Small And Large Letters:

By: Crawford Howell Toy , Judah David Eisenstein

Table of Contents

In Masseket Soferim.
References in Talmud and Midrash.

There are about 100 abnormal letters in the Masoretic text of the Bible—many of them in the Pentateuch—which were always copied by the scribes, and appear also in the printed editions. Among these letters are: the "waw ḳeṭi'a" (ו; bisected waw) in the word ("peace"; Num. xxv. 12); the final "mem" in the word ("increase"; Isa. ix. 6 [A. V. 7]); the inverted "nun" ( ) in nine passages (Num. x. 35, 36; Ps. cvii. 23-28, 40); and the Suspended Letters . The principal division of these abnormal letters is into small ("ze'ira") and large ("rabbati") letters, as indicated in the lists which are given below. The former appear to belong to an older Masorah than that which provides for the large letters, and should be classed with the "ḳere" and "ketib."

The large letters are used mainly to call attention to certain Talmudic and midrashic homilies and citations, or as guards against errors. References to them in Masseket Soferim ix. read substantially as follows:

In Masseket Soferim.

(1) The letters of the first word of Genesis, "Bereshit" (In the beginning), must be spaced ("stretched" = "peshuṭin"; according to the Masorah, only the "bet" is large).
(2) The "waw" in the word "gaḥon" (belly; Lev. xi. 42) must be raised ("erect" = "zaḳuf"), because it is the middle letter of the Pentateuch (comp. Ḳid. 30a).
(3) The word "wa-yishḥaṭ" (And he slew; Lev. viii. 23) must be spaced, as it is the beginning of the middle verse of the Pentateuch (the Masorah designates the dividing verse as ib. 8, but does not indicate that any change is to be introduced in the form or spacing of the letters).
(4) "Shema'" (hear; Deut. vi. 4) must be placed at the beginning of the line, and all its letters must be spaced; "eḥad" (one), the last word of the same verse, must be placed at the end of the line (the Masorah has the "'ayin" of "Shema'" and the "dalet" of "eḥad" large).
(5) The "lamed" in the word "wa-yashlikem" (and he cast them; ib. xxix. 27) must be large ("long" = "'aruk").
(6) The letter "he" in "ha la-Yhwh" ("the Lord"; ib. xxxii. 6) must be spaced more than any other "he," as "ha" is here a separate word (comp. Yer. Meg. i.: "The 'he' must be below the shoulder of the 'lamed'"; also Ex. R. xxiv.: "The 'he' is written below the 'lamed.'" The Masorah has a large "he" as indicating the beginning of a separate word).
(7) The "yod" of the word "teshi" (thou art unmindful; ib. 18) must be smaller ("ḳaṭan") than any other "yod " in the Scriptures.
(8) The "yod" of "yigdal" (be great; Num. xiv. 17) must be larger ("gadol") than any other "yod" in the Pentateuch (Yalḳ., Num. 743, 945).
(9) The last word in the Pentateuch, "Yisrael," must be spaced and the "lamed" made higher than in any other place where this letter occurs (the Masorah has no changes).

References in Talmud and Midrash.

The references in Talmud and Midrash which are probably the bases of these abnormalities are as follows: (1) Citing "For in Y H the Lord created the worlds" (Isa. xxvi. 4, Hebr.), R. Judah b. Ila'i said: "By the letters 'yod' [Y] and 'he' [H] this world and the world to come were created—the former by the 'he,' as it is written ["when they were created," Gen. ii. 4]" (Men. 29b); hence the letter "he" is small here, indicating this world. (2) Citing "And when she saw him that he was a goodly child" ( ; Ex. ii. 2), R. Meïr said: "'Ṭob' ["good"] was his name" (Ex. R. i.; Yalḳ., Ex. 166). (3) "And the Lord called unto Moses" ( ; Lev. i. 1); "wa-yiḳra" is written here with a small "alef," to emphasize its contrast with "wa-yiḳḳar" in the verse "God met Balaam" ( ; Num. xxiii. 4); the former indicates a familiar call used by loved ones, but the latter refers to an accidental meeting, difference being thus expressed between the call of God to a Jewish prophet (Moses) and His call to a non-Jewish prophet (Balaam; Lev. R. i.). (4) "And Caleb stilled the people" ( ; Num. xiii. 30). He used diplomacy in quieting them, as he feared they might not heed his advice (see Soṭah 35a; Yalḳ., Num. 743); and the use of the large ט symbolically denotes the way in which Caleb quieted the people. (5) "Hear, O Israel . . . one God" (Deut. vi. 4). Whosoever prolongs the word "eḥad" [one] in reciting the "Shema'" prayer, his days and years shall be prolonged—especially if he prolongs the letter "dalet" (Ber. 13b). The emphasis on the "dalet" (ד) is intended to distinguish it from the "resh" (ד), which resembles it, and which would change the reading to "aḥer" (another)—in this case a blasphemous expression. (6) Proverbs ( ) begins with a large "mem"—which has the numerical value of forty—because it is claimed that Solomon, like Moses, fasted forty days before penetrating to the secret of the Torah. According to another explanation, the "mem" is the center of the alphabet, as the heart is the center of the body, the fountain of all wisdom, as revealed in Solomon's Proverbs (Yalḳ., Prov. 929). (7) The large "waw" in "Vajezatha" ( ; Esth.ix. 9) is accounted for by the fact that all of Haman's ten children were hanged on one large cross resembling the "waw" (ו; Yalḳ., Prov. 1059). The "zayin" in the same name is small, probably to indicate that Vajezatha was the youngest son.

Other large letters were intended to guard against possible errors; for instance, in the passage "when the cattle were feeble" ( ; Gen. xxx. 42) final "pe" (ף) is written large in order that it may not be mistaken for a final "nun" (ן) and the word be read (comp. in Job xxi. 24). The Septuagint translation, based on the second version, is "whenever the cattle happened to bring forth."

The large letters in the words "ha-ke-zonah" (Gen. xxxiv. 31), "ha-la- Yhwh " (Deut. xxxii. 6), and "ha-le-'olamim" (Ps. lxxvii. 8) are probably meant to divide the root from the two preformatives. Some books begin with large letters, e.g. , Genesis, Proverbs, and Chronicles; perhaps originally these were divided into separate compilations, each beginning with a large letter. The large "mem" in "ma ṭobu" (Num. xxiv. 5) is probably meant to mark the beginning of the column as designated by the Masorah.

Jacob b. Asher, author of the "Ṭurim," gives in his annotations to the Pentateuch various reasons—some of them far-fetched—for the small letters. He says, for instance: "The small 'kaf' of , in the verse 'Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her,' indicates that Abraham really cried but little, since Sarah died in a ripe old age. The small 'ḳof' [=100] in , in the verse 'Rebekah said to Isaac: I am weary of life' [Gen. xxvii. 46], indicates the height of the Temple, 100 cubits. Rebekah in her prophetic vision saw that the Temple would be destroyed, and therefore she became weary of life."

Small Letters .

Passage.	Translation.	Hebrew Letter.
Gen. ii. 4	created		he
Gen. xxiii. 2	weep		kaf
Gen. xxvii. 46	weary		ḳof
Ex. xxxii. 25	enemies	^*	ḳof
Lev. l. 1	call		alef
Lev. vi. 2	burning		mem
Num. xxv. 11	Phinehas		yed
Deut. ix. 24	rebelious		first mem
Deut. xxxii. 18	unmindful		yod
II Sam. xxi. 19	Jaare		resh
II Kings xvii. 31	Nibhaz		zayin
Isa. xliv. 14	ash (tree)		final nun
Jer. xiv. 2	cry		Ẓade
Jer. xxxix. 13	Nebushazhan		final nun
Nah. i. 3	Whirlwind		samek
Ps. xxiv. 5	vain		waw
Prov. xvi. 28	whisperer		final nun
Prov. xxviii. 17	man		dalet
Prov. xxx. 15	give		bet
Job. vii. 5	clods		gimel
Job. xvi. 14	breach		final ẓade
Lam. i. 12	nothing		lamed
Lam. ii. 9	sunk		ṭet
Lam. iii. 35	subvert		'ayin
Esth. ix. 7	Parshandatha		taw
Esth. ix. 7	Parmashta		shin
Esth. ix. 9	Vajezatha		zayin
Dan. vi. 20	very early		first pe

Large Letters .

Passage.	Translation.	Hebrew Letter.
Gen. i. 1	beginning		bet
Gen. xxx. 42	feeble	^*	final pe
Gen. xxxiv. 31	harlot	^*	zayin
Gen. l. 23	third generation	^*	final mem
Ex. ii. 2	good	^*	ṭet
Ex. xxxiv. 7	keeping		nun
Ex. xxxiv. 14	other		resh
Lev. xi. 30	lizard	^*	lamed
Lev. xi. 42	belly		waw
Lev. xiii. 33	shaven		gimel
Num. xiii. 31	stilled	^*	samek
Num. xiv. 17	be great		yod
Num. xxiv. 5	how	^*	mem
Num. xxvii. 5	cause		final nun
Deut. vi. 4	hear		'ayin
Deut. vi. 4	one		dalet
Deut. xviii. 13	perfect	^*	taw
Deut. xxix. 27	cast them		lamed
Deut. xxxii. 4	rock	^*	ẓade
Deut. xxxii. 6	Lord		first he
Josh. xiv. 11	strength		first kaf
Isa. lvi. 10	watchman		ẓade
Mal. iii. 22	remember		zayin
Ps. lxxvii. 8	forever	^*	he
Ps. lxxx. 15	vineyard		kaf
Ps. lxxxiv. 4	nest		ḳof
Prov. i. 1	proverbs		mem
Job ix. 34	rod		ṭet
Cant. i. 1	song		shin
Ruth. iii. 13	tarry	^*	nun
Eccl. vii. 1	good		ṭet
Eccl. xii. 13	conclusion		samek
Esth. i. 6	white		ḥet
Esth. ix. 9	Vajezatha		waw
Esth. ix. 29	wrote		first taw
Dan. vi. 20	dawn		second pe
I Chron. i. 1	Adam		alef

T. J. D. E.