Qere we’la Ketiv/Ketiv we’la Qere: A Problematic Category in Masoretic Studies

Though many scholars successfully use the labels qere we’la ketiv and ketiv we’la qere, these descriptors do not represent the intentions of the masoretes themselves. Mp notes of the type קר’ ולא כת or כת’ ולא קר functioned as a short-hand identification of the title of the list to which the given text feature belonged. The abbreviations mark the masoretic knowledge of the list whose headers are קריין ולא כתבין and כתבין ולא קריין.

Over time, the names of these two traditional categories underwent a change. Originally communicated with active participles, these headers start to appear in Bavli and masorah-related manuscripts as passive: כתיבין ולא קריין. Thus, a shift in viewpoint occurred between the 7th to 9th century masoretes and the later rabbinic commentators who drew on masorah knowledge for their homilies. With the printing of the Vilna Talmud, the pe‘il participles became enshrined and many subsequent prominent Masorah scholars simply took for granted that the passive voice was original to Nedarim’s gemara.

When training students about the qere we’la ketiv and ketiv we’la qere categories, Masorah teachers have an opportunity to explain the terminological shift that occured between the masoretic scribes and their later copiers and interpreters. This paper suggests that proper representation of Masorah will seek not only to account for how masoretes categorized and represented their knowledge, but to convey that knowledge with care not to mischaracterize it.