Minhat Shai, by the seventeenth-century scholar Yedidyah Shlomo Norzi, deals with the forms, vocalization, and Masoretic interpretation of biblical terms, in the order of their appearance in the Bible. The aim of this work is to analyze words with respect to their orthography, vocalization, and cantillation, and to assess their proper forms. The work was first printed in Mantua in the middle of the eighteenth century; it has since been reprinted in various places and always as part of editions of the Pentateuch or other sections of the Bible. The version in use today accords with the text as printed in Mikra’ot Gedolot (Vilna/Warsaw editions), where the relevant sections were appended following each biblical book.
Even today, the work is considered an important guide as far as the biblical text is concerned; it reflects important decisions on questions of biblical orthography and interpretation. Scholars and students refer to it and respect its verdicts even though the version currently in use contains numerous errata. Many of the vocalization and cantillation marks noted by the author have been altered or omitted; thus, the author’s arguments are at times unclear, and at times even seem to contradict what may have been his original intention.
