵּה. This is a case of ketiv and qere, where a word space was written but should not be read.

Messiah

The closed, Final Mem, represents the era of Moshiach as explained in Kabbalah.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

In Job 38:1 there is a nonfinal nun at the end of a word in מִנ ׀ הַסְּעָרָה. This is a case of ketiv and qere, where no word space was written, but one should be read.

In Neh 2:13 there is a nonfinal mem at the end of a word in אֲשֶׁר־הֵמ ׀ פְּרוּצִים.

In Ez 9:11 there is a kaf with both sjwa and cholem in כְֹּ אֲשֶׁר, to be read as כְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר.

In 1 Sam 5:12 there is an ayin with dagesh in בַּעְּפֹלִים, to be read as בַּטְּחֹרִים.

In Jes 54:16 there is a dagesh with vowel but without consonant in הִן ֵּ (or הִןֵ) to be read הִנֵּה.

Various places there are vowels only, without consonant, where these indicate a word to be read of which the letters were not written.

Broken vav, vav ketia

The story is that God promises peace after Pinchas has killed two sinners. According to tradition, the peace you get after killing is broken.

There are two often overlooked textual clues in the Hebrew text. There are lots of scribal oddities in the Torah: big letters, small letters and upside down letters. But with one exception, if any letter is broken or split, the Torah is not kosher. Here, the 'vuv' in the word for peace, shalom, is 'broken' and the reverse is true; if the 'vuv' is written normally, the Torah is not kosher. In other words the Torah seems to be saying God wants to give Pinchas peace, but it cannot be a whole peace, because of his actions. This reminds me of King David, who wasn't allowed to build the temple because he was a man of war. The second textual oddity is in Pinchas' name itself. It can be written with a 'yod' (or not). But when his name appears the first time in our parasha the 'yod' is written smaller than usual. Now the 'yod' is normally interpreted as God's presence, (so for example Hoshua has his name changed to Yehoshua when he takes over from Moses to signify that God is with him). I see the diminuition of the 'yod' in Pinchas' name to represent that God's presence has withdrawn from his violent actions.

(Pinhas)

Nun hafucha

Two explanations are given for these two symbols.

The first, by R. Simeon ben Gamaliel, says that the two verses enclosed will (when the Messiah comes) be removed from here and put in their proper place. According to R. Ashi that is after Num 2:34.

The second, by R. Samuel ben Na'hmeni, says that this passage (Num 10:35-36) forms a book in itself, so that Numeri is three books, and the Torah consists of seven books.

See shabbat 16 and nun_hafucha.

In the LXX this passage precedes Num 10:34.

Apart from Num 10, there is one more place that contains reversed/inverted/backwards nuns, namely Psalm 107. (There are 2 in Num 10 and 7 in Ps 107:23-28,40. [ML] has extra space instead of inverted nun in Ps 107.)

Puncta extraordinaria - Ezra's points

Ten dotted expressions in the Torah: ... And he fell on his neck and kissed him (Gen 33:4). (The word וַׄיִּׄשָּׁׄקֵׄהׄוּׄ is dotted, (because) you might think he kissed him out of love. To pasture their father's flock at Shechem (Gen 37:12). You might think they really pastured them.... Why are all these letters dotted? This is what Ezra said: `If Elijah comes and says "Why did you write (them)?" I will say to him, "I have dotted them"; but if he tells me, "You have written well", I will remove the dots from them.'

Fifteen verses have nequdot:

References

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