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Reading “A High Holy Whodunit” in the NYTimes last week brought me to the book The Aleppo Codex that tells in detail the whole megillah of the history of the most authoritative manuscript of the Hebrew Bible.

The Torah we read today, which contains only consonants, was originally given to the Israelites at Mount Sinai. Over the years, many disparities emerged. After being exiled from Israel, around 930, scholars called Masoretes created The Aleppo Codex to preserve the original text of the Bible.

The Masoretes are responsible for the system of chanting symbols, vowel placement, and white spaces in between the words that we use to this very day. Look at it here. Amazing!