Kabbalistic tav

Am currently repairing a very old kabbalistic torah. Most of the kabbalistic touches don't invalidate the letter forms and have considerable precedent. However I have just come across this odd tav with a lamed type rosh. I've seen something that looks similar in the Machzor Vitri but the rosh doesn't look quite so pronounced but that may just be a bad drawing. It does say it appears 22 times in the Torah and this is also listed in Sefer HaTagin and both words are in the list.

It is clearly still a tav but as a special tagin go this is a bit much. I'm not intending to 'correct' this, but just wanted to check that since we have the tradition this form is acceptable. Also thought everyone would be interested in seeing this.

Todah


Comments

  1. Mordechai,
    Thanks for giving us the opportunity to see a very old csav [I dont think anybody today would accept such a tav, regardless the sources given]
    Please download more pictures of this type of csav. I am very interested in seeing more of this csav.
    Moshe

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Shalom R. Moshe. I will post other pictures as I can. I have seen many otioyot meshunot and make this a special study.

      Delete
  2. "Kabbalistic Torah"? It just has אותיות משונות, once a very widespread tradition.
    Assume there is a real mesorah for this type of tav, the only problem here is that the extension looks like the addition of a whole אבר to the tav. If you want you could erase the whole letter and re-write the extension much smaller and thinner, more like a tag.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Otiyot M'shunot were indeed widespread - nowadays when people see them they tend to refer to them as kabbalistic torahs. Kabbalah in the sense of receipt passing down these traditions not necessarily in the sense of mysticism. That said there are often 'kabbalistic' type teachings associated with these special visual midrash (I personally prefer the term visual midrash as otiyot meshunot sounds a bit derogatory). Rambam is very clear we should preserve these traditions.

      Delete
  3. Do not correct this, there should be 22 such letter tav- you can look up sefer tagin in hebrew books type
    תגין into the name of sefer (this one is on page 74)
    these tagin were written on the stones in gilgal

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes - as I say I wouldn't correct this at there is an established mesorah in Sefer Taggin and Machzor Vitri with 22 such letters.

      Delete
  4. Please post the nun hafucha of charan as rashi brings this in chumash

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  5. it is also brought in machzor vitri

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  6. Fascinating.
    I understand that the sefer hatagim speaks about this however there are quite a few innacurate drawings there as you pointed out. My problem is that halacha says that it should be ktiva tama, which invalidates an ayin that looks like a tzadi sofit etc. This letter fits perfectly in this psul - its a letter that looks like another. Isnt this a big problem? In my humble opinion, its safer to assume that the sofer went to far with the shinui and crossed the red line.

    ReplyDelete

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