Unit 4 — Nikud: Vowel Points

Foundation · Unit 4

נִקּוּד

Nikud — Vowel Points

The dots and dashes beneath (and above) Hebrew letters that tell you how to pronounce them. The Torah scroll has none — these are your training wheels toward reading it.

Torah Scrolls Have No Nikud

The system of vowel points was developed by the Masoretes (c. 600–950 CE) to preserve pronunciation after Hebrew ceased to be a daily spoken language. The original Torah scrolls — and all scrolls read in synagogue today — contain no vowel marks at all. A skilled reader fills in the vowels from memory of roots and context. That is the long-term goal of this curriculum.