[Avodah] Changing Havarah

[Arie Folger]

R'nTK wrote:
> It seems to me your suggestion is anachronistic.  Didn't the Teverya  
> masoretes live centuries before there was any real Ashkenazi community, let
>  alone a distinct Ashkenazi havara?

Ben Asher and his disciples worked in the 9th or rather 10th century. At that 
time, there had been an Italian Jewish community for over a millenium, Jews 
had passed by or settled near Basle at least six hundred years earlier, and 
were one hundred years longer even in Cologne. These are documented cases, 
but Ashkenazi mythology claims that Jews came to Frankfurt even earlier.

> BTW, I have only ever seen the word "masoretes" used in English.   Can
> someone please tell me what the is the Hebrew word for "masoretes"?  

Ba'alei messorah.

Kind regards,
-- 
Arie Folger
http://www.ariefolger.googlepages.com