The Paradox of the Transmission of Sacred Texts

Hebrew scribes take great pains to copy faithfully. But, as a passage in Proverbs shows, once an error creeps into the chain of transmission, it can be there forever.

Got a question for Philologos? Ask him directly at philologos@mosaicmagazine.com.

We’re still months away from the autumn Holy Days, but Leo Staschover is already thinking of them. He writes:

Here is a language question that no rabbi or cantor I’ve put it to has been able to answer. Why, after the blowing of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah, do we say [using the masculine form of the Hebrew verb arav, to be pleasing] areshet s’fateynu ye’erav lefanekha [“May the areshet of our lips be pleasing to You”] rather than te’erav [the feminine form]? Isn’t areshet feminine?

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Got a question for Philologos? Ask him directly at philologos@mosaicmagazine.com.

We’re still months away from the autumn Holy Days, but Leo Staschover is already thinking of them. He writes:

Here is a language question that no rabbi or cantor I’ve put it to has been able to answer. Why, after the blowing of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah, do we say [using the masculine form of the Hebrew verb arav, to be pleasing] areshet s’fateynu ye’erav lefanekha [“May the areshet of our lips be pleasing to You”] rather than te’erav [the feminine form]? Isn’t areshet feminine?

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