\u201cAnd Abraham was still standing before G-d\u201d (Genesis 18:22)<\/p>\n
Rashi wrote: \u201cIt should have been written \u2018and G-d was still standing\u2019 (beside Abraham), but this is a scribal correction.\u201d (From Bereshit Rabbah<\/em>,parsha<\/em> 49)<\/p>\n Rashi also wrote, on Deuteronomy 28:30, \u201cyishgalenah<\/em> means to have intercourse as with a concubine, and the Scripture gave it a euphemistic rewording, yishkevenah<\/em> [will sleep with her], and this is a scribal correction.\u201d In the verse it is written yishgalenah<\/em>, but we read it as yishkevenah<\/em>. And so it is written in Numbers 11:14, when Moshe begs of G-d, saying he would rather be killed than to see the evil fate of the Children of Israel. In the Torah it is written, \u201cAnd I shall not see my evil fate,\u201d and Rashi wrote about this that it should have been written \u201ctheir evil fate\u201d but the Scripture was reworded, and that this is one of the scribal corrections in the Torah of rewording and language corrections.<\/p>\n And this is the meaning of the words \u201cit is a scribal correction.\u201d It means that the scribes came and corrected what was written in the Torah. If that is so, the sages changed the Scriptural text which was given to Moshe. This should not startle you, for great men have assumed thus. For example, Radak wrote on II Samuel 15:21, \u201cAnd these words, which are written and not read or which are read but not written, and those which are read one way but written another\u2014it seems as though the books were lost and confused in the first exile<\/strong>, and the sages who knew the Scriptures died, and the men of the Great Assembly who returned the Torah to its previous luster found disagreements in the remaining books and followed the majority thereof, according to their opinion. And where they could not completely clarify the matters, they wrote one thing and did not add vowels, or wrote in the margins and not inside the text, or wrote one in the margins and a different word in the text.\u201d His words are clear: the sages corrected, removed from, and added to what was written in the Torah, based on their own viewpoint. The reason for this was that the books were lost and the scribes became confused, and those who knew the books from the first Temple period died. Therefore the sages corrected the Torah scrolls based on their opinion, according to Radak.<\/p>\n And so it is in Midrash Tanchuma, parshat Beshalach, paragraph 15, \u201cAnd the Scripture was reworded; this was corrected by the scribes, the men of the Great Assembly, etc., but the men of the Great Assembly reworded these verses, and therefore they are called soferim<\/em> [scribes or counters], for they would count each letter in the Torah and interpret it.\u201d<\/p>\n The words of Radak contradict an explicit gemara in Nedarim 37b, \u201cRabbi Isaac said, \u2018the Scriptures of the scribes and the embellishments of the scribes and words read but not written and words written but not read are halacha given to Moshe at Sinai, etc., the embellishments of the scribes…\u201d (According to Rashi embellish means to ornament; according to the Rosh it is to remove, as they removed from the words some letters which should have been within them). The Gemara brings an example from our parsha, Genesis 18:5, \u201cAnd let me fetch a morsel of bread that you may refresh yourselves; after that you will go your way.<\/strong>\u201d The Rosh commented, \u201cIt should have had an \u2018and,\u2019 meaning you may refresh yourselves and then go on your way\u201d [but it was written without an \u2018and\u2019].<\/p>\n To explain the opinion of Radak without contradicting the explicit gemara we will bring the opinion of the Ridbaz who wrote of this in his Responsa, part three, section 594. There he asks two difficult questions about the Gemara in Nedarim which said that it all is Halacha handed down from Moshe at Sinai.<\/p>\n