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Remember the Torah — the Zayin Tradition — Malachi 3:22 (4:4 in English Bibles)

זִכְרוּ תּוֹרַת מֹשֶׁה

Zichru torat Moshe — “Remember the Torah of Moses”

Remember the Torah — the Zayin Tradition — Malachi 3:22 (4:4 in English Bibles) in the Leningrad Codex
Malachi 3:22 (4:4 in English Bibles) in the Leningrad Codex — the anomaly is marked.

What to look for

The word Zichru ('Remember') at the close of the Prophets, two verses before the promise of Elijah's coming.

What it is

A variant tradition of an enlarged zayin — an example of how the anomaly lists differ between manuscripts outside the Torah.

Why it matters

Zayin is the number seven, the Sabbath number, and it opens the final charge of the Prophets: remember. Whether or not this scribe enlarged it, the tradition heard weight in that word.

How it has been understood

The verse also spells Elijah's name without its final vav here in the codex — a defective spelling tradition ties to his unfinished mission of turning hearts before the great day of YHVH. The handoff from the Prophets to the future rests on one word: remember.

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