Actually, Jason, the "rafe" (where does that name come from) is a recentYigal, I hate to correct you, but this is not true. Rafe was used regularly in Codex Leningradensis, dated 1007 CE so long before Yiddish or printing, above BGDKPT without dagesh. See for example the extract at _http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/wsrp/educational_site/biblical_manuscripts/LeningradCodex2_e.jpg_. The word appears to mean "weak, slack" and is used in Numbers 13:18 and three other places in the Tanakh.
innovation, maybe imported from the Yiddish printers, certainly not a
masoretic mark. ...
Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.