Inverted ( "isolated " or "inverted " or "" in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

) is a rare

glyph A glyph ( ) is any kind of purposeful mark. In typography, a glyph is "the specific shape, design, or representation of a character". It is a particular graphical representation, in a particular typeface, of an element of written language. A ...

used in classical Hebrew. Its function in the ancient texts is disputed. It takes the form of the letter in

mirror image A mirror image (in a plane mirror) is a reflection (physics), reflected duplication of an object that appears almost identical, but is reversed in the direction perpendicular to the mirror surface. As an optical phenomenon, optical effect, it r ...

, and appears in the Masoretic text of the

Tanakh The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. ''

Numbers A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...

- twice, 10:35–36: the two verses are delineated by inverted , sometimes isolated outside the passage text and sometimes embedded within words in verses 10:35 and 11:1. *

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of B ...

- seven times in Psalm 107 (vs 23-28, vs 40) The images at right show three common variants of the inverted – vertically flipped, horizontally flipped, and Z-shaped. Other renderings exist, corresponding to alternative interpretations of the term "inverted".e.g. Menahem Kasher, ''Torah Sheleima'', v. 29 It may also occur with a dot above.Reversed Nun in the BHS
/ref>

Occurrence and appearance

Inverted are found in nine passages of the

Masoretic Text The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; ) is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (''Tanakh'') in Rabbinic Judaism. The Masoretic Text defines the Jewish canon and its precise letter-text, with its vocaliz ...

of the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

. The exact shape varies between different manuscripts and printed editions. In many manuscripts, a reversed is found, referred to as a "" by the Masoretes. In some earlier printed editions, they are shown as the standard upside down or rotated, presumably because the printer did not want to design a new rare character. Recent scholarly editions of the Masoretic text show the reversed as described by the Masoretes. In some manuscripts, however, other symbols are occasionally found instead. These are sometimes referred to in rabbinical literature as "simaniyot" (markers). In the

Torah The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () ...

, the inverted frame the text: Sefer-torah-vayehi-binsoa

The are generally positioned close to, but not touching, the first and last words of the couplet.e.g. Ganzfried, ''Keset ha-Sofer'', ch. 1
English translation
They are supposed to be positioned between the gaps in between the paragraphs, but there is disagreement as to how this should be done.e.g. Ganzfried, ''Keset ha-Sofer'', ch. 1
English translation
Some texts invert the existing in the Torah text and don't add inverted before and after it.
/ref>

Rashi Shlomo Yitzchaki (; ; ; 13 July 1105) was a French rabbi who authored comprehensive commentaries on the Talmud and Hebrew Bible. He is commonly known by the List of rabbis known by acronyms, Rabbinic acronym Rashi (). Born in Troyes, Rashi stud ...

's commentary states that the name of the city of

Haran Haran or Aran ( ''Hārān'') is a man in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. He was a son of Terah, brother of Abraham, and father of son Lot and daughters Milcah and Iscah. He died in Ur of the Chaldees. Through Lot, Haran was the ance ...

at the end of the Torah portion Noach also occurs with an inverted , but this is not found in existing texts.Genesis Chapter 11 English Bible with Rashi - Chabad.org
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Rabbinic basis

The Babylonian Talmud records in the tractate Shabbath, folio 116a, that the markings surrounding Numbers 10:35–36 were thought to denote that this 85-letter text was not in its proper place. One opinion states that it would appear in another location which discusses the order of tribal column, with the position of the Ark already stated there. The 85-letter text found between the is also said to be denoted because it is the model for the fewest letters which constitute a 'text' which one would be required to save from fire due to its holiness. It also suggests that the inverted may suggest the Hebrew word , meaning 'a light'. The tractate

Shabbat Shabbat (, , or ; , , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazi Hebrew, Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the seven-day week, week—i.e., Friday prayer, Friday–Saturday. On this day, religious Jews ...

in the

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

says regarding the inverted : Sifrei explains these "signs": Iyunim – Weekly insights on the Parasha with commentaries by Nehama Leibovitz, za"l
/ref> The Talmud continues, stating that as this section is a separate book, the portions of Numbers before and after it also count as books and thus the

contains seven books in total: Bar Kappara is known to have considered the Torah as composed of seven volumes in the Gemara "The seven pillars with which Wisdom built her house (Prov. 9:1) are the seven Books of Moses". Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus and Deuteronomy as we know them but Numbers was really three separate volumes: Num 1:1 to Num 10:35, followed by Numbers 10:35–36, and the third text from there to the end of Numbers. The

Mishnah The Mishnah or the Mishna (; , from the verb ''šānā'', "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah. Having been collected in the 3rd century CE, it is ...

, in tractate Yadayim, states: According to

Midrash ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; or ''midrashot' ...

: Maharshal ruled that the Talmud only mandates the usual break for a

parashah The term ''parashah'', ''parasha'' or ''parashat'' ( ''Pārāšâ'', "portion", Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian , Sephardi Hebrew, Sephardi , plural: ''parashot'' or ''parashiyot'', also called ''parsha'') formally means a section of a biblical book ...

section, and Torah scrolls with extra letters are ' (unfit for ritual use). Rabbi Yechezkel Landau, however, defends the custom, stating that punctuation such as inverted doesn't count as extra letters and thus don't invalidate the scroll.

Elsewhere

Inverted appears to have been used as a scribal or editorial annotation or text-critical mark. The primary set of inverted is found surrounding the text of Numbers 10:35–36. The Mishna notes that this text is 85 letters long and dotted. The demarcation of this text leads to the later use of the inverted markings. Saul Lieberman demonstrated that similar markings can be found in ancient Greek texts where they are also used to denote 'short texts'. Greek sources, especially Alexandrian ones, refer to the sign as reversed sigma.Textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible, pp. 54–55
/ref>

Unicode

The inverted is not part of any word, and is never pronounced; thus it is classed as

punctuation Punctuation marks are marks indicating how a piece of writing, written text should be read (silently or aloud) and, consequently, understood. The oldest known examples of punctuation marks were found in the Mesha Stele from the 9th century BC, c ...

and not a letter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Inverted Nun Hebrew alphabet Punctuation