§ Mar Zutra says, and some say that it is Mar Ukva who says: Initially, the Torah was given to the Jewish people in Ivrit script, the original form of the written language, and the sacred tongue, Hebrew. It was given to them again in the days of Ezra in Ashurit script and the Aramaic tongue. The Jewish people selected Ashurit script and the sacred tongue for the Torah scroll and left Ivrit script and the Aramaic tongue for the commoners. The Gemara asks: Who are these commoners? Rav Ḥisda said: The Samaritans [Kutim]. The Gemara asks: What is Ivrit script? Rav Ḥisda says: Libona’a script.It is taught in a baraita (Tosefta 4:5): Rabbi Yosei says: Ezra was suitable, given his greatness, for the Torah to be given by him to the Jewish people, had Moses not come first and received the Torah already. With regard to Moses the verse states: “And Moses went up to God” (Exodus 19:3), and with regard to Ezra the verse states: “This Ezra went up from Babylon and he was a ready scribe in the Torah of Moses, which the Lord, the God of Israel, had given” (Ezra 7:6). Just as the going up stated here, with regard to Moses, is for the Torah, which he received from God and transmitted to the Jewish people, so too, the going up stated there, with regard to Ezra, is for the Torah, as he taught Torah to the Jewish people and was suitable to have originally merited to give it. The baraita continues: With regard to Moses the verse states: “And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances” (Deuteronomy 4:14), and with regard to Ezra the verse states: “For Ezra had set his heart to seek the Torah of the Lord his God and to do it and to teach in Israel statutes and ordinances” (Ezra 7:10). And even though the Torah was not given literally by him, the script of the Torah was changed by him, as it is stated:

§ Rav Yehuda says that Rav says: When Moses ascended on High, he found the Holy One, Blessed be He, sitting and tying crowns on the letters of the Torah. Moses said before God: Master of the Universe, who is preventing You from giving the Torah without these additions? God said to him: There is a man who is destined to be born after several generations, and Akiva ben Yosef is his name; he is destined to derive from each and every thorn of these crowns mounds upon mounds of halakhot. It is for his sake that the crowns must be added to the letters of the Torah. Moses said before God: Master of the Universe, show him to me. God said to him: Return behind you. Moses went and sat at the end of the eighth row in Rabbi Akiva’s study hall and did not understand what they were saying. Moses’ strength waned, as he thought his Torah knowledge was deficient. When Rabbi Akiva arrived at the discussion of one matter, his students said to him: My teacher, from where do you derive this? Rabbi Akiva said to them: It is a halakha transmitted to Moses from Sinai. When Moses heard this, his mind was put at ease.

Rabbi Yirmeya said, and some say that it was Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba who said: The limit is like the distance from the town of Ḥamtan to Tiberias, a mil. The Gemara asks: Let him say simply that the limit is a mil; why did he have to mention these places? The Gemara answers that the formulation of the answer teaches us this: How much distance comprises the measure of a mil? It is like the distance from Ḥamtan to Tiberias. § Having cited a statement of Rabbi Yirmeya, which some attribute to Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba, the Gemara cites other statements attributed to these Sages. Rabbi Yirmeya said, and some say that it was Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba who said: The Seers, i.e., the prophets, were the ones who said that the letters mem, nun, tzadi, peh, and kaf [mantzepakh], have a different form when they appear at the end of a word. The Gemara asks: And how can you understand it that way? Isn’t it written: “These are the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel in Mount Sinai” (Leviticus 27:34), which indicates that a prophet is not permitted to initiate or change any matter of halakhafrom now on? Consequently, how could the prophets establish new forms for the letters? And furthermore, didn’t Rav Ḥisda say: The letters mem and samekh in the tablets of the covenant given at Sinai

Rebbi Levi said, for him who said, the Torah was given in paleo-Hebrew, the letter ayin was a miracle295This does not refer to the Torah but to the stone tablets. From the description that the tablets were written on both sides it is inferred that the letters pierced the stone; the same letters were visible on both sides. This creates a problem for circular shaped letters, ayin in paleo-Hebrew and samekh in square script.. He who said, the Torah was given Assyrian, the letter samekh was a miracle. Rebbi Jeremiah in the name of Rebbi Ḥiyya bar Abba and Rebbi Simon both were saying, in earlier copies of the Torah neither he nor final mem were closed296The open final mem is exemplified in the Aramaic inscription of King Uziahu’s ossuary. In early Medieval mss. the he looks like a ח, only that the left leg is not at the left end but touching the vertical bar somewhat to the right. The open he is recommended in the Babli, Menaḥot 29b. For a thorough discussion, cf. S. Liebermann, Tarbiz 4 (1933) pp. 292–293.. Therefore samekh was closed297This justifies R. Levi’s remark that only samekh but not final mem represented a problem..

But when they returned from Babylon, they desired to commemorate the second deliverance, which they did in two ways. The first was that they discontinued the Hebrew script and adopted the Assyrian in memory of the redemption from the Assyrian exile. Thus our Rabbis say, in the Tosefta of the treatise Sanhedrin, “Why is it called Asshurit? Because it came with them from Assyria (Asshur). Rabbi says, The Torah was given to Israel in these characters … And the reason it is called Asshurit (אשורית) is because it is the most excellent (משורית) of writings.” According to the sense of the Gemara in the beginning of chapter “Kol Kitbe,” it seems that the characters we now use and in which our books are written, are not Hebrew. If so, we may say that Rabbi’s difference of opinion consists merely in saying that since the Tables of Stone were written in these characters, the name Asshurit was not given to them because they came from Assyria; but he admits that the Hebrew characters used by the people anciently were changed. But even if we grant that he does not agree that there was a change, it matters not, because his opinion, that of a single person, does not count as against the opinion of the majority of the wise men.

It is permitted to save all sacred writings that are found in one courtyard [by transferring them] to another courtyard in the same lane, even though an eruv was not made, provided the lane has three walls and a pole [in the place of the fourth wall].[The above leniencies apply] provided that the [sacred writings] are written in the Assyrian script and in Hebrew. If, by contrast, they are written in any other language or using any other script, we should not save them even if there is an eruv.[Indeed,] even during the week, we are forbidden to read from such texts. Rather, they should be left in an open place where they will become spoiled as a matter of course.

R. Simeon b. Laḳish said: Three scrolls of the Torah were found in the Temple court:19Presumably when the text of Scripture was about to be fixed. the Ma‘on20So GRA. V has מענה. This and the following two names were derived from the peculiar word which distinguished each scroll. scroll, the Za’aṭuṭë scroll, and the Hu’ scroll. In one of these they found the expression of ma‘on,21Meaning ‘dwelling place’, the noun being in the masculine form. and in the other two it was written, The eternal God is me‘onah22Deut. 33, 27, the same noun in the feminine. (a dwelling place), so they adopted the reading of the two scrolls and discarded that of the one scroll. In another of the scrolls they found it written, And he sent the za‘aṭuṭë (nobles) of the children of Israel,23Ex. 24, 5. and in the other two they found written And he sent na‘arë (the young men of) the children of Israel, so they retained the reading of the two and abandoned that of the one. In one of the scrolls hu’24The third person sing. masc. which is used in the Pentateuch for hi’, third person fem. sing. pronoun. was written eleven times, but in the other two hi’25The correct feminine form, being exceptions to the usual written form. A list of these is given in ARN XXXIV, above p. 167. was written eleven times, so they adopted the reading of the two and discarded that of the one.