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Raised vav

Let's raise a vav to Aharon

Not all scribal oddities are actually accepted by all authorities. This one in particularly has generally fallen out of use. However it is certainly worth learning about and maybe ... just maybe worth bringing back into use?

In Mishnat Avraham there is a whole section devoted to one letter vav. It explains what to do should you encounter Moses’ brother Aharon whose name is always spelled chaser vav (missing a vav) אהרן in the parsha of T’tsaveh (Sh’mot 29:15) spelt instead אהרון. The standard tikkun is very clear in that it does not take a vav for either Ashkenazim and Sefardim, nor even in the Yemenite tikkun which occasionally differs.

However Mishnat Avraham does bring a lovely compromise in that he saw a Torah belonging to the Gaon R. Feivish where it had been written without a vav but a sofer (possibly the original, possibly a later scribe) had suspended the vav between the resh and nun sofit. Mishnat Avraham says  'and it seems to me that this is well and good as whoever does this conforms to all opinions'.

Below: the section in question from Mishnat Avraham. You can see the raised vav.

He notes that there are those however who write it maleh vav (full with an vav) and says that he has seen this in the Sefer Torah of the Besht (Ba’al Shem Tov). He then states that if you come across such a Torah you should rub out the vav (and elongate the resh to accommodate) though others say that after the event it is kasher and you should leave it. But I’ve never seen such a thing - until I was fixing the Alexander Torah from Germany written in 1790 has such a vav. I particularly noticed it as it was in a section that had sustained some water damage and I was repairing it carefully and it leapt out of me as that word never takes a vav. This is clearly a debate. Since it is so unique, I certainly decided to leave it be.

For more about the Alexander Torah click here.

Below The water damaged section but Aharon is clearly with a vav. Then re-inked and repaired but leaving the word as the original scribe intended.  Photos © Mordechai Pinchas.
Alexander Torah Aharon with a vav (water damaged)
Alexander Torah Aharon with a vav (repaired).

Subsequent to this discovery of this special extra vav, I came across an article in Hakulmus magazine published in Apil 1985 entitled 'The Sefer Torah that our teacher the Rama wrote'. In this there was a photo of the Torah and it also showed the extra vav in the same word, suggesting that this great sage subscribed to this tradition also or he would not have used the Torah. 


Photo of the article in Hakulmus (p. 21a). Their copyright. 


There clearly was an established tradition here, and it is nice to see the Mishnat Avraham's lovely compromise. 


Mordechai Pinchas
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