The reason that I chose Exodus 16:1 - 8 is that in both verses 2 and 7 we have an example of a ketib-qere pair. The ketib (what is written in the text) appears in red above the line. The qere is what appears in the a margin of the manuscript, and is to be read instead of the ketib) is in blue and on the line. The actual number of these pairs will vary with the manuscript, but the order of magnitude is about 1300. In the "supplement" section Tanakh.us provides us with number of pairs in each book and by clicking on the name of the book one can see alll the relevant verses.

The study of the ketib and qere is a very interesting one and often leads to new interpretations of the Biblical text. Contrary to what one often reads the ketib is not always incorrect and often is just as good (or even better) a reading than the qere. In some cases as in Genesis 30, verse 11 the qere is wrong whereas the ketib is correct.

If you do not want to see the ketib, go to layout and on the drop-down menu click on "qere only".

The Tikkun that one uses to practice Torah reading sometimes has the qere in brackets next to the ketib.

If you wish to see all the ketib-qere pairs, these can be found on the "Supplements" page. This page also contains other interesting features. For instance suppose you want to know how many times Moses's name appears in Joshua. To do this click on the "search" button. Next find a Hebrew text where "mo-sheh" appears and copy it to text box. Now choose Joshua as the book to search. All fifty-nine verses with "mo-sheh" will be listed. You may be surprised---as I was---to learn that "mo-sheh" appears fewer times (thirty-nine times) in Deuteronomy. Verse lengths? number of words? the number of verses in Genesis which are twelve words long. etc., you will find this and more!

Start as above with suitable font size with the full version and with both the vowel-signs and the cantillation symbols. You may also want to choose the verse view (see above). I will illustrate using Exodus, chapter 16, verses 1 through 8 as above.

Next practice without the cantillation symbols, but with the vowel-signs.

To do this, change "content" from "accents" to "vowels".

Next practice with only the consonants.

To do this, change "content" to "consonants".

Next practice without the verse numbers

To do this change "layout" to "text only".

Next you will want practice with a printed Torah font. You can download it from here. The file that you download is [Stam Ashkenaz CLM Medium.zip]. You will then unzip this file and install it (the method depends on your operating system; see the instructions just below the font and license). The file that you end up with is [Stam Ashkenaz CLM Medium.ttf]. However when you use this font in Tanakh.us you will enter "Stam Ashkenaz CLM" under "font family" and then "change font". This is how the text appears with a Torah font.

The same site has a Sephardic version of a Torah font. [The site also has many other Hebrew fonts].

Next you will want practice with a Tikkun. As stated above the text in a Tikkun may not agree with the text that you obtain from Tanakh.us. The source of a Tikkun is usually not given so "reader beware!". You have to check if the Ketib and Qere are indicated

You can obtain portions of a Tikkun by following this link. Here is how the Tikkun for Exodus 16:1 - 8 appears. [This is provided by Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation in Bethesda, Maryland.]

Now that you have mastered the printed text, you are certainly looking for a new challenge. Tanakh.us has just the thing for you:

Go to the bottom left and you will see "LC facsimile". Click on "go" and you will see the page of the Leningrad Codex with your text.

On the upper left it indicates the book, chapter(s) and verses contained on the page.

Before the Jews adopted the "square" style of letters of the type used today, probably sometime in the first century B.C.E, the Bibiical texts were written in what is usually referred to as "paleo-Hebrew". Here is an example of parts of Leviticus 17 and 19.

Here is the transcription of the text along with parts of the text of Leviticus 17 and 19 in "square" Hebrew characters, as well as in three ancients characters.

Look at the following

manuscript. Everything is written in "square" letters except for the one word of four letters which is written in paleo-Hebrew. This is the "tetragrammaton", the name of God. This manuscript would not have "rendered the hands unclean". The motives behind such statements is clear from the rabbinic commentaries.

Here is a chart from Early History of the Alphabet by J. Naveh, showing part of the development of the "paleo-Hebrew" alphabet.

Here are some examples of Leviticus 17 and 19 set in three ancients character sets.

As I was to sing the Haftarah for Shabbat Shuvah (Adath Shalom Congregation, Ottawa, Canada), and because there are at least five traditions as to what should be sung, I decided to print up exactly what I would be chanting:

This was typeset using XeTeX, the Bidi bi-directional command and several macros, including Opmac for the marginal notes. The Hebrew was simply copied as is from Tanach.us and the English from Sefaria and then pasted in a text editor, without any further manipulation of the text itself.

From this site you can obtain the English Jewish Publication Society Tanakh. [To obtain, e.g. the text of Exodus 16, type "Exodus" in the search box in the upper left corner.] They also have a Hebrew text from Tanakh.us, but is not the current one and it does not show the ketib and qere. You should use the latest Tanakh.us text as above.

Sefaria also has the Babylonian Talmud with interlineal Aramaic and English (Steinsaltz translation) and links to commentaries and quotations from the the Tanakh. They have many, many other texts, a wonderful project!

Le site lexilogos.com a des liens à beaucoup de traductions en Français y inclus la Traduction du rabbinat de 1902