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Zayin is, fundamentally, a stick with a lump on the top, as we've seen - sticking out on both sides of the stick. You'll notice that shin, ayin, tet, nun, zayin, gimel, and tzaddi all have such a zayin as part of their makeup - sometimes bent to the side rather - kuf and het also have zayins, but not ones which are otherwise unoccupied, since the ones in het carry the hump and the one in quf is in the quf's tummy so it can't wear a crown yet. Anyway, they all have a zayin, and they carry their taggin on the flat head of the zayin.
This leads to one of my all-time favourite halakhot, thus: why do we put the taggin on the flat head? Surely, since they are a commandment, we should do them as soon as possible, and (reading from right to left) put them on the first head we come to? like the right-hand head of tzaddi, and so on?
You can't do that, the halakhic narrative responds; if you did, they'd fall off.
Like this.
This is one of my all-time favourite scribal rules. You can see why :)
This leads to one of my all-time favourite halakhot, thus: why do we put the taggin on the flat head? Surely, since they are a commandment, we should do them as soon as possible, and (reading from right to left) put them on the first head we come to? like the right-hand head of tzaddi, and so on?
You can't do that, the halakhic narrative responds; if you did, they'd fall off.
Like this.
This is one of my all-time favourite scribal rules. You can see why :)
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