[Mesorah] Is the Masoretic text the most authentic?

[Mandel, Seth]

I am a little surprised at your surprise.
It is well known from the Dead  Sea Scrolls that there were lots of different versions floating around at the time of Chazal.
Which is "more authentic" is not something that we can intelligently talk about; all we know is that there were several.
BUT already R. S‘adya Gaon records that the poskim at his time agreed that the Tiberian tradition was the most correct and should be followed.  The Rambam specifies that that means the Aleppo Codex.  So it is a matter of accepted p'sak (not only the Rambam) that we follow Ben Asher, and that means the Codex.
What exactly was on the versions given to Moshe Rabbeinu? We shall never know.

Rabbi Dr. Seth Mandel
Rabbinic Coordinator
The Orthodox Union

Voice and Fax (212) 613-8330        e-mail mandels at ou.org

________________________________
From: Mesorah <mesorah-bounces at lists.aishdas.org> on behalf of Danny Levy via Mesorah <mesorah at lists.aishdas.org>
Sent: Sunday, November 10, 2019 3:41 PM
To: mesorah at lists.aishdas.org <mesorah at lists.aishdas.org>; Mesorah List <mesorah at aishdas.org>
Subject: [Mesorah] Is the Masoretic text the most authentic?

I recently had a fascinating discussion with Rabbi Yitzchak Goldstein, head of Machon Ott (see ott.co.il<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__ott.co.il&d=DwMFaQ&c=VTwaeXjOsAHot2hQQ0nozrBJwyviuCtydNuGwYGfYiI&r=e6XbAQdGwcl_5FMtQ-t1eA&m=BLIsPqV9kvoZI5V7SQM4Px3CVz1V4yRgqVLn1hnmVrs&s=ZxgHzgcdwIwzkktF5uyLu6HAfyr8dmduMqKBGQvAu9Q&e=>), 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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