Shabbat Gathering: Big type, little type.

Brian D. Johnson

29 Aug 2025 • 3 min read

An example of an enlarged tav.

Gud Shabbos Khaveyrim, as is our custom, we will gather tonight at 5.45p ct to welcome Shabbat. These are the coordinates:

Zoom
Meeting ID: 883 8469 4181
Password: 822665
Phone: +1 312 626 6799

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Here we go.

Everybody knows that reading from the Torah Scroll is difficult. Some of the challenges include...

It's in Hebrew of course. Most of us don't read Hebrew.
Even if you do know Hebrew, there are no vowels in a Torah scroll. I'm not sure why there aren't any vowels because I researched this and found many different conflicting reasons, but we can all agree that reading something without vowels is harder than reading something with the vowels.
There are no cantillation marks. Cantillation is the "music" we use when we chant. Omitting these marks is still another way chanting Torah is hard.

And as if that isn't enough, there is something else on the page that asks for our attention. In the Torah scroll, there are a few letters that are a different size from the other letters. Some letters are written much larger or much smaller than the other letters in the scroll. Why's that?

This week's Torah portion has an example of this. In this case it is a letter much larger than the others the letter tav of the word tamim ("perfect") is written larger than the letters before and after it. Some rabbis believe that when the letter is small, this represents how G!d had to shrink in order to make room for creation. Similarly, when a letter is larger, it represents how G!d is in everything.

In this particular case, the large tav in the word perfect means that a perfect G!d is everywhere.

And may it be for all of us a blessing.

See you tonight!
Mit vareme grusn,
(With warm regards,)

All my love,
brian.