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Inverted nun (נו"ן מנוזרת "isolated nun" or נו"ן הפוכה "inverted nun" in Hebrew) is a rare character - the letter nun in mirror image - which appears in the Masoretic text of the Tanakh in nine different places1:
- Twice in the Book of Numbers, 10:35-36: the two verses are delineated by inverted nuns.
- Seven times in chapter 107 of the Book of Psalms,
The images at right show three common variants of the inverted nun - vertically flipped, horizontally flipped, and Z-shaped. Other renderings exist, corresponding to alternative interpretations of the term "inverted."2
Contents |
In the Torah
In the Torah, the inverted nuns frame the text
Whenever the ark set out, Moses said, "Rise up, Lord! May your enemies be scattered; may your foes flee before you." Whenever it came to rest, he said, "Return, Lord, to the countless thousands of Israel."
—Numbers 10:35-36
The nuns are generally positioned close to, but not touching, the first and last words of the couplet.3
In the Talmud
The tractate Shabbat in the Talmud says regarding the inverted nuns:
It is taught in a baraita: "ויהי בנסוע הארון ויאמר משה" - The Holy One, blessed be He, placed signs above and below this portion, to say that this is not its place. Rabbi Judah haNasi said: It was not for this reason, but rather because it is an important book in and of itself.
—Shabbat 115b-116a
Unicode
The inverted nun is not part of any word, and never pronounced, thus it is classed as punctuation and not a letter.1
| Glyph | Unicode | Name |
|---|---|---|
| ׆ | U+05C6 | HEBREW PUNCTUATION NUN HAFUKHA |
References
- ^ a b Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set: International Organization for Standardization
- ^ e.g. Menahem Kasher, Torah Sheleima, v. 29
- ^ e.g. Ganzfried, Keset ha-Sofer, ch. 16 English translation
External links
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Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 18 November 2008, at 10:38.
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