[Mesorah] Hallel

[Kenneth Miller]

RRW:
> My point about Rav Kanarfogel is simple:
> "We currently accept a text that has evolved, so long as it
> evolved Halachically."
>
> If that is true, is there any reason [excluding the strictly
> academic] to restore an early version of the text?

Why not? It's like any other machlokes haposkim.

The idea that machlokes and psak can affect the actual source text - even of the Chumash itself! - can be quite unsettling, emotionally. But we've all encountered it at some point. For many, it was on first hearing of the spelling of "daka" in Devarim 23:2. For others, it was on seeing Rashi or the Gemara quote a text that doesn't appear in ours.

Somehow, life goes on. We manage to live with a Torah which is Emes for us, even if it was spelled differently (or even worded differently) in another generation. Because, as Rav Kanarfogel said, the Torah tells us how to deal with it.

So, yes, it may happen that someone will change the currently accepted text of some pasuk somewhere, to a text currently not in vogue. Why not? How many Ashkenazim said "morid hagEshem" 50 years ago? It's a small step from that to changing a text. Even easier, perhaps, since you only need to convince the sofrim, not the general masses.

Akiva Miller

"Any sufficiently popular minhag is indistinguishable from Torah MiSinai"

.

____________________________________________________________
Fast, Secure, NetZero 4G Mobile Broadband. Try it.
http://www.netzero.net/?refcd=NZINTISP0512T4GOUT2