The Consequences of the Faulty Transmission of Sefer Tagin

Abstract

Abstract Scribes are encouraged to maintain the tradition concerning the decorative tagin (tittles) and “strange” letter forms that adorn nearly two thousand letters in the Torah. Yet this tradition, detailed in Sefer Tagin , was relatively rarely followed and has all but died out in modern times. This article examines the faulty transmission of this Masoretic manual for sofrim (scribes) through core, compiled, and partial sources. It assesses the likely negative impact of its deployment through diversity caused by the transition to paraša format, error and innovation, and combination with other scribal rules.