Inverted Ayin and Bent Peh

Regarding the rules of errors found in a Torah scroll, R. Moshe Isserles writes that “only a definitive error” necessitates taking out another Torah scroll (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 143:4). Commenting on this principle, the Mishna Berura (143:27) writes that variations on the traditional big and small letters in the Torah do not necessitate taking out a different scroll. Another example he gives is an “inverted letter ayin” (ayinin hafuchot) and a “bent letter peh” (pe’in keffufot). These examples were taken from R. Yaakov of Lissa’s (1760-1832) work Derech Chaim, a very popular halachic work, often reprinted in larger prayer books from the 1800s and early 1900s.¹

While many are familiar with the inverted letter nuns which delineate Numbers 10:35-36, the inverted ayin is more obscure, as is the bent peh. In this article we will examine this ancient scribal practice, now mostly forgotten.²

The Ancient Tradition of Unusual Letters

While occasional big and small letters are still found in Torah scrolls today, there is a very old tradition of a variety of unusual ways to depict certain letters in the Torah. These are occasionally mentioned by early authorities. For example, Rashi in his commentary to Genesis 11:32 talks about a reversed final nun.

Unusual letters are listed alphabetically in Sefer Tagin (also called Tagi), an ancient work already mentioned in the writings of Rav Saadia Gaon, and possibly dating from Talmudic times.³ The tagin are the crowns used to decorate the tops of certain letters in the Torah scroll, and along with letters written in an unusual fashion, Sefer Tagin lists letters that have additional crowns on them. A version of this work is included in Machzor Vitry, written by a student of Rashi.⁴ Another early work that mentions many unusually written letters is Sefer haRemazim, by the Tosafot-era figure Rabbenu Yoel. He also provides midrashic explanations for why those letters are written in an unusual manner.⁵ The most well-known source for some of the unusual letters is the thirteenth-century halachist R. Jacob ben Asher, Ba’al haTurim, who included references to and explanations for unusual letters in his commentary to the Torah.

Although more modern halachic authorities generally cautioned against incorporating unusual forms of writing letters in Torah scrolls, mainly since the tradition regarding them is unclear and not universal,⁶ they have been preserved in many Yemenite Torah scrolls, and examples have been found among old Italian⁷ and Ashkenazic Torah scrolls,⁸ particularly from Bohemia.⁹ Yemenites also preserved the early Ashkenazic work Sefer haRemazim, since it deals with these matters extensively.¹⁰

Inverted Ayin

The first difficulty regarding the inverted ayin (ayinin hafuchot) is understanding what is meant by the inversion here. It could mean that it is upside down, or possibly reversed right to left.¹¹ Examination of Torah scrolls that incorporate this unusual letter indicates that it is neither.

Sefer haRemazim notes two places where there is a reversed ayin, explicitly calling it inverted (hafucha): Genesis 28:15 and Leviticus 26:41. Sefer Tagin doesn’t use the term “inverted ayin,” but rather describes an ayin with a “bent tail.”¹² Torah scrolls following this tradition denote this by making the ayin with a small tail on the bottom, which is curled backwards, to the right. The ayin itself is written normally; the inversion relates to the small additional tail added to the letter, which faces backwards.¹³

This seems to be the same as the unusual ayin noted in Genesis 32:11, which Sefer Tagin describes as having “a bent tail,” while Sefer haRemazim describes it as “returning backwards.”¹⁴

Why are these letters written this way? Sefer haRemazim gives homiletic reasons for each occurrence. In Genesis 28:15, “Remember, I am with you: I will protect you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you,” the unusual letter appears in the word “leave you” [e’ezavcha]; the ayin pointing backwards illustrates the idea of returning. Here it hints at the Jews returning to Israel from Babylon after an exile of seventy years — the numerical value of the letter ayin is seventy — and that the Jews will be ingathered from the seventy nations of the world.¹⁵ In Leviticus 26:41, “When I, in turn, have been hostile to them and have removed them into the land of their enemies, then at last shall their uncircumcised heart humble itself, and they shall atone for their iniquity,” the unusual ayin appears in the word “uncircumcised” [he-arel]. This indicates the seventy years of destruction between the First and Second Temples, when the Jewish people are being punished for their “uncircumcised heart.”¹⁶ In both cases where Sefer haRemazim explicitly uses the term “inverted letter ayin” (hafucha), the numerical value of the letter plays a role in the interpretation.

In Genesis 32:11, “I am unworthy of all the kindness that You have so steadfastly shown Your servant: with my staff alone I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps,” in the word “Your servant” [avdecha] the ayin pointing backwards illustrates Jacob’s fear that he lost whatever merit he had, the backwards tail indicating a reversal.¹⁷ Sefer haRemazim calls this letter “returning backwards,” which according to Sefer Tagin is functionally the same as inverted, although the interpretation this time is not associated with the numerical value of the letter.

Bent Peh

The “bent letter peh” (pe’in keffufot) is the only unusually written letter that Rambam specifically mentions in his Mishneh Torah (Hilchot Sefer Torah 7:8). He uses the common alternate term for the bent peh, leffufa. R. Menachem ben Solomon Meiri (1249-1315), in his work on the orthography to be used when writing Torah scrolls, Kiryat Sefer, explains that leffufa means having “small circles within the letter . . . like something winding one over the other.”¹⁸ Examination of Torah scrolls that incorporate this unusual letter indicates that the peh itself isn’t curled, just the interior of the letter, making the interior part look something like the at-sign @.¹⁹ Sefer Tagin describes it as a peh whose “mouth is on the inside.”²⁰ This is referred to by Ba’al haTurim as a “double peh” (kefula), since it looks like a peh within a peh.²¹

This is by far the most popular unusual letter in the Torah, considered “much used in Yemenite manuscripts.”²² At the end of his work Tikkun haSofer vehaKore, a Masoretic text of the Torah by Seligman Baer, 210 places are listed where there is a tradition to write a peh leffufa, and another seven instances where the final peh is written in this manner. By contrast, the maximum of any other unusual letter listed is fifty-five, and he records only twelve places where there is a tradition to have an inverted ayin.²³ He doesn’t record any explanations or interpretations for these unusual letters.

Sefer haRemazim doesn’t refer to either a peh keffufa or leffufa, although it does note an inverted peh (Genesis 46:28, Exodus 23:17) which has an extra tail on the bottom facing backwards, much like the inverted ayin. It does, however, note a “double peh” (kefula) in Genesis 41:45, “Pharaoh then gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-paneah . . . ,” where the words Zaphenath-paneah are understood to contain an “unusual, large and doubled” letter peh. There it is interpreted as indicating that there are many and multiple hidden things that are revealed to Joseph, the doubling — peh within a peh — indicating multiplicity and something hidden within something else.²⁴

Ba’al haTurim lists thirteen places where there is a “double peh,” eleven of which are in Deuteronomy.²⁵ He interprets them as referring to something being emphasized (doubled). For example, he explains that in Exodus 31:17, the verse describes Shabbat as “a sign for all time between Me and the people of Israel. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He ceased from work and was refreshed” [va-yinafash]. The last word, which has the same root as the word for soul, nefesh, has a “double peh” referring to the extra soul that a person gets on Shabbat according to TB Beitza 16a. In Deuteronomy 15:8, speaking about lending money to the needy, the verse states that “you must open your hand and lend him sufficient for whatever he needs.” The command to open, patoaḥ, has a “double peh” to indicate that beyond opening the hand, a person must say kind words as well. In Deuteronomy 17:6, “A person shall be put to death only on the testimony of two or more witnesses; he must not be put to death on the testimony of [al pi] a single witness,” there is a “double peh” when talking about the testimony that they give “from their mouth” (pi), to emphasize that it must be verbal testimony and not written (TB Gittin 71a).

Conclusion

The tradition of unusual orthography is an increasingly rare and obscure phenomenon “due to a combination of factors which may include standardization of the scribal text of the Hebrew Bible over time, the invention of the printing press, variation in scribal traditions, and the loss of knowledgeable scribes and old Torah scrolls through the devastation of the Holocaust.”²⁶ They represent a form of midrashic commentary that once had at least some degree of popularity. Even if the writing of unusual letters itself is no longer practiced, the insights gained from them still shed light on additional homiletic teachings from the text of the Torah.