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Masoretes

Marco19

Researcher
Shalom dear friends,

While reading about Masoretes on Wikipedia, I have noticed the following:

The halakhic authority Maimonides endorsed the ben Asher as superior, although the Egyptian Jewish scholar, Saadya Gaon al-Fayyumi, had preferred the ben Naphtali system.

The ben Asher family and the majority of the Masoretes appear to have been Karaites.

There is a debate among scholars as to whether Aaron ben Asher was a Karaite. Documents found in the Cairo Geniza may suggest that ben Asher was a Karaite. One of the strongest arguments against this view is that it would be astonishing if Maimonides, famously opposed to the Karaites, had followed the authority of a Karaite, even in the matter of open and closed sections.

I have two questions:

1- What is the difference between this two (ben Asher & Naphtali) systems, is it only as Wikipedia says "attempt to fix the pronunciation"?

2- Whether ben Asher was Karaite or not, just wonder what will change? why the scholars are obsessed with it?

Thanks in advance :)
 

Levite

Higher and Higher
I have two questions:

1- What is the difference between this two (ben Asher & Naphtali) systems, is it only as Wikipedia says "attempt to fix the pronunciation"?

2- Whether ben Asher was Karaite or not, just wonder what will change? why the scholars are obsessed with it?

Thanks in advance

I can't recall offhand the precise differences, but I do recall they mostly involved the pronunciation of various words in the text, and the resulatant question of how they ought to be vowelled, along with variations in the system of diacritical markings themselves which the Masoretes devised. But the differences were entirely linguistic, mostly grammatical in nature.

It would be interesting if the ben Asher family were Karaites, because their textual emendations and grammatical decisions are widely accepted amongst Rabbinic Jews. Their family worked on several of the texts that are considered primary sources for textual authenticity. It would be a little surprising then, if they proved to be Karaites; but it would be a fascinating example of Rabbinic Jews and Karaites putting aside their differences in the interest of attaining textual clarity.
 

Marco19

Researcher
I can't recall offhand the precise differences, but I do recall they mostly involved the pronunciation of various words in the text, and the resulatant question of how they ought to be vowelled, along with variations in the system of diacritical markings themselves which the Masoretes devised. But the differences were entirely linguistic, mostly grammatical in nature.

It would be interesting if the ben Asher family were Karaites, because their textual emendations and grammatical decisions are widely accepted amongst Rabbinic Jews. Their family worked on several of the texts that are considered primary sources for textual authenticity. It would be a little surprising then, if they proved to be Karaites; but it would be a fascinating example of Rabbinic Jews and Karaites putting aside their differences in the interest of attaining textual clarity.

Thanks Levite,

from your respond I assume that nowadays Tanakh of both mainstream Judaism, and Karaites is the same, is that correct?
 

Levite

Higher and Higher
Thanks Levite,

from your respond I assume that nowadays Tanakh of both mainstream Judaism, and Karaites is the same, is that correct?

You know, I actually am not sure. I think so, considering that the Karaite heresy began many centuries after the canonization of the Tanach; but if there were differences, they would likely be subtle variations in grammar and vowelling or punctuation, dating from this era.

I have never actually seen a Karaite edition of Tanach. There aren't very many Karaites running around these days, and I have never happened across their books. So I can't be certain.
 
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