Torah scroll (Yemenite)

Yemenite scrolls of the Law containing the Five Books of Moses represent one of three authoritative scribal traditions for the transmission of the Torah, the other two being the Ashkenazi and Sephardic traditions that slightly differ. While all three traditions purport to follow the Masoretic traditions of Aaron ben Asher, slight differences between the three major traditions have developed over the years. Biblical texts proofread by ben Asher survive in two extant codices, the latter said to have only been patterned after texts proofread by Ben Asher. The former work, although more precise, was partially lost following its removal from Aleppo in 1947.
The Yemenite Torah scroll is unique in that it contains many of the oddly-formed letters, such as the "overlapping" pe and the "crooked" lamed, etc., mentioned in Sefer Tagae, as also by Menachem Meiri and by Maimonides, although not found in ben Asher's orthography. The old line arrangements employed by the early Yemenite scribes in their Torah scrolls are nearly the same as prescribed by ben Asher. Like ben Asher's Masoretic tradition, it also contains nearly all the plene and defective scriptum, as well as the large and small letters employed in the writing of the Torah, a work held by medieval scribes in Israel to be the most accurate of all Masoretic traditions.
The disputes between ben Asher and Ben Naphtali are well-known to Hebrew grammarians. Maimonides' verdict in that dispute is in accordance with ben Asher.

The codex that we have relied upon in these matters is the well-known codex in Egypt, comprising twenty-four canonical books, which was in Jerusalem for several years to proof-read the scrolls there from, and all used to rely upon it, since Ben-Asher had proof-read it and scrutinized it for many years, and proof-read it many times, just as they had copied down. Now, upon it, I relied with regard to the book of the Law that I wrote, according to the rules which govern its proper writing.

Maimonides' ruling in this regard eventually caused the Jews of Yemen to abandon their former system of orthography, and during his lifetime most scribes in Yemen had already begun to replace their former system of orthography for that of Ben-Asher. Scribes in Yemen, especially the illustrious Benayah family of scribes of the 15th and 16th centuries, patterned their own codices containing the proper orthography, vocalization and accentuation after Maimonides' accepted practice in his Sefer Torah, who, in turn, had based his Torah-scroll on Ben-Asher's orthography, with especial attention given to the line arrangements of the two Prosaic Songs mentioned by him, the Open and Closed sections of the Torah, and plene and defective scriptum. Such codices were disseminated all throughout Yemen. The tījān were copied with particular care, since they were intended as model texts from which scribes would copy Torah scrolls, with the one exception that in the Torah scrolls themselves they contained no vocalization and accentuations. In most of these tījān, every three pages equalled one column in the Sefer Torah. A recurring avowal appears in nearly all copies of codices penned by the Benayah family, namely, that the codex which lay before the reader was written "completely according to the arrangement of the book that was in Egypt, which was edited by Ben Asher...." Based on the preceding lines of this avowal, the reference is to the Open and Closed sections that were copied from the section on orthography in the Yemenite MS. of Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah, a work which Maimonides himself claims to have been based on Ben-Asher, universally recognized since the time of Maimonides as the most accurate recension of the Hebrew Bible. Benayah’s use of this avowal simply mirrors the words of Maimonides in his Hilkhot Sefer Torah, while most scholars doubt if he had actually seen a codex proofread by Ben-Asher. Others say that the avowal merely refers to the Tiberian masoretic tradition adopted by the Benayah family in their codices.

Layout

The Yemenite scroll of the Torah is traditionally written on 51 lines to each column, for a total of 226 columns, a tradition that differs from Ashkenazi and Sephardic scrolls which are almost exclusively made of 42 lines to each column. Unique to Yemenite scrolls, based on what is prescribed in their codices, is that each column concludes with the end of a particular verse and begins with the start of a new verse; never broken in the middle. Each column starts with the opening lines of a new verse, excepting in only six designated places, whose mnemonics are בי"ה שמ"ו, and excepting in the two prosaic songs, where the columns in these places begin in the middle of a verse. These six places are the only exceptions to the rule, and which practice is intended to ensure uniformity and exactness in the scribal practice and layout in the Sefer Torah throughout all generations. The average width of each column is approximately four finger-breadths, usually, with a space of between columns. Columns containing the Prosaic Songs are considerably wider to facilitate the writing of the song in its usual format. For the Prosaic Song Ha'azinu, the first column which contains the song is made ca. in width, while the second column that concludes the song is made ca. in width. For the Prosaic Song of the Sea the column measures approximately in width. The sheets of parchment used in making the scroll measure approximately in length, although varying in width, with at least three columns to each sheet. Most are made with full-grain leather, that is, leather where the "split" layer has not been removed from it. In Yemen, the custom was to treat the raw hide with a tannin-solution made from the leaves of Acacia etbaica to ensure the leather's lasting durability. This also gave to the leather a reddish-brown luster. The sheets of parchment were traditionally sewn together with sinews taken from the animal's loins, rather than from the animal's heels.

Plene and defective scriptum

There are thirteen orthographic traditions in the first category which are peculiar to the Yemenite tradition and which differ from the traditions borne by other groups. The Yemenite arrangement has been published in many sources, the most notable of which being that of the last Chief Rabbi of Yemen, Rabbi Amram Qorah. By a comparative study, the Yemenite tradition in plene and defective scriptum is nearly in complete harmony with that of the Aleppo Codex which was proofread by the masorete, Ben-Asher.

Verses	Content	Change
	Genesis
	גדול עוני מנשא	The word מנשא is written without a "waw"
	נבקעו כל מעינת	The word מעינת is written without a "waw"
	ויהיו כל ימי נח	The word ויהיו is written as a plural with a final "waw"
	פוטיפרע	Every פוטיפרע is written as one word
	Exodus
	תעשה המנורה	The word תעשה is written without a "yod"
	אל עבר האפד	The word האפד is written without a "waw"
	Leviticus
	פרשת כל חלב	This section is written as an "Open Section"
	פרשת המקריב	This is neither a "Closed" nor an "Open" Section
	Numbers
	אשר נקבו בשמת	The word בשמת is written without a "waw"
	ובראשי חדשיכם	The word חדשיכם is written with a "yod"
	בלעם בן בער	The word בער is written without a "waw"
	בריתי שלום	The letter "waw" in שלום is written as all other "waws"
	Deuteronomy
	פצוע דכא	The word דכא is written with an "aleph", instead of "he."

The prevailing view is that if there is found a Torah scroll that has not been written as prescribed in all of the above then that same scroll is invalid and is considered as merely one of the codices.

Irregular letters

Rabbi Yitzhak Razhabi has noted that in the Yemenite Jewish tradition there are over 400 peculiar types of letters in the Torah and which have been largely adhered to by Yemenite scribes. While these irregular letters do not invalidate a Torah scroll if they had been neglected, the scribes in Yemen still strictly adhered to its practice.

The Large Letters

The Yemenite tradition of writing the Otiyyot Gedolot in the Torah differs in some respects from other communities, and follows the traditions as they received them from the scribes of old. The following is a list of all the Large Letters found in the Yemenite scroll of the Pentateuch, as published by 17th century Yemenite scribe, Rabbi Yihye Bashiri, in his book, Havatzelet Hasharon:

Verses	Content	Change
	Genesis
	בראשית	The letter "bet" of "breishit" is written in large script
	זה ספר תולדת אדם	The letter "semakh" of "sefer" is written in large script
	Exodus
	לא תשתחוה לאל אחר	The letter "resh" of "aḥer" is written in large script
	Leviticus
	כל הולך על גחון	The letter "waw" of "ğaḥon" is written in large script
	והתגלח ואת הנתק	The letter "ğimel" of "wehithğalaḥ" is written in large script
	Numbers
	ועתה יגדל נא כח אדני	The letter "yod" of "yigdal" is written in large script
	ויקרב משה את משפטן	The letter "nun" of "mishpaṭan" is written in large script
	Deuteronomy
	שמע ישראל יי' אלהינו	The letter "ayin" of "shǝma" is written in large script
	יי' אלהינו יי' אחד	The letter "daleth" of "eḥad" is written in large script
	כימי השמים על הארץ	The letter "ṣadi" of "ha'areṣ" is written in large script
	קן צפור	The letter "qof" of "qen" is written in large script
	וישלכם אל ארץ אחרת	The letter "lamed" of "wayashlikhem" is written in large script
	הליי' תגמלו זאת	The letter "he" of "haladonai" is written in large script
	אשריך ישראל מי כמוך	The letter "aleph" of "ashrekha" is written in large script

Unlike the scribal tradition of Ashkenaz and Sepharad which is to make the nun of נצר חסד לאלפים in Exodus of large size, in the Yemenite Jewish tradition the nun is of regular size. Rabbi Yihye Bashiri, in his Havatzelet HaSharon, brings down other traditions concerning the writing of large and small letters in the Torah scroll, but which traditions were not practised in Yemen, and therefore ought to be reckoned as his sole opinion (since they are not mentioned by the renowned Yemenite scribe David Benayah, neither are they written in the Hibshoosh Codex, nor mentioned by the last Chief Rabbi of Yemen, Rabbi Amram Qorah, or in the vast majority of Yemenite codices. Rabbi Yihye Bashiri had, apparently, culled these other traditions from the writings of the kabbalists and other rabbinic scholars outside of Yemen, and wished to incorporate them in the Yemenite tradition, but which practices had never taken hold in Yemen.

The Small Letters

Unlike the scribal tradition of Ashkenaz and Sepharad which is to make the mim of על מוקדה in Leviticus of small size, in the Yemenite Jewish tradition the mim is of regular size. Likewise, the letter "yod" in the word פינחס is written in regular size in the Yemenite tradition, unlike the tradition of other communities who make it small.

Oddly-shaped letters

According to Rashi, the final nun in וימת תרח בחרן is to be written upside down, although this was never a practice in the Yemenite Jewish tradition. Instead, the final nun here was written in its ordinary fashion. In other places, however, the Yemenites have preserved the practice of making oddly-shaped letters, where the tradition called for doing so. The Yemenite tradition calls for making 154 overlapping pe`s in their designated places, with the mouth recoiling inwards upon itself. The following is an abridged list of some of the common usages in Yemenite Torah scrolls.

Verses	Content	Change
	Genesis
	על גחנך תלך	The left leg of the "ḥet" in גחנך is widely spread out
	וקוץ ודרדר תצמיח לך	The left leg of the "ḥet" is widely spread out
	כתנות עור וילבשם	The head of the "lamed" is extended with zig-zag strokes to the left
	וישלחהו יי' אלהים	The head of the "lamed" in וישלחהו is extended with zig-zag strokes to the left
	ואת להט החרב המתהפכת	The head of the "lamed" in להט is extended with zig-zag strokes to the left
	את דמי אחיך מידך	The left leg of the "ḥet" in אחיך is widely spread out
	רוח חיים באפיו	The "pe" in באפיו is made to recoil inwards
	קצתי בחיי מפני בנות חת	The left leg of the "ḥet" in חת is widely spread out, and the "pe" of מפני is overlapping
	שם יוסף צפנת פענח	The "pe" in צפנת and in פענח are each overlapping
	אסנת בת פוטיפרע	The two "pe"s in פוטיפרע are each overlapping
	לא כי ערות הארץ באתם לראות	The bottom left leg of the "aleph" in the word לא is written with a slight inversion upwards
	Leviticus
	יום כפרים הוא לכפר	The letter "pe" in כפרים and in לכפר are made overlapping
	Numbers
	ויהי בנסע הארן	Before and after the verse, there are two characters resembling an inverted nun
	והוא לא תצלח	The left leg of the "ḥet" in תצלח is widely spread out
	Deuteronomy
	לנכרי תשיך	The head of the letter "lamed" is inverted backwards
	מראש פרעות אויב	The "pe" in פרעות is overlapping

Prosaic Song ''Ha'azinu''

Jewish scribes have preserved a carefully guarded tradition regarding the line arrangements of certain verses, namely, which words are to be written at the forefront of a line, and which words are to be written at the end of the same. The line arrangements of Shirat Ha'azinu in the Yemenite Torah scrolls follow closely that of Ben Asher as conveyed by Maimonides' Mishne Torah, and, unlike the Sephardic tradition of writing the song in seventy lines, the Yemenite tradition is to write the song in only sixty-seven lines.
The column on the sheet of parchment containing the prosaic song Ha'azinu is made wider than other columns, so as to make room for the poem's layout, written in the format of sixty-seven double half-columns, meaning to say, spaces are made between the verses which appear to descend in two columns. The prosaic song itself is preceded by a blank space, above which are six lines that are written in a format fixed by tradition, with the following words at the head of each line: the 1st line starting with ואעידה and ending with ידעתי; the 2nd line starting with אחרי and ending with מן; the 3rd line starting with הדרך and ending with הרעה; the 4th line starting with באחרית and ending with God's divine name, יהוה; the 5th line starting with להכעיסו and ending with כל; and the 6th line starting with קהל and ending with תמם. The original Yemenite practice was to write these six short lines with indentations before and after the text of each line, rather than draw-out the lines unto the margins by stretching certain letters within the text. The scribal practice of indenting these six lines was also the widespread practice used in Turkey, in very old and exquisite Torah scrolls during the time of Rabbi Chaim Benveniste. After these six lines there is a space followed by the Prosaic Song, written in the format of a song. The Yemenite tradition follows the Aleppo Codex's layout of the Prosaic Song, excepting lines 38 and 39, being the only deviation in word sequence, now believed by most scholars to be an anomaly, by way of confusing the double usage of the Hebrew word גם and not knowing which word Maimonides actually had in mind when bringing down the condensed layout for the song. A Sephardic codex written between the 11th–12th century shows a tradition that is identical to that of the Yemenite tradition with respect to the line arrangements in the poetic song Ha'azinu.

Lines	Aleppo Codex
Line no. 38	עם חמת זחלי עפר.............מחוץ תשכל חרב ומחדרים אימה גם בחור
Line no. 39	גם בתולה יונק עם איש שיבה............. אמרתי אפאיהם
Lines	Yemenite Tradition
Line no. 38	עם חמת זחלי עפר............. מחוץ תשכל חרב ומחדרים אימה
Line no. 39	גם בחור גם בתולה יונק עם איש שיבה............. אמרתי אפאיהם

Prosaic Song of the Sea

The "Song of the Sea" is traditionally made on lines appearing as half-bricks set over whole bricks. Rabbi Meir ben Todros Halevi, when trying to ascertain the correct scribal tradition, mentions his having written to Shemuel ibn Tibbon the physician of Marseilles, inquiring about the scroll of the Torah that was with him and which was copied from Maimonides’ scroll of the Torah. Ibn Tibbon replied, sending to him an accurate copy of the arranged lines of the Song of the Sea in Exodus 15:1–19 as found in the scroll that was copied from Maimonides’ Torah scroll. He writes that he found the three words, את מי הים, written at the beginning of the last line. Notwithstanding, Rabbi Meir ben Todros admitted to having deviated from this tradition, having decided against its orthography, seeing that in the Song of the Sea all of the previous lines had thus far ended in one word, and it seemed fitting to him that the second to the last line should also end in one word. He therefore changed its order, by his own admittance. The author of Minḥat Shai followed in suit and also changed the original order of the last two lines in the Song of the Sea. The Yemenite Jews still maintain the old tradition in the line arrangements of the Song of the Sea, following Ben Asher's format in the words that are to begin each line, as well as in the words which are to conclude each line. Their fidelity to tradition has been praised by Dr. Penkower, a specialist of Textual Transmission of the Bible and the Masorah at the Department of the Bible in Bar-Ilan University, who wrote: "It's worthy of adding that in the Yemenite manuscripts of the Torah the arrangement of lines in the Prosaic Song of the Sea is exactly like the arrangement found in the Aleppo Codex, including the last two lines and the lines that are before the Song and that are after it."
While all communities will write the Song of the Sea on thirty lines, the format which concludes the song has been slightly altered in some communities due to the doubt raised by Rabbi Meir Abulafia ben Todros of Spain. In the old Sephardic codex, written between the 11th–12th century, it shows the arrangement of lines in the Prosaic "Song of the Sea" just as prescribed by Ben-Asher and as found in the Yemenite tradition, before Rabbi Meir b. Todros Halevi's emendation.

Layout of the Song of the Sea

Testimonies from travelers and emissaries who had seen the Aleppo Codex have concurred, unequivocally, that the words, כס יה in, were written as one word,. However, in the Yemenite tradition, the words are not joined together, but are written as two words, just as the words appear in the Leningrad Codex and in the Damascus Pentateuch. This anomaly may be attributed to the fact that the Yemenite copyists in their transmission of the masorah made use of several ancient works, and perhaps even their own ancient Torah scrolls, just as they did when conveying the plene and defective scripta of the textus receptus – yet, without the aid or assistance of Maimonides who left no indication on how these words should be written, or just as they did also with the irregular letters written in the Torah, although here, too, Maimonides gave no indication about which of these letters should be made differently. While Ben Asher was the arbiter in cases of vocalization in the Aleppo Codex, he was not, admittedly, the scribe who wrote the text, which scribe was rather Shlomo ben Buya'a. Since the Leningrad Codex, a codex also proofread by Ben-Asher, stands at variance here with the Aleppo Codex's entry, one might only speculate if Ben-Asher ever totally agreed with everything written in those codices. Yishai ben Amram ha-Cohen Amadi, a man who had actually seen the Aleppo Codex and noted its rendition of כסיה as one word, continued to write in his own papers the word as being made-up of two words. Moreover, the Treatise Sofrim which brings down a list of words in the Torah that are written as one word, but read as two words does not list כסיה as one of these words.
Mordechai Breuer makes note of the fact that "versions in the Talmud differ in many instances from the versions of the Masoretes. Accordingly, Talmudic versions are of no relevance here; perhaps they reflect the 'correct' or 'original' text of the Bible, but they are non-Masoretic by definition, and they have nothing to do with the uniform version which was accepted by the Tiberian Masoretes."
Similarly, according to Rashi, the verse ויהי ביום כלות משה is written with כלת in defective scriptum. This, however, is not the case in the Masoretic Texts, nor in the Yemenite Jewish tradition, where the word כלות is written in plene scriptum. Elsewhere, according to Rashi, the word פילגשים in is also written in defective scriptum, and which is not the case in either the Masoretic texts or in the Yemenite Jewish tradition.

Other line arrangements

A famous rabbinic dictum states that scribes are to be careful to have certain columns begin with fixed words, known by their mnemonics, בי"ה שמ"ו. These, too, can be found in their designated places, each letter commencing the word of that column. Such was also the practice in Yemen. For example: The Hebrew character bet represents the first word in the Torah, בראשית ; the Hebrew character yod represents יהודה אתה יודוך ; the Hebrew character he represents הבאים אחריהם בים ; the Hebrew character shin represents שמר ושמעת ; the Hebrew character mim represents מוצא שפתיך תשמר ; and, finally, the Hebrew character waw represents ואעידה בם. Different traditions abound for other communities who traditionally make use of a 42-line column. In the Yemenite tradition, the six-letters of the mnemonic device account for only two verses in the entire Torah where the column begins in the middle of a verse, whereas in all other columns, the start of a new verse always commences a new column. Likewise, in Parashat Shemini, a tradition passed down by the scribes was to ensure that each scribe when copying from a master text is careful to write the first דרש at the very end of the line, while the second דרש be written at the forefront of the next line. In the Yemenite Torah scroll brought out from Yemen, now belonging to Azriel ben Saadia Tzadok of Benei Barak, from which a Tikkun Soferim was made in five small pocket volumes to facilitate the accurate transmission of the same masorah by scribes, the first word דרש is, indeed, found at the very end of line no. 14, whereas the second word דרש is found written at the forefront of line no. 15.
There are yet other places in the Torah scroll where Masoretic scribes used key words to determine the layout of each column, and where these same words were traditionally written in specific places in their respective columns, such as in Numbers 31:5, and where the lamed of ישראל is written at the end of one line, above the ʾalef of צבא at the end of the following line, said to suggest that, from that time forward, Israel was placed above all other nations. Likewise, the verse in is traditionally placed at the start of a new column in Yemenite Torah scrolls, a practice alluded to in, said to be the place where Josiah opened-up to in the newly discovered Temple scroll.

Places in the Yemenite scrolls which differ from the Aleppo Codex

, summarizing the different orthographic traditions, wrote: "Authorities on the Masora... differ according to the variations in the scrolls on which they rely." The oldest manuscripts containing the Masora of the early masoretes, such as the London Codex and the Leningrad Codex, the Damascus Crown and the Aleppo Codex, were all written with a Closed section in pericope Ki Tisa, in the verse פסל לך, while in pericope Ṣav there was written an Open section in the verse המקריב. Neither one of these sections reflect the custom of Yemen today, which points to the assumption that, apparently, they changed their ancient practice in this matter to conform with that of Maimonides, as stated by the late chief Yemenite Rabbi, Yosef Qafih. Scholars have pointed out eight differences between the Aleppo Codex and the Yemenite tradition of orthography. At least in one reference it is believed to be an error by the copyist of the Aleppo Codex, and is not generally practised by any community in Israel, namely, that of writing היא in Leviticus 25:10–12 with a yod instead of a waw. It is not immediately clear if the Yemenites retained portions of their old tradition when incorporating in their writings the masorah of Ben-Asher.

Source	Sephardic tradition	Yemenite tradition	London Codex	Leningrad Codex	Damascus Codex	Aleppo Codex
Gen. 4:13	גדול עוני מנשוא	גדול עוני מנשא	xxx	גדול עוני מנשא	xxx	גדול עוני מנשא
Gen. 7:11	נבקעו כל מעינות	נבקעו כל מעינת	xxx	נבקעו כל מעינת	xxx	נבקעו כל מעינת
Gen. 9:29	ויהי כל ימי נח	ויהיו כל ימי נח	xxx	ויהיו כל ימי נח	ויהיו כל ימי נח	ויהיו כל ימי נח
Gen. 41:45	פוטי פרע	פוטיפרע	פוטי פרע	פוטיפרע	פוטיפרע	פוטי פרע
Exo. 1:19	בטרם תבוא אלהן	בטרם תבוא אלהן	בטרם תבוא אלהן	בטרם תבוא אלהן	בטרם תבוא אלהן	בטרם תבוא אליהן
Exo. 17:16	כי יד על כס יה	כי יד על כס יה	כי יד על כסיה	כי יד על כס יה	כי יד על כס יה	כי יד על כסיה
Exo. 20:14	פר' סתומה לא תחמד אשת רעך	פר' סתומה לא תחמד אשת רעך	פר' סתומה לא תחמד אשת רעך	פר' סתומה לא תחמד אשת רעך	xxx	פר' סתומה לא תחמד אשת רעך
Exo. 25:31	תיעשה המנורה	תעשה המנורה	תעשה המנורה	תעשה המנורה	תעשה המנורה	תעשה המנורה
Exo. 28:26	אל עבר האפוד	אל עבר האפד	אל עבר האפד	אל עבר האפד	אל עבר האפד	אל עבר האפד
Exo. 34:1	פר' פתוחה פסל לך	', the Jews of Yemen addressed thirteen questions unto him, one of which concerning the interstices --- the Open and Closed sections of the Torah as prescribed by his father, Maimonides, and what to do with a tradition that differs, to which he replied: "We see that there are many differences between the scribes in the matter of the Open and Closed sections, while the books that are in Israel greatly differ in this matter, and we have already seen the exponents of our laws, of blessed memory, who have taken positions in each of these works, which thing has its rightful place, since we do not possess the Book of the Temple court, which we could meticulously learn from it about the matter, nor is there regarding this matter a tradition whereupon everyone agrees, to the extent that we could actually disqualify whatsoever contradicts it. Nevertheless, the right thing is to scrupulously attend to the matter, just as it appears in the Composition, in the Book of Ahavah'', but whatsoever is found to be different from it, no one is to give judgment concerning it that it is invalid, unless it is different from all the books that are in existence." The essence of the question implies that the Yemenites formerly had a different practice than that mentioned by Maimonides. Treating of leather and ink used in Torah scroll In Yemen, large goats were used in making the parchment for Torah scrolls, as opposed to tefillin in which only small kids of the goats were used for the vellum. In Torah scrolls, the principal tannin substance was derived from the leaves of the salam-tree, a tree known locally by the name qaraḍ. The same tannin substance and its use in treating leather for sacred scrolls is mentioned by Maimonides. These leaves, being astringent, have the same function as gall. A bath solution of the crushed leaves of this tree, into which raw leather had been inserted for prolonged soaking, would take only 15 days for curing. The water and leaves, however, required changing after seven or eight days, and the leather needed to be turned over daily. Usually such treatment would suffice, without the need of spreading any other salve onto the leather, but only in cases where there was an erasure and the newly applied ink would spread would scribes in Yemen practise "sizing" of the leather, a process so-called by treating the leather parchment with a paste of Tragacanth gum or Gum arabic, and allowing the place to dry before applying ink. In some places, the fleshy-side of the leather was treated with a fine application of castor oil, taken directly from the bean of the castor oil plant, and which application is known to give added elasticity and durability to the leather. According to Amram Qorah, the way in which leather was prepared in Yemen for use in writing a Torah scroll was as follows: In Yemen, scribes prepared their own ink concoction, usually made from soaking copper sulphate crystals in water, known locally as zāğ, but more often by mixing in the water al-ḥura, qishr rumān, ʿafaṣ, ground to a powder and steeped in water and exposed to the sun's rays for two or three days, sifted of its residue and its yellowish liquid added to the ink concoction only near the time of writing, and after the ink had once again been allowed to sit in the sun for more than a day in order to receive its luster. An excessive amount of gall was seen as detrimental to the ink, therefore, used sparingly, as also too many pomegranate rinds will cause the ink to fade. A little sugar was also added to the ink concoction, as well as soot from the flame of burnt oils held against glass and ṣameġ. In some places, wormwood, or what is called in Arabic shiba, was added to the ink to preserve the leather from mold and mildew. The traditional writing instrument in Yemen was the cane reed, rather than the feathered quill. Forms of the letters and special techniques Just as there is a unique style of writing associated with Ashkenazi scrolls, and another style for Sephardic scrolls, so too is there a style of writing that is peculiar to Yemenite scribes of the previous centuries. Each community, however, makes use of the square Hebrew script. In the older Torah scrolls of Yemenite provenance, there was not a practice among scribes to write the Hebrew letters with their Tagim, since the accurate tradition of doing so had long been lost. The ancient practice in Yemen when writing the letter ḥet is to make its roof flat, and not a "gable-roof," as prescribed by Rabbeinu Tam, although more modern scrolls have adopted Rabbeinu Tam's method. The difference stems from one's understanding of the word חטרי in Tractate Menaḥoth. In Yemenite scrolls, the Hebrew letters are made to suspend a fraction below the ruled lines, rather than hang directly from the ruled lines. The manner in which Jewish scribes made certain Hebrew characters has evolved throughout the years in Yemen. Rabbi David ben Zimra mentions the practice of the Jews of Aden, where in all their Torah scrolls the left leg of the Hebrew character he was slightly joined to the roof of the letter, a practice which he disqualifies, although admitting that such was also the practice that he found in old scrolls written in Egypt, and which practice had been rendered valid by Rabbi Isaac ben Sheshet and Rabbi Joseph Colon. Nevertheless, the old practice in Yemen of slightly joining the leg of the Hebrew character he to its roof, or the leg of the qof to its roof, eventually evolved to conform with the custom that is practised in other communities in Israel. Rabbi Yosef Qafih, commenting on Maimonides' Mishne Torah, responds to the old practice and goes to great lengths to show that such letters, had they been written in such a way, should not be disqualified, although the custom in Israel has now changed. One of the unique features found in scrolls penned in Yemen is the practice of marking the end of the biblical verse, not with ink, but by stamping the leather with a round-tipped metal instrument at the end of the verse, in order to assist the baal qoré when reading and knowing when he is to come to a full-stop. These dot-like impressions in the leather were made so as to resemble an inverted segol. Where the reading was to produce the sound made by the trope symbol etnaḥa, it too was marked with only one dot by the same instrument beneath the word whose reading is to be read as such. Two diagonal stamp marks were made above the word whose reading called for it to be read with a zarqa. Some have questioned the validity of marking a Torah scroll in this way, but the sages of Yemen have explained its validity by saying that extraneous markings that are made in the leather without ink are permitted. Yemenite Torah scrolls traditionally had also the additional feature where the top corners of each leather sheet of parchment were folded backwards, immediately following the leather's treatment and before the actual writing. This was done to distinguish between each sheet, as also to give the reader the ability to grasp with his two hands the sheet of parchment by the folds, without touching the letters themselves. The left and right margins of each sheet of parchment were made to a standard width of one-fingerbreadth, and when coupled together with other sheets, the margins came to two fingerbreadths. The stitching of the sheets of parchment together was made differently from the practices found among other groups, in that the stitching made with ligaments was made closer together and more tightly fitting in Yemenite scrolls. As required in Jewish law, and as found among all other groups, they did not sew the sheets together at the upper and lower ends of the margins, but left a space there unstitched. Torah cases The Torah case traditionally used in Yemen was either a seven faceted or octagonal wooden box, typically made of a light wood, such as Sudanese teak, equipped with a pair of brass clasps cut in ornamental floral shapes for closing. The entire wooden box was fitted tightly with a thickly woven decorative cloth, replete with 3 to 5 buttons with matching loops. The top of the box was made with slits wherein they inserted protruding staves for carrying the decorative silver finials. Testimonials , a Lithuanian Jewish scholar from Jerusalem, was commissioned by the Jerusalem Rabbinate and traveled to Egypt, to Yemen and to India between the years 1857 to 1863. In 1859, he visited the Jewish community in Yemen, publishing an account of his travels soon thereafter in a book entitled, Iben Sapir, perhaps one of the most momentous travelogues ever to have been written in that century, and where he describes the life of the Jewish community there. He also described the Torah scrolls and codices had in Yemen and their peculiar tradition of orthography, an excerpt of which follows. And lo, in their books of the Torah there are to be found several differences in defective and plene letters, for example: minnaso , lacks a waw; maʻayanoth lacks a waw; wiyiheyu kol yamei noaḥ, with the addition of a waw at its end; teʻaseh, lacks a yod; ḥodsheikhem, with the addition of a yod; as also in the lay-out of the Song of the Sea and in certain closed sections . And I saw that all their ancient books were in this way. I do recall my faults this day. When I had taken with me a scroll of the Torah in the handwriting of the scriveners of Yemen, and when I had proofread it, I found in it the differences that I formerly mentioned, as well as other – besides that which can be attributed to scribal error, and I corrected it after the manner of our own books. Then when I happened to be, afterwards, in Paris during Tishri, 5625 anno mundi, I saw a book in the library of that great personage, the savant and honorable teacher and Rabbi, Rabbi Hertz Ginsburg, which stood under the supervision of my beloved friend, the wise and illustrious Rabbi, our teacher the Rabbi, S. Zacks, a most dear manuscript made by the Rabbi the Meiri, of blessed memory, , Kiryat Sefer. Its name is derived from all the laws governing the scroll of the Law, how it ought to be written, and how read, therein showing all of the defective , and plene , open sections and closed sections, – nothing being left undone, whether small or great, which he did not bring out in that book. He has withal done far more than what could ever have been expected, whether it were of any man who came before him, or who should come after him. Now I shall copy here, in short, an outline of the matters from one of the chapters, being useful for the purport , and whose words are as follows: "Now behold, herein, do I make a copy of the writing which the forenamed Rabbi sent to the sages of Burgos who had belabored themselves on this point with a well-known book attributed to Hillel the elder, which was called by them Halleujah." The Yuchasin wrote these words: "Now in the year 4956 anno mundi, on the 8th of Menaḥem Av, there fell out a great religious persecution in the kingdom of León, to the extent that they carried away from there a Codex containing the 24 canonical books of the Bible, called the Biblia, which R. Hillel had written, and from which they would proofread the texts of all the scrolls. Now I saw some of them that were sold in Africa, and at my time, they were nine-hundred years old since the time they were first written." The Yuchasin, on the year 5250 anno mundi, wrote: ha-Qimḥi said in his Piece on Grammar, in the chapter lemaʻan tizkaru, that the Codex was in Toledo , and in the books left by the early Geonim, by Rav Sherira and Rabbeinu Hai . And when the books of Rabbeinu Moshe came amongst them and they saw his tradition of orthography in this regard, they sent to him and he answered them after flowery speech and many praises, whose words were these: 'But presently I shall tell you the truth, that all the books that have reached us of those books written by Rabbeinu Moshe, may peace rest on him, with regard to open sections and closed sections, all of them were engrossed with different errors one from the other, since the words of the book were concealed , and those copyists who copied from it made rash decisions on their own, and each one added , and diminished according to his own understanding, thus defacing the books with things that they imagined in their heart to be true, and which they gave their opinion to, but which I was compelled to investigate and make inquiry into, etc., etc. And so, I sent to Marseilles, to the most erudite man , Samuel Ibn Tibbon, the physician, and I asked him to send me an account of the closed and open sections from the book that was copied from the book belonging to that Rabbi that came with him to Marseilles, and which said Rabbi had signed in his own handwriting; as also that which I, myself, had written down from the book, I am Moshe, the son of Rabbi Maimon the Sepharadi. And so did he do, sending them to me with due speed, and I found in the copy of the writing, etc. all the things that you brought to my attention for a decision that they were true, etc. and that the other matters that were concealed were not made clear unto me by that book until I was compelled to once again search and inquire , etc., and it was revealed unto me their import by the help of Him who favors man with understanding. Now, behold! They are written in this booklet which is being sent to you, etc., open and closed , that which is neither an open nor a closed , but rather an arranged , in my own handwriting. Likewise, I have written for you the lay-out of the song Ha'azinu in two categories: one, containing the names of words that come at the beginning of each line; the other, containing the names of words that come at the end of each line. … : From him that has been afflicted with reproof of instruction, not with whips, per se, but with scorpions, until he was compelled to confess his sorrow unto many – perchance they will seek mercy upon him from Him who has mercy; , who writes to his friends and companions, Meir Halevi, the son of R. Todros.' " And, there, the Rabbi who is the Meiri, of blessed memory, writes more, , that in Toledo there was a book called the Book of Ezra, and a certain Codex that was copied from the Codex belonging to the Ramah, whom we mentioned, which was proofread many times with utmost diligence by several scribes and wise men, in the forenamed city, with painstaking care and great expense, and came afterwards into his hand with all the testimonies of the proofreaders and scribes, and, based on it, he wrote in this, his own book Kiryat Sefer, every word which is either defective or plene, open and closed sections, in the year of the exile of France, which corresponds to the year 5066 anno mundi. Unto here we have brought down his words. Now, behold! I have found seen in this , Kiryat Sefer, exactly as it is found written in the scrolls of Yemen! And so, in vain have I erased and made corrections. Now if I had seen it beforehand, I would not have touched it hand! But He is merciful atones for iniquity… END Original: והנה בס"ת שלהם נמצא כמה שנויים בחסר ויתר כמו מנשא ח"ו מעינת ח"ו ויהיו כל ימי נח בואו לאחרונה תעשה ח"י חדשיכם מ"י וכן בצורת שירת הים ובאיזה סתומות * וראיתי שכל ספריהם הקודמים כן הוא את חטאי אני מזכיר היום כי הבאתי עמי ס"ת מכתיבת סופרי תימן וכאשר הגהתיה מצאתי בה השנויים הנז' ועוד ותיקנתיה עפ"י ספרים שלנו. ובהיותי אח"כ תשרי תרכ"ה בפאריז ראיתי בבית עקד הספרים של הגביר האדיר החכם הנכבד מו"ה הירץ גינצבורג נ"י העומדת תחת יד ידי"נ הרב החכם המפואר מוהר"ש זאקש נ"י ספר כ"י יקר להרב המאירי ז"ל קרית ספר. שמו על כל דיני ס"ת כתיבתו וקריאתו ומצויין בו כל החסרות ויתרות ופתוחות וסתומות לא הניח דבר קטון וגדול שלא העלה בספר הזה והוא מפליא לעשות מכל אשר לפניו ולאחריו. ואעתיק בזה בקיצור ריש מילין מפרק אחד הנצרך לענינינו וז"ל: "והריני כותב כאן כתב שלחו הרב הנזכר לחכמי בורגיש שטרחו על זה עם ספר הידוע להלל הזקן שנקרא ביניהם הללויה. ובספרים ישנים לגאונים הראשונים של רב שרירא ורבינו האיי וכשבאו ספרי רבינו משה אצלם וראו סדריו בענין זה שלחו לו והשיב להם אחרי המליצית והשבחים כו' כו' וז"ל: "ועתה אמת אגיד לכם כי כל הספרים אשר הגיעו לידינו מספרי רבינו משה ע"ה בענין הפתוחות והסתומות כולם היו מוטעים טעיות משונות זה מזה מפני דברי הספר שהיו מסותמים והמעתיקים ממנו באו להכריע מדעתם והוסיף כל אחד וגרע כפי הכרע דעתו והשחיתו את הספרים בדברים אשר בדו מלבם ואשר הכריעו מדעתם ואני הוצרכתי לחקור ולדרוש כו' וכו' ושלחתי למארסילי' לחכם המובהק שמואל אבן תיבון הרופא ובקשתי ממנו לשלוח לי נוסח הפרשיות הסתומות והפתוחות מן הספר המועתק מספר הרב שבא עמו למארשילי' ושהרב זכרונו לברכה חתם עליו בחתימת ידו וגם זה מן הספר שכתבתי אני שלא בפני אני משה בר' מיימון הספרדי וכן עשה ושלחם אלי בזריזות ומצאתי בפתשגן הכתב כו' את כל הדברים אשר הכרעת דעתי כי אמת הי' כו' ושארי הדברים המסותמים לא נתבררו לי מן הספר ההוא עד אשר הוצרכתי לשוב ולחקור ולדרוש כו' ונתגלו לי שאריתם בעזרת החונן לאדם דעת והנם כתובים בקונטירס הזה השלוח אליכם כו' פתוחות וסתומות לא פתוחה ולא סתומה אלא סדורה כ"י וכן כתבתי לכם צורת שירת האזינו בשני סימנים אחד בשמות התיבות שבראש כל שטה ואחד בשמות התיבות שבראש כל שטה האחרון ... מאת המיוסר בתוכחת מוסר לא בשוטים כי אם בעקרבים עד שהוצרך להודיע צערו לרבים אולי יבקשו עליו רחמים מאת בעל הרחמים כותב לידידיו ורעיו מאיר הלוי בר' טודרוס וכותב עוד שם הרב המאירי ז"ל שבטולטילא הי' ספר נקרא ספר עזרא וספר אחד שנעתק מספר הרמ"ה הנז' והוגה פעמים רבות בחריצות נפלא ע"י כמה סופרים וחכמים בעיר הנז' בטרחה והוצאה מרובה והגיע אח"כ לידו עם כל העדיות של המגיהים והסופרים ועל פיו כתב בספרו זה קרית ספר כל מלה חסרה ויתרה פתוחות וסתומות בשנת גלות צרפת היא שנת חמשת אלפים וששים ושש לבריאת העולם עכ"ל. והנה מצאתי ראיתי בזה הקרית ספר כפי הכתוב בספרי תימן ובחנם מחקתי ותקנתי ואם ראיתיו קודם לא נגעתי בה יד והוא רחום יכפר עון ---- Notes: Popular articles Javier Milei - Argentine libertarian economist, author, radio conductor and public speaker sympathetic to the Austrian School of economic thought. 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