Massorah

Massorah, Masora(h), Mas(s)oreth, the "tradition," or body of traditional and authoritative comments on the text of the Old Testament, often in the form of marginal notes embodying various readings, grammatical comments, and interpretations. There are two versions, of which the Eastern or Babylonian is more important than the Western or Palestinian. They comprise the notes of a long series of Jewish scholars, and established the system of Hebrew vowel points.