A tikkun or tiqqun () is a book used by

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

to prepare for reading or writing 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 ...

. There are two types of tikkun, a ''tikkun qorʾim'' "reader's tikkun" and a ''tikkun soferim'' " scribe's tikkun".

Tikkun qor'im

A ''tiqqun qorʾim'' "readers' tikkun" is a study guide used when preparing a Torah reading for a

synagogue A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...

. Each tikkun contains two renditions of the

Masoretic Text The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; ) is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (''Tanakh'') in Rabbinic Judaism. The Masoretic Text defines the Jewish canon and its precise letter-text, with its vocaliz ...

. The right side of each page is written with the

niqqud In Hebrew orthography, niqqud or nikud ( or ) is a system of diacritical signs used to represent vowels or distinguish between alternative pronunciations of letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Several such diacritical systems were developed in the Ea ...

(vowel marks) and

Hebrew cantillation Hebrew cantillation, trope, trop, or ''te'amim'' is the manner of chanting ritual readings from the Hebrew Bible in synagogue Jewish services, services. The chants are written and notated in accordance with the special signs or marks printed ...

, while the left is written in unpointed Hebrew as it appears in a

. Reciters must master the tune ("trope," ) and pronunciation of the words beforehand because a Torah scroll itself has neither niqqud nor cantillation marks and because there are places where the word to be read differs from that written in the scroll (the Qere and Ketiv).

Tikkun soferim

A ''tiqqun soferim'' (scribes' ''tikkun'') is similar but is designed as a guide or model text for scribes. It contains additional information of use to scribes, such as directions concerning writing particular words, traditions of calligraphic ornamentation, and information about spacing and justification. For instance, it indicates how many letters there are per line, measured in

yodh Yodh (also spelled jodh, yod, or jod) is the tenth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician ''yōd'' 𐤉, Hebrew ''yod'' , Aramaic ''yod'' 𐡉, Syriac ''yōḏ'' ܝ, and Arabic ''yāʾ'' . It is also related to the Ancient Nort ...

-widths because it is the smallest Hebrew letter.

References

Resources

* The Kestenbaum Edition Tikkun: The Torah Reader's Compendium () – Complete ''tikkun'' with pointed Hebrew, unpointed Hebrew, plus English translation and commentary.
Tanakh on Demand
– On-line PDF's in Hebrew of any Torah section, including option for ''tikkun'' format.
Navigating the Bible II
– Online version of the Hebrew Bible, including tikkun format of a few verses at a time, and audio of cantillation.
ScrollScraper
– An online tikkun for an arbitrary excerpt of Torah verses, leveraging the bible.ort.org infrastructure.

– Innovative online 'tikkun', with vowels and cantillation appearing and disappearing with a mouse rollover. Hebrew Bible Jewish prayer and ritual texts Torah reading Sifrei Kodesh {{Hebrew-Bible-stub