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Why do Torah scrolls not have vowels or Trope, thus forcing the reader to memorize both?

Is there a historical or Halachic reason for this?

AllTradesJack
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  • This was the way that Moshe Rabbeinu wrote it. The nekudos were not invented until much later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niqqud – sabbahillel Dec 12 '16 at 18:28
  • @The symbols were not, but the vowels and cantillations were part of the Oral Torah. – Adám Dec 12 '16 at 18:43
  • @Adám At least, the intended construct is part of the Oral Torah. Implementation almost certainly changed (not to mention the multiple vowel and cantillation systems with different numbers of elements). – Double AA Dec 12 '16 at 18:50
  • @DoubleAA Obviously. Otherwise we wouldn't have had nekidoys and nqudot today. But I don't think that was the OP's question. – Adám Dec 12 '16 at 19:02
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    @Adám I didn't mean the question of how to pronounce a Segol. Rather, is there such thing as a Segol? Babylonians didn't have that sound. The point is the symbols were made up to match the sounds they had. There's no Oral Torah that this letter has a Segol sound, and the we go find what that is. It's this word is in the [tense] construct, and this is how we pronounced that. – Double AA Dec 12 '16 at 19:33
  • @DoubleAA Maybe not for segol, but I seem to recall that the mappik in Yah is specifically part of TShB"P. – Adám Dec 12 '16 at 19:47
  • @Adám I don't know what that means exactly. Do you mean the tradition to draw a dot there? That's obviously not TShBP. Maybe the tradition that that Hei is a consonant? Sure that could be. It's not much of a Chiddush since the full name יהוה would be unlikely to have a mater lectionis there. – Double AA Dec 12 '16 at 19:53
  • @DoubleAA I don't know what exactly that means either. Obviously, it isn't the symbol. Possibly that that letter is pronounced (mappik?). – Adám Dec 12 '16 at 19:59
  • Rav Natrunai Gaon says that this is not permitted. – mevaqesh Dec 13 '16 at 06:08

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The vowels and cantillations are part of the Oral Torah, and were thus to be memorized and transmitted from generation to generation. Only when we (relatively recently) began writing down the Oral Torah, did we also invent ways to write vowels and cantillations. However, not to add anything to the Holy Torah, we do not write them into Torah Scrolls, only into printed books, like a Tikkun (a special version of the Torah Scroll designed to aid memorization).

Adám
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  • An aside: some authorities permit a reader to put an overlay with vocalisation and cantillation over the klaf in certain circumstances. The Shevet haLevi (R' Shmuel haLevi Wosner זצ”ל) held that this was forbidden. – Noach MiFrankfurt Dec 12 '16 at 19:43
  • @NoachMiFrankfurt Wait, I thought a sefer torah was valid even if the nekudos had been penciled in. – Adám Dec 12 '16 at 19:45
  • See the first siman of Kesset haSofer, where he brings an aggad'ta which discusses the alteration of sifrei sta"m. IIRC, it is assur to add any type of marking (at least in dyo) outside of the mesorah (this does not affect the דכה/דכא controversy or a Temani practice of poking holes at pauses [etnachta, sof passuk, et c.]). – Noach MiFrankfurt Dec 12 '16 at 19:49
  • The vowels and cantillations are part of the Oral Torah Do you have a source for this? – mevaqesh Dec 13 '16 at 06:09
  • However, not to add anything to the Holy Torah, we do not write them into Torah Scrolls The inverted nuns are likely a later addition. – mevaqesh Dec 13 '16 at 06:10
  • @NoachMiFrankfurt - I seem to remember learning that it is allowed in a Megillah to pencil in nekudot and trop, but not in a Sefer Torah. It could be that pencilled markings bediavad don't invalidate, but it isn't done. – Epicentre Dec 13 '16 at 06:29
  • @mevaqesh The inverted nuns are likely a later addition. Source? – Adám Dec 13 '16 at 07:06
  • First lets focus on the main point; that you seem to have decided the main point of your answer on your own, and have provided no source for it; rendering this a pretty low quality answer regardless. || Regarding the nuns, see Shut Maharshal #73. Regarding changes to the Mosaic text in general, see http://judaism.stackexchange.com/a/57025/8775. – mevaqesh Dec 13 '16 at 14:57
  • @Epicentre, see the first se'if of the last siman of Keset haSofer, where he says that following all of the halachot of writing a Torah by a Megillat Esther is a custom, rather than halachah. – Noach MiFrankfurt Dec 13 '16 at 15:04