Hello everybody,

The short text below forms the introduction to the "new" laws of the community of Schweinshaupten in the northeast of Lower Franconia. They were written in 1735 by the Jacob Breslau, Chief Rabbi of the Grabfeld district.

Many years ago, the late Steven Lowenstein provided the following romanisation of the test:

hisasfu kehal yoshve Schweinsthaubten la’asos lo-hem takaonos chodoshOS NOSAFIN AL/ 

Hello Yitschok,

Thank you for your reply. I have received another response privately that matches your interpretation.

However, I have adjusted the colour and brightness of the image to improve the legibility and it seems to me that the first line ends נוספיף על 

I don't speak Hebrew, but presumably the inflection (ending) is significant. Is the text starting to make sense?



The last page of the takanos gives the date as 12 Nisan 495. 

There is no word in Hebrew נוספיף, I assume it's a ן with a design on it rather than a ף. 

Indeed
תקנות חדשות נוספין
also makes sense from a "meaning" standpoint.

I think it's going take me a long time to learn the complexities of Hebrew.

Is it possible that נוספיף is simply a spelling mistake or an archaic spelling and the text should have read נוסף על ? What I find particularly confusing is that a google search throws up a few examples of the word with the incorrect spelling. But then one finds many examples of incorrectly spelt English words on the internet. 

Anyway, below is another snippet from the statues. This statue is in Yiddish and includes a couple of examples of a final ף and ן with elaborate flourishes.