The scribes count the letters

The Babylonian Talmud, compiled about AD 500, says the first sages were called soferim, 'those who count', because they counted every letter of the Torah and knew its middle letter, word and verse. The Masoretes of Tiberias, who wrote and corrected the Aleppo Codex, kept such counts in the margins of the text, so that a copy could be checked against them.

The mechanism

A COUNT THAT GUARDS THE TEXT — every letter numbered, so a copy can be checked

How it was checked

• EvidenceT7 PRIMARY DOCUMENT / MEASUREMENT; Status: ADDED 2026-09-19
• Letter eraTHE CAPTURE 313 to 1302
• SourcesPRIMARY — Babylonian Talmud, Kiddushin 30a (Sefaria, William Davidson translation); the Masorah of the Aleppo Codex