The “al-tiqre” formula of exegesis is
is a common one in midrashic
interpretation, the aim of which is to facilitate an interpretation other than
that immediately linked to the text in question. Sometimes it involved another
reading through a revocalisation; other times, it involved changing the
consonantal text, but for purposes of exegesis only. (Carmel
McCarthy, The
Tiqqune Sopherim and Other Theological Corrections in the Masoretic Text of the
Old Testament [Orbis Biblicus Et Orientalis; Fribourg: Biblical
Institute of the University of Fribourg, 1981], 88 n. 141)
(a) Having to Do with God
Surprisingly enough, not many of
the al-tiqre have to do directly with God. In Megilla 14a, R. Judah b. Menashia
contrasts God’s immortality with human transience by reading the biblical text
of 1 Sam 2:2, “For there is none besides thee” (בלתך), as “For there is none to
survive thee” (לבלותך); he then develops his theme as follows:
For the nature of the Holy One,
blessed be He, is not like that of flesh and blood. IT is the nature of flesh
and blood to be survived by its works, but God survives his works. “Neither is
there any rock (צוּר) like our God”. There is no artist (צַוָּר) like our God. A
man draws a figure on a wall, but is unable to endow it with breath and spirit,
inward parts and intestines. But the Holy One, blessed be He, fashions a form
and endows it with breath and spirit, inward parts and intestines.
(b) Man in his Relationship
with God
Berakoth 31b-32a contains a
series of three references where, according to R. Eleazar, different people “spoke
insolently towards Heaven.” The third of these concerns Moses, who is made to “speak
insolently” by means of an al-tiqre formula; the innocent biblical
expression, “And Moses prayed unto (אל) the LORD” is transformed into “And
Moses prayed against (על) the LORD”. The end product of this type of
interpretation would seem to have been the very antithesis of the motivation
behind the alleged tiqqun in Num 12:12.
A change in the personal pronoun
(א֗תוֹ to אִתּוֹ) in Ps 101:5 by means of an al-tiqre enabled R. ḥisda to
develop his interpretation of the verse as follows: “Every man in whom is
haughtiness of spirit, the Holy One, blessed be He, declares, I and he cannot
both dwell in the world.” It is hardly necessary to elaborate in any further
detail the view of man and his importance in relation to God and the world
occasioned by the metathesis in Eccles 1:4 which has already been mentioned. (Carmel McCarthy, The
Tiqqune Sopherim and Other Theological Corrections in the Masoretic Text of the
Old Testament [Orbis Biblicus Et Orientalis; Fribourg: Biblical
Institute of the University of Fribourg, 1981], 147-48)