Brian Tice's Blog: Halakhically and Hashqafically Historical - Posts Tagged "v-shamru"

The Baal haTurim, Rabbi Ya'aqov ben Asher, wrote that of the 194 whirled pehs in a Torah scroll (2nd -18th century), at least 13 are written "with their mouths coiled inside themselves" [1] in order to add a second element to the word in which they occur. These 13 passages are Exodus 31:17 [2]; Numbers 23:3; Deuteronomy 1:7, 5:4, 6:25, 7:12, 7:20, 9:7, 13:6, 15:8, 16:16, 17:6, and 17:8. [3]

Focusing on the first in the list, the V'shamru, he writes that the peh of וינפש (vayinafash; "and He was refreshed"), which is pictured here (see the bottom left corner word) is "doubled" (a small peh written inside the proper peh) in order to emphasize the extra soul that we receive on Shabbat (ref.: b. Beitza 16a), as the root of וינפש (vayinafash) is נפש (nefesh; i.e., soul).

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This is what is said in b. Beitza [4]: "As Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said: The Holy One, Blessed be He, gives a person an additional soul on Shabbat eve, and at the conclusion of Shabbat removes it from him, as it is stated: “He ceased from work and was refreshed [vayinafash]” (Exodus 31:17). Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish expounds the verse as follows: Since he ceased from work, and now Shabbat has concluded and his additional soul is removed from him; woe [oy vey] for the additional soul [nefesh] that is lost."

Nota bene: The image posted here comes from a Polish Sefer Torah. We know this due to the tradition visible here of placing an extra space between pasukhim (verses), i.e. two letter spaces rather than the single letter space normally placed between words.[5]
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Notes:
1. As described in Sefer Tagin (ספר תאגין): An Ancient Sofer Manual (ca. 2nd c. CE).
2. The "V'shamru" is often included in the weekly Shabbat liturgy. It is comprised of Exodus 31:16-17, i.e. the last 4 lines of the petuchah paragraph in the photo.
3. Baal haTurim, Commentary on Parshat Ki Tisa 31.17 (early 14th c. CE).
4. Gemara of Talmud Bavli (6th c. CE).
5. Yemenite scribes do this as well, to facilitate the tradition of reading each verse first in Hebrew, then from the Aramaic Targum (Onqelos), and finally from the Judeo-Arabic (Tafsir Rasag). By placing extra space between verses, it is easier to find the verse breaks and transition to the targumic texts.