Nehemiah 8:8 Interpreted
From where the translation? R. Zeira in the name of R. Ḥananel: They read in the scroll of the Torah (Nehemiah 8:8), that is the reading. Explained (ibid.), that is the translation. Making sense, these are the accents.1 And understood the reading (ibid.), this is the masorah,2 and some say, these are the decisions, and some say, these are the starts of verses.
Notes
[The text of the Hebrew Bible only contained consonants in its earliest versions, as in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Masoretes developed a system of vowels and accents to accompany the consonants, used for emphasis and pronunciation when reading or chanting Torah.—Ed.]
[The masorah is the system of marginal annotations made by the scribes responsible for copying the Masoretic Text; the annotations are meant to help preserve the accuracy of the text and to note various scribal features.—Ed.]
Credits
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.
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