Tuesday, November 6, 2018

vaeschanan - Discrepancy in number of Pesukim in Va'eschanan


At the end of Parshas Va'eschanan all the Chumashim I have seen (example 1) (example 2) (example 3) mention that there are 118 verses - Uziel Siman - as Uziel = 118. Artscroll Chumash has the same information. Yet if one counts the verses, there are actually 122. What is the reason for this discrepancy?



Answer



Those Chumashim are unfortunately mistaken. All old manuscripts of the Torah have listed that there are 119 verses (see clips from 8 of them here). If you count the Decalogue as 10 verses, as is read in Taam Elyon, then you get 119. Problem solved.



(All those Mikraot Gedolot are probably just copying from Daniel Bomberg's edition which has this problem (among others).)


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