Sanhedrin 94 ~ For the Increase of the Realm

On today’s daf, we read this:

סנהדרין צד, א

״לְםַרְבֵּה הַמִּשְׂרָה וּלְשָׁלוֹם אֵין קֵץ וְגוֹ׳״. אָמַר רַבִּי תַּנְחוּם: דָּרַשׁ בַּר קַפָּרָא בְּצִיפּוֹרִי, מִפְּנֵי מָה כל מֵם שֶׁבְּאֶמְצַע תֵּיבָה פָּתוּחַ, וְזֶה סָתוּם? בִּיקֵּשׁ הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא לַעֲשׂוֹת חִזְקִיָּהוּ מָשִׁיחַ, וְסַנְחֵרִיב גּוֹג וּמָגוֹג

“For the increase of the realm and for peace without end there be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to establish it and uphold it through justice and through righteousness, from now and forever; the zeal of the Lord of hosts does perform this” (Isaiah 9:6). Rabbi Tanchum says that bar Kappara taught in Tzippori: Why is it that every letter mem in the middle of a word is open and this mem, of the word lemarbe, is closed? It is because the Holy One, Blessed be He, sought to designate King Hezekiah as the Messiah and to designate Sennacherib and Assyria, respectively, as Gog and Magog, all from the prophecy of Ezekiel with regard to the end of days (Ezekiel, chapter 38), and the confrontation between them would culminate in the final redemption.

This verse comes right after the far more well-known one (at least in translation): “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government is upon his shoulder: and his name is called Wonderful…” These of course are the words to Handel’s most famous composition: the Hallelujah chorus in The Messiah, only in context they apply to King Hezekiah, (b. 741 CE), the thirteenth King of Judah.

It is not immediately clear how putting a final ם in the middle of the word achieves the meaning that Bar Kappara attributed to it. Here, as usual, Rashi is helpful, and he gives three ways of understanding the homily:

מ"ם שבתיבת למרבה המשרה סתום לכך נסתם לומר נסתמו הדברים שעלו במחשבה ולא נעשה ל"א שביקש הקב"ה לסתום צרותיהן של ישראל שבקש לעשותו משיח ומורי רבי פירש לפי שנסתם פיו של חזקיה ולא אמר שירה

The ם is closed as if to say, this matter is over - that which he thought of doing [making King Hezekiah the Messiah] was never actually done. Another explanation that God wished to to close the claims of Israel who wanted to make King Hezekiah the Messiah [and this is hinted to by the closed form of the letter ם]. And my teacher taught me that it means that the mouth of Hezekiah was closed and he could no-longer sing words of praise [as he should have done when he was delivered from the threat to him by the Assyrians.

Today on Talmudology we will explore the question posed by Rabbi Tanchum, who was a third century rabbi who lived in Israel, in the name of his reacher Bar Kappara, who was active in Caesarea around 180-220 CE. Without resorting to eschatology, why is there is the word spelled לםרבה, and not how we would write it today - למרבה?

The leningrad codex

The Leningrad Codex is the oldest known complete Hebrew manuscript of the Hebrew Bible. (because the The כֶּתֶר אֲרָם צוֹבָא - or in English the Aleppo Codex, is not complete). It was completed in 1008 in Cairo. Here is a picture of verse from Isaiah:

Leningrad Codex Isaiah 9:6

As you can see, the word appears with the final ם, as we find in the Talmud, although it is not clear from the positioning of the letters if this is one word or two. However, in the margin is a note that tells the reader to read it as one word: למרבה ק׳, and so it is likely that in the Leningrad Codex the word was as two: לם רבה. Can we go back in time even further. Why yes, we can.

The Aleppo Codex

The Aleppo Codex was written in Tiberius around 920 CE and it is the oldest extant Hebrew copy of our Bible. Sadly, it is missing 40% its original pages (mostly from the Torah section), which were either burned during the anti-Jewish riots in Aleppo in 1947 or were pilfered and kept likely as good luck charms. In it, the word is written as two, with a final ם in the first word (remember that).

The Aleppo Codex, Isaiah 9:1b-8a

Can we go back even earlier? Yes we can, to the oldest extant copy of the Book of Isaiah.

The (Great) Isaiah scroll

The Isaiah Scroll, also known as the Great Isaiah Scroll, is one of the seven original Dead Sea Scrolls found by Bedouin shepherds in 1946. It is designated 1QIsaa as a kind of scientific identification, and has been carbon-dated (four times!) and dated using paleography. The former suggest that the scroll was written between 335-324 BC and 202-107 BC, while the latter method dates the scroll’s birthday to 150-100 BC. And in thus scroll, the word למרבה definitely appears as two - למ רבה, but no final ם is involved. Take a look:

The Great Isaiah Scroll, 1QIsaa, Isaiah 9:6

To be clear, there are no notes or textual variations written into the Isaiah Scroll (like there are in the Leningrad Codex) so although the final letter of the first word is a regular מ they would be read as two separate words.

summary of the Different Versions

Two words, final לם רבה :ם – Aleppo Codex

One word, final ם in the first: לֹמרבה- Leningrad Codex

Two words, regular למ רבה - Isaiah Dead Sea Scroll

The Mesorat Hamesorot of Eliyahu Ashkenazi

Eliyahu ben Asher Ahskenazi (1469-1549) was one of the great grammarians of the early modern period (or late Middle Ages, you choose) and in his work on grammar, Mesorat Hamesoret - he wrote this (starting at the little pointing hand in both the Hebrew and English translation):

Mesorat Hamesoret, ed. Ginzburg, London 1867, 193.

With no qualms, Rabbi Eliyahu Ashkenazi took on a passage of Talmud that we study today, and thought that Ben Kappara’s homily was based on a simple error. The text is read (and that’s the important factor) as לם רבה and it means “to them is great.” No need for homiletic eschatology. I don’t know what he would have made of Leningrad or Aleppo Codices or of the Dead Sea Scroll, but at least two of them support his thesis. And what of Bar Kappar’s sermon? Why, that is for you to decide.

Gittin 19a ~ Mishnaic Inks

In honor of my mother, Barbara Brown, whose 80th birthday we celebrate today.

And in honor of the birthday of her first grandchild, Talia, also celebrated today.

משנה גיטין יט, א

בכל כותבים בדיו בסם בסיקרא ובקומוס ובקנקנתום ובכל דבר שהוא של קיימא אין כותבין לא במשקין ולא במי פירות ולא בכל דבר שאינו מתקיים 

A get may be written with any material, with ink, with paint, with red pigment, with gum, or with shoe blackening, or with anything which lasts. It may not be written with liquids or with fruit-juice or with anything that is not lasting...

Quick - which international best-seller was set in the middle ages and featured a poisonous ink used to illuminate manuscripts? Click here for the answer.

It is a challenge to identify each of the materials mentioned in this Mishnah, but that hasn't stopped people from trying. In a 1964 paper published in Chymia (that would be the International Journal for Chemistry), Martin Levey from Yale University suggested that דיו – diyo is a black ink whose color is due to soot particles.  Based on prior work (by Low and others) he wrote that that the best soot came from olive oil, which was then mixed with balsam. קנקנתום -Kankantum is translated in the Schottenstein Talmud as copper sulfate. How the editors arrived at this translation is not clear. Perhaps they are basing it on אורח חיים הלכות תפילין לב, ג where the משנה ברורה suggests that it is "קופער וואסער" - "copper water".  Levey claims that in Babylonia, kankantum was green and contained not copper but ferrous sulfate. In a more recent paper on the ink content of middle Persian documents, the author found that they too contained lamp soot which was gathered from inside a chimney that burned linseed oil. The soot was then sieved to produce a fine powder that was bound with Gum Arabic, made from the sap of the acacia tree.

“...He dictated all these words to me, and I wrote them with ink in the book.”

— Jeremiah 36:18

Dead Sea Ink

A group of German scientists recently analyzed the ink on one of the Dead Sea Scrolls and reported their findings in Dead Sea Discoveries. They used x-ray spectroscopy, in which an electron beam is bounced over the sample, and the spectrum of radiation that is given off is measured. As you can see in the figure below, the spectrum of the Dead Sea Scroll ink is similar to Gum Arabic, but it contains peaks that suggest other compounds, including a gum produced by the Acacia Raddiana, known in Hebrew as שיטה סלילנית. Not surprisingly this tree is only found in very dry or desert climates.   

Spectroscopy results of the ink from a Dead Sea Scroll (1QHa) marked as TG ink, compared with Gum Arabic, Gum Rasdsiana and ink prepared according to Maimonides' recipe.  From Ira Rabin, Oliver Hahn, Timo Wolff, Admir Masic and Gisela Weinberg. On the Origin of the Ink of the Thanksgiving Scroll (1QHodayot). Dead Sea Discoveries, 2009: 16 (1)97-106.

But the German team made an amazing discovery. No, really, it was amazing.  They compared the spectrum given off by the Dead Sea Scroll ink to a recipe for ink that Maimonides details in his Mishneh Torah,  and which is shown in the lowermost line in the Figure above.  You can see how it resembles TG sample that is the scroll ink. Here is what they wrote:  

To our astonishment the best correspondence was found when comparing the spectra of the ink from the scroll with a sample of ours prepared according to Maimonides' recipe, dating from the 12th century.

Analysis of the spectrum of the scroll ink also suggests the presence of tannins -a group of chemicals naturally found in many trees and plants. The authors note that Maimonides' recipe uses gall-nuts, which contain tannins.  

Maimonides' prescription could indicate the survival of an ancient use, whose actual reason had been forgotten. In this case the tannins would chemically bind the ink to the parchment collagen, explaining the surprising durability of the scroll inks as compared to the usual, physisorbed, carbon-based ink.   

Let's conclude with that recipe from the Rambam's Mishneh Torah, which is almost identical to the ink used on a Dead Sea Scroll that was written around 100 CE. Today there are several recipes for ink, but for those who use the Rambam's, they are following a recipe that has been in continuous use for at least 1,900 years. That what the science in this daf tells us.   

רמב"ם הלכות תפילין ומזוזה וספר תורה פרק א 

כיצד מעשה הדיו, מקבצין העשן של שמנים או של זפת ושל שעוה וכיוצא בהן וגובלין אותן בשרף האילן ובמעט דבש ולותתין אותו הרבה ודכין אותו עד שיעשה רקיקין ומיבשין אותו ומצניעין אותו, ובשעת כתיבה שורהו במי עפצים וכיוצא בו וכותב בו, שאם תמחקנו יהיה נמחק, וזהו הדיו שמצוה מן המובחר לכתוב בו ספרים תפילין ומזוזות

How is the ink made? One collects lamp-black obtained from oil or from pitch, wax  or similar substances; one binds them with wood resin and a little honey, and they are kneaded well and flattened into cakes.  Then they are dried and put away. When they are used to write, they are soaked in gall-nut water or something similar and he writes with it.  And if the writing needs to be erased, it may be erased.  This is the finest ink used for writing a Sefer Torah, Tefillin, and Mezuzot. (Hil. Tefillin 1:4).

Gittin 19a ~ Mishnaic Inks

משנה גיטין יט, א

בכל כותבים בדיו בסם בסיקרא ובקומוס ובקנקנתום ובכל דבר שהוא של קיימא אין כותבין לא במשקין ולא במי פירות ולא בכל דבר שאינו מתקיים 

A get may be written with any material, with ink, with paint, with red pigment, with gum, or with shoe blackening, or with anything which lasts. It may not be written with liquids or with fruit-juice or with anything that is not lasting...

Which international best-seller was set in the middle ages and featured a poisonous ink used to illuminate manuscripts? Click here for the answer.

It is a challenge to identify each of the materials mentioned in this Mishnah, but that hasn't stopped people from trying. In a 1964 paper published in Chymia (that would be the International Journal for Chemistry), Martin Levey from Yale University suggested that דיו – diyo is a black ink whose color is due to soot particles.  Based on prior work (by Low and others) he wrote that that the best soot came from olive oil, which was then mixed with balsam. קנקנתום -Kankantum is translated in the Schottenstein Talmud as copper sulfate. How the editors arrived at this translation is not clear. Perhaps they are basing it on אורח חיים הלכות תפילין לב, ג where the משנה ברורה suggests that it is "קופער וואסער" - "copper water".  Levey claims that in Babylonia, kankantum was green and contained not copper but ferrous sulfate. In a more recent paper on the ink content of middle Persian documents, the author found that they too contained lamp soot which was gathered from inside a chimney that burned linseed oil. The soot was then sieved to produce a fine powder that was bound with Gum Arabic, made from the sap of the acacia tree.

“...He dictated all these words to me, and I wrote them with ink in the book.”

— Jeremiah 36:18

Dead Sea Ink

A group of German scientists recently analyzed the ink on one of the Dead Sea Scrolls and reported their findings in Dead Sea Discoveries. They used x-ray spectroscopy, in which an electron beam is bounced over the sample, and the spectrum of radiation that is given off is measured. As you can see in the figure below, the spectrum of the Dead Sea Scroll ink is similar to Gum Arabic, but it contains peaks that suggest other compounds, including a gum produced by the Acacia Raddiana, known in Hebrew as שיטה סלילנית. Not surprisingly this tree is only found in very dry or desert climates.   

Spectroscopy results of the ink from a Dead Sea Scroll (1QHa) marked as TG ink, compared with Gum Arabic, Gum Rasdsiana and ink prepared according to Maimonides' recipe.  From Ira Rabin, Oliver Hahn, Timo Wolff, Admir Masic and Gisela Weinberg. On the Origin of the Ink of the Thanksgiving Scroll (1QHodayot). Dead Sea Discoveries, 2009: 16 (1)97-106.

But the German team made an amazing discovery. No, really, it was amazing.  They compared the spectrum given off by the Dead Sea Scroll ink to a recipe for ink that Maimonides details in his Mishneh Torah,  and which is shown in the lowermost line in the Figure above.  You can see how it resembles TG sample that is the scroll ink. Here is what they wrote:  

To our astonishment the best correspondence was found when comparing the spectra of the ink from the scroll with a sample of ours prepared according to Maimonides' recipe, dating from the 12th century.

Analysis of the spectrum of the scroll ink also suggests the presence of tannins -a group of chemicals naturally found in many trees and plants. The authors note that Maimonides' recipe uses gall-nuts, which contain tannins.  

Maimonides' prescription could indicate the survival of an ancient use, whose actual reason had been forgotten. In this case the tannins would chemically bind the ink to the parchment collagen, explaining the surprising durability of the scroll inks as compared to the usual, physisorbed, carbon-based ink.   

Let's conclude with that recipe from the Rambam's Mishneh Torah, which is almost identical to the ink used on a Dead Sea Scroll that was written around 100 CE. Today there are several recipes for ink, but for those who use the Rambam's, they are following a recipe that has been in continuous use for at least 1,900 years. That what the science in this daf tells us.   

רמב"ם הלכות תפילין ומזוזה וספר תורה פרק א 

כיצד מעשה הדיו, מקבצין העשן של שמנים או של זפת ושל שעוה וכיוצא בהן וגובלין אותן בשרף האילן ובמעט דבש ולותתין אותו הרבה ודכין אותו עד שיעשה רקיקין ומיבשין אותו ומצניעין אותו, ובשעת כתיבה שורהו במי עפצים וכיוצא בו וכותב בו, שאם תמחקנו יהיה נמחק, וזהו הדיו שמצוה מן המובחר לכתוב בו ספרים תפילין ומזוזות

How is the ink made? One collects lamp-black obtained from oil or from pitch, wax  or similar substances; one binds them with wood resin and a little honey, and they are kneaded well and flattened into cakes.  Then they are dried and put away. When they are used to write, they are soaked in gall-nut water or something similar and he writes with it.  And if the writing needs to be erased, it may be erased.  This is the finest ink used for writing a Sefer Torah, Tefillin, and Mezuzot. (Hil. Tefillin 1:4).