09-28-2019, 12:43 AM
The Shema is central to Jewish liturgy, and the Scribes (הַסֹּפְרִים) wanted to surround the line at the beginning and the end to make it stand out in the text. Here is the text without the enlarged letters:
If they had enlarged the first and last letter of the verse, it would spell the word שֵׁד "demon," and that would not be nice. So, in order to make the text stand out from whatever surrounds it, they enlarged the first the ayin of the first word and the dalet of the last to form the word עֵד "witness," justifying this choice by the fact that this verse is the witness of the Jewish soul: that God is one and he is our God.
If the Scribes had had red ink or italics, they would have made the text stand out in that way. They used the means that they had to make the central verse of Jewish faith stand out on the page when someone reads from a Torah scroll.
I hope that makes sense!
If they had enlarged the first and last letter of the verse, it would spell the word שֵׁד "demon," and that would not be nice. So, in order to make the text stand out from whatever surrounds it, they enlarged the first the ayin of the first word and the dalet of the last to form the word עֵד "witness," justifying this choice by the fact that this verse is the witness of the Jewish soul: that God is one and he is our God.
If the Scribes had had red ink or italics, they would have made the text stand out in that way. They used the means that they had to make the central verse of Jewish faith stand out on the page when someone reads from a Torah scroll.
I hope that makes sense!