A tag (

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

: , plural , ) is a decoration drawn over some

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 ...

letters in the Jewish scrolls of

Sifrei Kodesh ''Sifrei Kodesh'' (), commonly referred to as ''sefarim'' (), or in its singular form, ''sefer'', are books of Jewish religious literature and are viewed by religious Jews as sacred. These are generally works of Torah literature, i.e. Tanakh a ...

Tefillin Tefillin (Modern Hebrew language, Israeli Hebrew: / ; Ashkenazim, Ashkenazic pronunciation: ; Modern Israeli Hebrew, Modern Hebrew pronunciation: ), or phylacteries, are a set of small black leather boxes with leather straps containing scrolls o ...

and

Mezuzot A ''mezuzah'' ( "doorpost"; plural: ''mezuzot'') is a piece of parchment inscribed with specific Hebrew language, Hebrew verses from the Torah, which Jews affix in a small case to the doorposts of their homes. These verses are the Biblical pa ...

. The Hebrew name for this scribal feature is (). and mean 'crown' in

and

respectively.

Placement

In modern practice, the letters Beth,

Daleth Dalet (, also spelled Daleth or Daled) is the fourth Letter (alphabet), letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician alphabet, Phoenician ' 𐤃, Hebrew alphabet, Hebrew , Aramaic alphabet, Aramaic ' 𐡃, Syriac alphabet, Syriac ' ܕ, ...

, He,

Heth Heth, sometimes written Chet or Ḥet, is the eighth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician ''ḥēt'' 𐤇, Hebrew ''ḥēt'' , Aramaic ''ḥēṯ'' 𐡇, Syriac ''ḥēṯ'' ܚ, and Arabic ''ḥāʾ'' . It is also related to ...

, Yud and Quf (

mnemonic A mnemonic device ( ), memory trick or memory device is any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval in the human memory, often by associating the information with something that is easier to remember. It makes use of e ...

: BeDeQ-ChaYaH ) have one tag. The letters

Gimel Gimel is the third (in alphabetical order; fifth in spelling order) letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician ''gīml'' 𐤂, Hebrew ''gīmel'' , Aramaic ''gāmal'' 𐡂, Syriac ''gāmal'' ܓ and Arabic ''ǧīm'' . It is also rela ...

Zayin Zayin (also spelled zain or zayn or simply zay) is the seventh letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician ''zayn'' 𐤆, Hebrew ''zayīn'' , Aramaic ''zain'' 𐡆, Syriac ''zayn'' ܙ, and Arabic ''zāy'' . It represents the sound . It ...

, Tet,

Nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service and contemplation, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 5 ...

Ayin ''Ayin'' (also ''ayn'' or ''ain''; transliterated ) is the sixteenth letter of the Semitic scripts, including Phoenician ''ʿayin'' 𐤏, Hebrew ''ʿayin'' , Aramaic ''ʿē'' 𐡏, Syriac ''ʿē'' ܥ, and Arabic ''ʿayn'' (where it is si ...

Tzadi Tsade (also spelled , , , , tzadi, sadhe, tzaddik) is the eighteenth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician ''ṣādē'' 𐤑, Hebrew ''ṣādī'' , Aramaic ''ṣāḏē'' 𐡑, Syriac ''ṣāḏē'' ܨ, Ge'ez ''ṣädäy'' ጸ, an ...

and Shin (mnemonic: Sha´ATNeZ-GaTz ), as far back as Talmudic times, have 3 tags. Some manuscripts feature embellished on the top line of each column and some also on all occurrences of the

Tetragrammaton The TetragrammatonPronounced ; ; also known as the Tetragram. is the four-letter Hebrew-language theonym (transliteration, transliterated as YHWH or YHVH), the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four Hebrew letters, written and read from ...

other than those prefixed with a

lamed Lamedh or lamed is the twelfth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Hebrew ''lāmeḏ'' , Aramaic ''lāmaḏ'' 𐡋, Syriac ''lāmaḏ'' ܠ, Arabic ''lām'' , and Phoenician ''lāmd'' 𐤋. Its sound value is . It is also related to the Anc ...

Sefer Tagin

About the 2nd century CE, a work called ''Sefer Tagin'' ( or ) emerged attributed to

Rabbi Akiva Akiva ben Joseph (Mishnaic Hebrew: ; – 28 September 135 CE), also known as Rabbi Akiva (), was a leading Jewish scholar and sage, a '' tanna'' of the latter part of the first century and the beginning of the second. Rabbi Akiva was a leadin ...

which laid out the 1960 places where modified tagin or letter forms occur in a

Torah scroll A Sephardic Torah scroll rolled to the first paragraph of the Shema An Ashkenazi Torah scroll rolled to the Decalogue file:Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue, Interior, Tora Cases.jpg">Torah cases at Knesset Eliyahoo Synagogue, Mumbai, India ...

. In it, the locations of letters which receive a number of tagin which differs from the ''sha'atnez gatz'' tradition, e.g. the initial ''

beit Beit may refer to: *Beit (surname) * Beit baronets *Bet (letter) Bet, Beth, Beh, or Vet is the second Letter (alphabet), letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician language, Phoenician ''bēt'' 𐤁 , Hebrew language, Hebrew ''bēt'' ...

'' of ''bereshith'' in having 4 tagin as opposed to the usual 1 and the instances of aleph which bear 7 tagin apiece. According to this work, each occurrence of each letter is to be written with between 0 and 7 tagin, as delineated in the lists contained therein.

Maimonides

This tradition, predating the versification of the Torah text, contains some instruction wherein it is difficult to know what verses are being referenced, thus in the 12th century,

Maimonides Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (, ) and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (), was a Sephardic rabbi and Jewish philosophy, philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah schola ...

ruled that though a scribe should do his utmost to incorporate all of the elements of this tradition, called ''otiyyot meshunot'' (strange letters), however if they are omitted, whether in full or in part, the scroll would not be ruled as ''pasul'' (invalid).

Interpretation

In a notable sugya, in which

Moses sees Rabbi Akiva (Menachot 29b) Moses sees Rabbi Akiva teaching the Oral Torah, and later meeting his fate at the hands of the Romans, in a sugya (passage) in the Babylonian Talmud. The sugya appears in tractate '' Menachot'' (29b), which generally deals with Temple offerings. Je ...

, a story in the Babylonian

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 ...

states that were originally added to the text by God at

Mount Sinai Mount Sinai, also known as Jabal Musa (), is a mountain on the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. It is one of several locations claimed to be the Mount Sinai (Bible), biblical Mount Sinai, the place where, according to the sacred scriptures of the thre ...

, and that

would use their presence in order to derive numerous laws by ''

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

'' (rabbinic exegesis). In

kabbalistic Kabbalah or Qabalah ( ; , ; ) is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. It forms the foundation of mystical religious interpretations within Judaism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal (). Jewi ...

thought, each has special significance and meaning.

References

External links

Learning About Tagin
(UnderstandingHebrew.com)

for ritual STA"M use of Kulmusim quill
Halachic origins
in

Gemara The Gemara (also transliterated Gemarah, or in Yiddish Gemore) is an essential component of the Talmud, comprising a collection of rabbinical analyses and commentaries on the Mishnah and presented in 63 books. The term is derived from the Aram ...