[Mesorah] Is the Masoretic text the most authentic?

[Danny Levy]

I recently had a fascinating discussion with Rabbi Yitzchak Goldstein, head
of Machon Ott (see ott.co.il), who is very knowledgeable about differences
in minhagim of writing Sifrei Torah among the various communities over
hundreds of years.

I mentioned to him that every year on Shabbat Noach I feel a twinge of
sadness when I hear the Ba'al Kore lein "Vayhi kol y'mei Noach" (9:29),
considering the work of R. Breuer and others who have proven conclusively
that the text in Yemenite Sifrei Torah, "Vayihyu kol y'mei Noach", is that
of the Ba'alei Hamesorah.  His response was "Eilu v'eilu divrei Elokim
chaim" and our text is no less authentic than any other.  To illustrate his
point he mentioned a number of places in the Gemara where it is evident
that Chaza"l and the Rishonim had texts or spellings that were different
from what we have today and different from the Masoretic text (R. Akiva
Eiger gives a long list of examples in Gilyon Hashass on Shabbat 55b).  He
also mentioned the fact that the Aleppo community preserved the Sephardic
tradition of writing Sifrei Torah and did not correct them according the
Aleppo Codex despite their tradition (now confirmed) that it was the Tanach
that the Rambam relied on in his Hilchot Sefer Torah as being the most
accurate.

I would welcome input from group members on this interesting question: is
the Masoretic text the closest we can get to the text of the Torah given to
Moshe Rabbeinu or is it just one tradition, not necessarily preferable to
others?

Danny Levy
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