[Mesorah] two questions

[Yisrael Dubitsky]

The Masorah Parva note that appears in the first Masoretic Rabbinic Bible
(Venice 1524) as "Vav be-Atrafe" and in later versions (e.g. Netter) as
"Zayin be-Trafe" is likely a later development of the original note. In CD
Ginsburg's The Masorah, vol 2, p 409, sec 598, it appears as "Aleh: zayin
be-Tarfe, dalet ketiv Yod, ve-gimel ketiv heh ve-simanhon: Gen 3,7; 8, 11;
Neh 8,15 (4x)."
In other words, the note was meant to tell us that "aleh" is spelled with a
heh here, as well as in Gen 3,7; and with yod in Neh 8,15. (it actually
appears there 5 times, not 4, which is why there was some confusion whether
the letter preceding the "be-trafe" was a vav or zayin. Interestingly
enough, even in that same Ginsburg volume, at the index in the end [p. 814,
no. 234] the note appears with a vav). In Bar Ilan's Keter MG, the note was
just re the twice with a heh (and, as interpreted by them, "bi-semikhut").
One assumes the "be-atrafe" was added to make the reference explicit: it
refers to the word "aleh" meaning leaf (as trafe means in Aramaic; see
Sokoloff's dictionaries); and that the word means leaf in five other cases
[in semikhut! that is, with a tsere, not a segol etc], where it is spelled
with a yod, was probably not the original intent.
See Minhat Shai at Gen 3,7 where he give further clarifications and refers
to some mss [BHK records 15 such] that spell the word al atar with a yod,
but decides they are mistaken.

Shavua tov
Yisrael
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/mesorah-aishdas.org/attachments/20091101/9766929d/attachment-0008.htm>