Otiyyot Ze'irot in the Sefer Torah
User Profile Picture
ByBrian Tice
Collection Logo
Sofrut Series

There are multiple traditions concerning which letters of the Torah are to be written diminished (i.e. small and suspended above their normal positions). The rabbinic literature refers to this by a few different names, including ze'ira (זְעֵירָא) and qetina (קֽטִינָא) in Aramaic and qetonah (קְטָנָה) and teloyah (תלויה) in Hebrew. In the Eastern (particularly kabbalistic) traditions, the list is more expansive than in the West.

The 6th to 10th Century List

per Codex Hilleli,1 Keter Damasek, Keter Aram Tsova, and Codex Leningradensis

  1. The hey of b’hibaram (Bereshit 2:4)2
  2. The vav of shalom (Bamidbar 25:12), though more often it is k'tia (broken)

The Common (Western) List
per the Davidovitch Tikkun Soferim3

  1. The hey of b’hibaram (Bereshit 2:4)
  2. The khaf of v’livkhota (Bereshit 23:2)
  3. The qof of qatzti (Bereshit 27:46)
  4. The aleph of vayiqra (Vayiqra 1:1)
  5. The mem of moqda (Vayiqra 6:2)
  6. The yod of Pinchas (Bamidbar 25:11), the smallest yodh in the scroll
  7. The yod of teshi (D'varim 32:18)

The Rabbi Yosef ben Shmuel Tov-Elem (Eastern) List
cited in Machzor Vitry4

  1. The hey of b’hibaram (Bereshit 2:4)
  2. The ayin of olam (Bereshit 21:33)
  3. The khaf of v’livkhota (Bereshit 23:2)
  4. The qof of qatzti (Bereshit 27:46)
  5. The teyt of qatonti (Bereshit 32:11)
  6. The qoph of b'qameyhem (Shemot 32:25), but more often joined or tented
  7. The aleph of vayyiqra (Vayiqra 1:1)
  8. The mem of moqda (Vayiqra 6:2)
  9. The samekh of b׳supah (Bamidbar 21:15)
  10. The yod of Pinchas (Bamidbar 25:11)
  11. The vav of shalom (Bamidbar 25:12), though more often it is k'tia (broken)
  12. The mem of mamrim (D'varim 9:24), generally suspended, but early sources say enlarged
  13. The yod of teshi (D'varim 32:18)

Notes

  1. Though 6th-7th century copies of Codex Hilleli survive, a near-complete copy made in Toledo, Spain in 1241, lacking Vayiqra 1:1-10, exists with song-format adjustments made to align with the tradition of Rabbi Meir ben Todros haLevy Abulafia, which was by then en vogue.
  2. BHK notes "mlt MSS ה min; 1 בבראם אלהים".
  3. Per the modern standard list, the large and small letters total 16.
  4. Rabbi Simcha ben Shmuel of Vitry, Machzor Vitry (1208 ed.) vol. 2, p. 683; the large and small letters in his list total 32.