Talmudic Academies in The Land of Israel - The Tiberian Punctuation

The Tiberian Punctuation

Further importance was gained by Tiberias as the seat of the Masoretic traditions and innovations; for there in the seventh century was introduced that system of punctuation which was destined to aid so efficiently in the proper reading and understanding of the Biblical text. This system, which achieved universal recognition, is called the "Tiberian punctuation." At Tiberias flourished, about the middle of the eighth century, the Masorite Phinehas, called also Rosh Yeshiva ("Head of the Academy"), and Asher the Great, forefather of five generations of Masorites (Nehemiah ben Asher, Moses ben Nehemiah, Asher ben Moses, Moses ben Asher, and Aaron ben Moses), was to a certain extent his contemporary. The last-named Aaron ben Moses ben Asher (briefly called Ben Asher), a contemporary of Saadia Gaon, brought the Tiberian school of Masorites to a distinguished end. Tiberias thereafter ceased to play any part in Jewish learning, until, in the twelfth century, it emerged for a brief period, and again in the sixteenth century, when it became the object of the pious ambition of Don Joseph Nasi of Naxos.