The large letters -  otiyot rabati

The official massoretic text lists 16 large letters in the Torah but there was never full agreement on these as many may have just been the initiative of a single scribe. Many printed texts don't make reference to the full 16 and I have seen seen a number of scrolls with additional letters (particularly kabbalistic ones).  Listed here are all the large letters I have come across, together with with images from various Sifrey Torah that have passed my desk. I haven't yet brought explanations of why they are to be writ large, as I need to collate them all and time is against me currently.

As we'll see below, there seems to be some considerable disagreement over which letters should be large. However in the course of my researches, a pattern emerged regarding the letters that if one adds those that are accepted to those that are in dispute to those seen in some old 'kabbalistic' Sifrey Torah I  examined, we can say that within the Torah the scribes have been striving to make one of each letter of the Hebrew alphabet (including the final letters) large. For a while I thought this mere conjecture as one letter was often missing. However the chaf which was missing listed in an halachic text, the Mishnat Avraham which was from v’hitmacartem (and you will be sold) from Deut 28:68. And my set was complete, backed up by halachah and I've subsequently seen Sifrey with all of them. The same listing is also in the Machzor Vitri and other sources.

All images © Mordechai Pinchas.

Mishnat Avraham 27:3-4 notes that ‘there are those that say there is found the tradition to make a large alphabet in the Torah alone’ (as opposed to the Tanach) and that this is a large secret and proceeds to list both the letters in question and a number of great scribes whose Sifrey Torah he has seen where this is the case. He makes the telling point that if there is only supposed to be one of each letter large in the Tanach why are both the vav of gachon (from the Torah) and the vav of vy’zata (from the megillah) both accepted as being writ large.

Over time, I’ve been finding various examples of the large letters, but above is a collection of all the letters found in a Torah I checked on 2010 which has each of the letters written large (though two versions of the lamed). A very interesting Torah which also had additional spaces marking the start of p’sukim (verses) - following a Yemenite tradition, even though this is not a Yemenite Torah.

Turning to each large letter we find:

1. The bet in Bereshit (Gen 1:1) 'in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. The very first letter of the Torah is made large and supossedly carries 4 tagin as opposed to its normal one. Not all Sifrey have this and often I've seen only three - see image. Indeed, it is noted in Masechet Sofrim that originally all the letters of Bereshit were a bit larger not just the bet - as shown in the excerpt from a Moroccan scroll below. Kol Hatorah explains that this emphasises that the creation of the Universe is only secondary and instead man's prime concern should be with the first factor - i.e. God, the creator of everything.  However a practical reason given by my teatcher's teacher, Rabbi Dr Eric Ray z"l is that when the Torah was actually 5 separate scrolls the large bet told people this was the start! There are loads of others reasons brought by commentators who are quite verbose at the start of the commentaries and tend to be less so as they move past the early words.

2. The final fey in u'vha'atif (Gen 30:42) 'but when the cattle were feeble he did not put them in’ is large. However this is in dispute.  Mikra’ot G’dolot (Pardes 1951) does include this in its list of large letters, as does the Machzor Vitri. 

3. The zayin in hak'zona (Gen 34:31) 'and they said, should we deal with our sister as a 'harlot' In dispute, but again listed in Mikra’ot G’dolot and Machzor Vitri. 

4. The chet in chachlili (Gen 49:12) ‘his (Judah’s) eyes will be red with wine and his teeth white with milk’ may be large.  Seen in an Hungarian scroll decorated very oddly indeed. It is worth noting that Masechet Sofrim notes that the whole word vayishchat should be writ large, because it is half the verses of the Torah.  However it is unclear whether this refers to Lev 8:15 ‘and he (Moses) slew it (the bull)’ or Lev 8:23 ‘and he (Moses) slew it (the ram)’ for both verses begin with the same word.  Others say that only the chet is enlarged, the initial letter of chetsi meaning half, but nowadays nothing is enlarged perhaps because of the confusion and we already have an enlarged chet possibility.

5. The final mem in sh'leshim (Gen:50:23) referring to Joseph living to see Ephraim’s children to the third generation. In dispute.

6. The enlarged tet in tov (Ex. 2:2) refers to the infant Moses 'When she (Yochaved) saw that he was a goodly child...' leading commentators to remark that Moses was even then perceived as special with a more than natural 'goodness' and Rabbi Meir said that Tov was Moses' real hebrew name. In dispute

7. The tsadi in tseh (Ex 11:8) from Pharoah’s exclamation ‘Get out, and all the people who follow you’ is large according to some sources.

8.  A possible large tsadi sofit in tsits (Ex. 28:36). And you shall make a plate of pure gold, and engrave upon it, like the engravings of a signet, "Holiness to the Lord". In dispute.

9. Part of the 13 attributes of God the larger nun in notser (Ex. 34:7) keeping mercy for thousands’.

10. A possible enlarged shin in shamor (Ex 34:11) ‘Observe what I command you this day’. In dispute.

 

 

11. The enlarged resh in acher (Ex:34:14) 'for you will worship no other god' is the exact counterpart to the large dalet in the Shema (see below) to ensure that it is read as acher and not accidentally as echad which would, heaven forbid, give the meaning to the sentence of 'and you will not worship the one God'.

12. The simple explanation given to the large vav in gachon (Lev 11:42) 'whatsoever goes upon its belly' is that it is the exact centre of the Sefer Torah in letters, and thus is in the belly of the Torah.  However this is difficult to calculate as the exact number of letters in a Torah has changed over time and even the Talmud reports dicrepancies between the Temple Sifrey Torah which had to be reconciled by agreement.  Kashrut is discussed in this section - i.e. matters which concern our bellies!

13. The middle word of the Torah is said to be v'hitgaleach (Lev 13:33) 'and he will be shaven' and thus the gimel is enlarged.

14. Deut. 32:5 may have a large peh in u’f’taltol. They have acted corruptly toward him; to their shame they are no longer his children, but a warped and crooked generation.  

15. The samech in vayahas (Num 13:32) 'and Caleb stilled the people' is in dispute.

16. The yud in yigdal (Num 14:17) ‘let the power of my Lord be great’ is the largest yud in scripture.

17. Definitely at the top of a column as the mem in B'yah Sh'mo (see diary 8) there is also debate as to whether the mem in mah (Num 24:5) (How goodly are your tents O Jacob' should be large.

18. Also in dispute is whether the final nun of mishpatan (Num 27:5) 'and Moses brought their cause before the Lord' is large (or perhaps just written longer - the notation is nun aroch (long nun)).  The cause in question is that of the daughters of Zelofchad and this may be emphasising the Torah bestowing rights to women in equal measure.

19. Another enlarged letter may be the final chaf of v'nach (Deut 2:33) ‘and we struck him (i.e. Sichon)’.

20. The sin in eres (Deut 3:11) ‘his (King Og’s) bed was a bed of iron’ may be enlarged.
21. and 22. Definitely large are the ayin and dalet of sh'ma and echad respectively in Deut 6:4 ‘Hear O Israel the Lord is our God, the Lord is one’. The large ayin is to distinguish it from being read as an aleph (as the ayin has a more guttural sound in genuine Hebrew pronunciation and if an aleph was there, the meaning, chas v'shalom, would be 'perhaps God is one'. The dalet is similarly large to make sure it isn't read as a resh which would mean 'God is another' (see the resh above. Hence we emphasise the dalet when we read the line. Together the two letters spell ed - so we witness that God is one, as well as just hearing it.

 23. Deut 18:13 may have a large tav in tamim 'you shall be perfect with the Lord your God'

24. The kuf in ken (Deut 22:6) ‘if a bird’s nest chances to be before you’ could be enlarged

25. The enlarged lamed in vayashlichem Deut 29:27 ‘and he cast them into another land’.  By this the rabbis in Masechet Sofrim argue that this should be read as lachem (to you) implying that God will be a God to you even after casting you out. Rabbi Ray z"l explains that lamed in Egyptian hieroglyphics is the symbol for an ox-goad. Thus this is a very relevant image when God is driving Israel out and perhaps the form reverts to its original usage in ancient Egyptian. I've  found out some intersting other evidence on this which will form a paper at some point.  Some think the large lamed is instead v'ehaleta'ah (Lev. 11:30) 'and the ferret and the chameleon and the lizard and the snail and the mole' though this is also in dispute.

26. The tsadi in hatsur (Deut 32:4) ‘he (God) is the rock‘ may be large.

27. The heh of haladonai is enlarged as it is almost to be treated as a separate word and not just the prefix of the definite article and should also be spaced (Yerushalmi Megillah 1). 

31. Also seen in the last amud of a number of kabbalistic scrolls is the letter aleph of ashrecha (Deut 34:29) ‘Happy are you, O Israel’ enlarged.
As I get time I'll come back and add some more explanations.
Mordechai Pinchas