[Mesorah] A Critique of R Mordechai Breuer's Works

Tue Jun 21 10:24:40 PDT 2016

I have not read the entire article.  But the whole point of Breuer's book is that if you take the best mss. , in most points where there is a difference you have an overwhelming majority on one side.  And if you take those cases, you end up with almost exactly the Aleppo Codex, its masoretic notes, and the material we find in Kitab alHulaf.  So we need not posit that there was ever one set of masoretic notes common to everyone.  And it goes without saying that mss. will differ one from another, and so you will never have 2 mss. that agree in everything.

Rabbi Dr. Seth Mandel

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From: Mesorah <mesorah-bounces at lists.aishdas.org> on behalf of David and Esther Bannett via Mesorah <mesorah at lists.aishdas.org>
Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2016 4:03 AM
To: David Cohen; Richard Wolpoe
Cc: mesorah
Subject: Re: [Mesorah] A Critique of R Mordechai Breuer's Works

Nobody would claim that there are not many mesorot. Looking at the old manuscripts shows that there are many mesorot. R' Mordekhai Breuer's comparisons between them shows which follow the majority.

But for us what is important is that, beginning with the Rambam, all Jewish authorities agree that we follow the Mesorah of Aharon ben Asher as recorded in the codex known today as the Keter Aram Tzova.  It has been accepted by most authorities that that the Keter is the text that the Rambam knows as the one in Alexandria.

When the bikoret hamikra started in Germany, the antisemites who leaded it where thrilled to be able to show that the Jewish accepted text is all wrong because they uncovered the Leningrad manuscript which, as it is ancient and different, must be the accurate text.  R' Breuer shows that, in the chumash, for example, Leningrad has 120 differences in spelling when compared with the Keter.  While it is one of the best texts in nikkud and t'amim, Leningrad is the worst of all the manuscripts in spelling (the nakdan and the sofer are two different people).  The only Jewish expert who says today that Leningrad is the more accurate text  is Prof. Aharon Dotan of the Hebrew University.  In many shuls and home one can find the Leningrad text.  I have, at home a Leningrad Tanakh put out by the Israeli army. *In my shtender in shul, I have a Leningrad chumash with a shabbat siddur in the back. It is for comparison only. I also have a Breuer and often bring a Bar ILan Keter, a 1817 me'iti Heidenheim with Ein Hakorei, or even a 1803 Mendelsohn with tikun sofrim with me.

As someone might have guessed from the above, as a Jew I have accepted ben Asher and the Keter as the authoritative texts.

One proof of the Keter's identity I love to tell about: When Prof. Cassuto visited Allepo and examined the Keter, he decided that is was not sefer of the Rambam.  He found that shirat Ha'azinu was written in 67 lines. The Mishneh Torah of the Rambam says that there are 70 lines as in our sifrei Torah.  Years later, a manuscript of Mishne Torah with comments and correction in the handwriting of the Rambam himself was found in England. It says that there are 67 lines!  The Temanim, who received the text from the Rambam, also has 67 lines.  Mishneh Torah also notes the first word of the lines of the shirah, one of them being "gam".  The Teimanin, therefore, begin a line with "gam bachur".  The Keter starts the line with "gam betula" after ending the previous line with gam bachur.

BTW, Leningrad has 70 lines.

David

Rabbi Dr. Seth Mand
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