[Avodah] Textual variants of the Torah?

[Micha Berger]

When I was maavir sedra last week I noticed an interesting contrast in
two citations by the Torah Temimah on Shemos 24:5. Moshe Rabbeinu is setting
up a beris ritual at Har Sinai. He sends "naarei Benei Yisrael" to bring
qorbanos.

Megillah 9a, in the list of changes in Targum Shiv'im, list the change to
"zatutei BY".Presumably that the Ptolemies would be more comfortable with
the idea that Moshe appointed "the elect of the BY" rather than youths.

In Soferim 6:4 and Yalqut Shim'oni remez 964 have a different origin for
"za'atutei", involving what is usually explained to be about Ezra's
restoration of the mesoretic text after Galus Bavel. (Torah Temimah
says TY Taanis 4:2, but I couldn't find it there.) Touching up Sefaria's
translation:

    R. Shomon b. Laqish said: Three scrolls of the Torah were found
    in the Azara: the "Ma'on" scroll, the "Za'atutei" scroll, and the
    "Hu" scroll. In one of these they found the expression of "ma'on",
    and in the other two it was written, "The eternal God is me'onah",
    so they adopted the reading of the two scrolls and discarded that
    of the one scroll. In another of the scrolls they found it written,
    "And he sent the za'atutei of the BY" and in the other two they found
    written "And he sent na'arei BY", so they retained the reading of
    the two and abandoned that of the one. In one of the scrolls "hu"
    [or maybe hee with a vuv?] was written eleven times, but in the other
    two "hee" was written eleven times, so they adopted the reading of
    the two and discarded that of the one.

It would be one thing if the Targum Shiv'im were a sectarian production,
like the Septuagint. Then it would be easy enough to say that while we
follow the tradition set by Ezra, that sect followed the Za'atutei scroll.

But here we must say that at most the 70 rabbenim at most got the idea
because they remembered the story of the za'atutei scroll.

The TT suggests that maybe the three variants of sifrei Torah wasn't in
Ezra's day but after Ptolmey's. And that the variant translation may
have made it by accident back into one scroll's text. But he leaves the
dating of the story left to "yeish le'ayein".

In any case, the idea that Moshe sent nobles just won't die.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 In the days of our sages, man didn't sin unless
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   he was overcome with a spirit of foolishness.
Author: Widen Your Tent      Today, we don't do a mitzvah unless we receive
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF    a spirit of purity.      - Rav Yisrael Salanter