User:Dovi/Miqra according to the Masorah/Information about this Edition/Appendices

List of Corrections
Since the end of summer 5780 (2020), all corrections and improvements in our edition are listed in an orderly fashion on the '' page in the spreadsheet.

It is possible to track changes made earlier in the "past revisions" tab of each chapter in the Bible. For that purpose one can use "version history" generally, and "edit history" for each cell in the spreadsheet.

The Two Main Manuscripts which Underlie the Biblical Text
The text of our edition is based upon two primary manuscripts: the Aleppo Codex and the Leningrad Codex.

A. The Aleppo Codex (Hebrew כתר ארם צובה, also כתי"א or הכתר or א or A)
 * Photographs of the manuscript: There are several places where photographs of the Aleppo Codex are available for free download. The most complete and high-quality file is found here on Wikimedia Commons, and for easy reading and browsing of the same scan, see its source here at the Internet Archive (all existing pages in this scan are of high quality). Additional files of the Aleppo Codex can be found on Wikimedia Commons and the Internet Archive. The Internet Archive has another direct scan of the manuscript here, and other downloads here and here.
 * Navigating the manuscript by chapters: to navigate the manuscript by selected chapter, see Mikra'ot Gedolot 'Haketer' website, and in the menu on the left choose עיון במאגר ‘הכתר’‬ ('Browse the Aleppo Codex Database'), then select הצג > תנ”ך ועזרים נוספים > צילום כת”י כתר ארם צובה, that is, View > Bible and Additional Helps > Photocopy of the Aleppo Codex.
 * ‮א(ס)‬ or A(S) = the text of the Aleppo Codex according to Yaakov Sapir according to ‮מאורות נתן‬ (Meorot Natan)‬ – see here and here.
 * ‮א(ק)‬ or A(K) = the text of the Aleppo Codex according to the testimony of Yehoshua Kimchi as related by Yosef Ofer’s article ‮כתר ארם צובא והתנ”ך של ר’ שלום שכנא ילין‬ (“The Aleppo Codex and the Tanakh of Rabbi Shalom Shachna Yellin” – link, link) – based upon Yehoshua Kimchi’s comments in this Tanakh.

B. The Leningrad Codex (Hebrew כתב־יד לנינגרד, also כתי"ל or ל or L, Leningrad B 19a)
 * Photographs of the manuscript: photos of the Leningrad Codex (for download) can be found at the Internet Archive here in full color (but without the cover and Masorah pages). Here and here, and at Wikimedia, they are in black and white, including the cover and the pages of the Masoretic Text.
 * Digital transcription of the manuscript’s photographs: Westminster website, updated version on the UXLC website. At either site you can see and download the manuscript page for any selected passage by clicking ‘Go’ next to ‘LC facsimile’.

Additional Manuscripts (Tiberian and Yemenite)
Photographs of additional manuscripts were compared in difficult places (some accessible online and some in the university library). They were selected based on the classification and description of the manuscripts closed to the Aleppo Codex in the last chapter of Israel Yeivin, The Aleppo Codex: Its Vocalization and Accentuation (Chapter 56, pages 357-375).


 * 1) ‭‮כתי”ש‬ or MS S (Torah)‬: Codex Sassoon 507. Full photographs of the manuscript are at Wikisource and the Internet Archive.
 * 2) כתי"ל1 or MS L1 (Torah). This is MS Lehmann ("למ" in Breuer), which was previously MS #14 in the Karaite synagogue of Cairo. It was written by Samuel ben Jacob, who is also the scribe and masorete of the Leningrad Codex (L).
 * 3) ‭‮כתי”ל2‬ or MS L2 (Torah, link‬): Leningrad manuscript Firkovich B17. Written by Shlomo ben Buya’a, the same scribe who wrote the letter-text of the Aleppo Codex.
 * 4) כתי”ב or MS B (Torah, link‬): Manuscript Or 4445 in the British Museum. (We did not use this manuscript in practice, because its photograph was not yet accessible during the preparation of the project, nor was it necessary to determine the wording according to the considerations set out in the third chapter of the introduction. It is true that this manuscript is of great importance as evidence of the development of the text of the Torah (in its letters, vocalization, and accents), and Breuer used it in his research for his book on the Aleppo Codex. We have therefore seldom mentioned the text of the manuscript in the notes of the text, relying on what is quoted from it in the Ginsburg edition (where it is referred to as “A”) and in Breuer’s notes.
 * 5) ‬כתי”ו or MS W (Torah‬, link): a typical Tiberian manuscript that went online with high-quality photography courtesy of the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C. in August 2019. We did not actually use this manuscript to prepare this edition, because its photograph was not yet accessible at the time. But we intend use it to supplement the documentation of the text in the Torah regarding the vocalization and accents and metegs in some places that are difficult to decide. The manuscript is clearly legible and is well-preserved for the most part until the beginning of Parshat Nitzavim (in some places, missing material has been filled in with other manuscripts, as at the end of the Torah). That being the case, it provides additional evidence for most of the missing Torah of the Aleppo Codex, which begins with the end of Deuteronomy.
 * 6) כתי”ק or MS C (Nevi'im‬): Cairo Codex of the Prophets.
 * 7) כתי”ת‬ or MS T (Ketuvim): Cambridge Add. 1753, or "קמ" ‮‬according to Breuer. The ת stands ‭for ‮תימני‬ (Teimani, "Yemenite"). This‬ Yemenite manuscript, from the 14th or 15th century, was described by Yeivin in his article, “The Division into Sections in the Book of Psalms”, Textus VII (1969), p. 80. According to Yeivin it is a direct or nearly direct copy of the Aleppo Codex itself. In practice, this manuscript is very important in matters of spelling and parashah in the books of the Ketuvim in the Aleppo Codex. A facsimile of this manuscript in microfilm can be found at the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts at the National Library, where it is filed under F 17490 F 17508. Details here.
 * 8) כתי”ב1‬ or MS B1 (Ketuvim‬): British Library Or 2375 (ב1 in Breuer). For full information on the manuscript and the additional volumes accompanying it (the books of the Nevi'im) see here.
 * 9) כתי”ש1‬ or MS S1 (Bible‬): Manuscript Sassoon 1053 (ש1 in Yeivin and שׂ in Breuer). A photocopy of this manuscript in microfilm can be found at the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts at the National Library (filed under F 8881), with its details in the catalogue here. A full photocopy is available online (at the bottom of the page). Although the hundreds of photographs there are inefficient to use, we have uploaded them here in useful PDF files, one file per book.

See also the First Gaster Bible (Egypt, 10th century), British Library Or 9879; and the Second (Egypt, 11th or 12th centuries), British Library Or 9880.

Biblical Editions Based on Tiberian Manuscripts
In places where the wording is unclear in manuscript photographs, we consulted manuscript-based editions to see how the editors deciphered the text. We referred to them by the following abbreviations:

Editions based on the Leningrad Codex

 * 1) BHS = תורה נביאים וכתובים Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia 1984.
 * 2) Dotan = the editions of Aron Dotan (Adi Publishing 2005/6; Biblia Hebraica Leningradensia 2001).
 * 3) הקלדה or המקליד = the‬ Westminster transcription in its time, now UXLC. This is a digital transcription with textual comments under professional supervision. The free license in the first link is expected to change, but the same project continues further under the free license in the second link, and has important corrections and updates. This transcript was originally based on BHS (and not the Leningrad Codex directly), so it has errors originating from BHS and references to it in the comments.

Editions based on the Aleppo Codex

 * 1) Breuer = Editions of Rabbi Mordechai Breuer (Rabbi Kook Institute 5749; Horev 5757; Jerusalem Crown 5760).
 * 2) Mechon Mamre = the online edition of Mechon Mamre (based on the editions of Breuer).
 * 3) מג"ה = Mikra'ot Gedolot 'Haketer',‬ edited by Menachem Cohen. We have used volumes published by Bar-Ilan University since the year 5752 (only since 2017 or 2018 has there been easy access to the online edition of the entire Bible).
 * 4) Simanim = the Simanim Tanakh (Feldheim 5768).

Printed Editions (Not Based on Tiberian Manuscripts)
In many places we have documented the wording in common editions of the Tanakh, and particularly in places where the text of the original manuscript (the Aleppo or Leningrad Codex) raises a particular difficulty. However, these editions were rarely a consideration in determining the text itself. Rather, mentioning them them in textual notes is meant to document the development of the text in recent generations, as it is found in the most well-known and widely-read editions, and consequently to prevent surprises for people who compare those editions to ours.


 * 1) ‮מ״ג‬ = Miqra'ot‬ Gedolot, printed in Venice, Second Edition (c. 1523-25). We did not usually mention it in the text documentation, except in particular places where it was needed; instead, we noted in general the typically accepted wording found in the many printings that followed it (see #2 below). For a full scan, see the Internet Archive: Volume I (Torah), Volume II (Nevi'im Rishonim), Volume III (Nevi'im Aḥaronim), Volume IV (Ketuvim).
 * 2) Printed editions (דפוסים) = selected editions of the Hebrew Bible from the 19th and early 20th centuries, some of them reprinted later in numerous fascimile editions. Among them: the editions of Heidenheim (Torah), Heidenheim printed the Torah several times. Except for the first time (Torat Elohim, which was published in the year 5557, and contained only the Book of Genesis to the middle of Parashat Mikeitz), the following times he reprinted the Pentateuch from exactly the same typset edition of the verses, but each time with different commentaries or translation. These volumes were published simultaneously by Heidenheim in the years 5578-5581: (1) the Ḥumash Ma'or Einayim (with the commentary `Ein ha-Kore for readers of the Torah, and the commentary `Ein ha-Sofer for scribes), (2) the `Ein ha-Sofer (with only the commentary `Ein ha-Sofer for scribes), (3) Ḥumash Moda` la-Binah (with Rashi's commentary and the commentary Havanat ha-Miqra by Heidenheim),  (4) Sefer Torat Moshe (with a German translation in Hebrew letters and the commentary Minḥah Ḥadashah). Heidenheim's Torah was reprinted after his death in the Ḥumash Rodelheim of 5607 [1846-7] (reprinted in 5624 [1863-4] in Hebrew alongside a German translation), and again in the Ḥumash Rodelheim 5620 [1859-60], which has a revised text of Targum Onkelos and Rashi's commentary (Heidenheim had intended to publish a Pentateuch with Targum and Rashi during his lifetime, and in the Ḥumash Rodelheim of 5620, notes were printed which he had left in his own handwriting). Leeser-Jaquett (Miqra), Letteris (Miqra), Bamberger-Hildesheimer-Lehmann (Miqra), Baer (Genesis, Nevi'im and Ketuvim), Ginsburg (Miqra), and the Miqra'ot Gedolot Netter Edition (Torah) and Warsaw Edition (Miqra). It is important to note that by "Printed editions" (דפוסים) we do not mean the Venice, 1525 edition of the Miqra'ot Gedolot, which we denote instead by מ”ג (see #1 above). This is in contrast to how ד is used in Breuer.
 * 3) Koren (קורן) = the Koren Edition of the Tanakh (Jerusalem, 5722).

Additional Tools
In addition to photographs of the manuscripts and printings of the Tanakh, we also used the following tools:


 * 1) The comments of the editor in the Westminster transcript;
 * 2) The broad commentary on the Masoretic notes found in the Leningrad Codex found in BHQ (in the volumes which have already appeared, and especially in the volumes on the Five Scrolls and Ezra-Nehemiah);
 * 3) Aron Dotan's lists at the end of the volumes in his two editions ("Adi" and _BHL_);
 * 4) The books and articles of Israel Yeivin, particularly his masterpiece – The Aleppo Codex: Its Vocalization and Accentuation;
 * 5) The books and articles and lists of Rabbi Mordechai Breuer (especially The Aleppo Codex and the Received Text of the Bible. Any general reference to “Breuer” is a reference to this book.).
 * 6) The elaborate introduction to the text of the Bible in Mikra'ot Gedolot 'Haketer' (in the volume Joshua-Judges, 5752).
 * 7) The classical Masoretic literature, especially Minḥat Shai.

Divisions of the Parashot
As for the divisions of the parashot into open sections (petuḥot) and closed sections (setumot), we used the information and sources presented in this article.

List of Templates for Documentation and Design
In our edition we used templates to allow local documentation and automatic formatting for special biblical phenomena.

[To be continued.]