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I am typesetting Biblical Hebrew using \raggedleft because in general one can not hyphenate. Even with \Xetex I ran into a problem because of a "maqeif".

What are the rules? I.e. in typesetting Biblical Hebrew is one allowed to split a "maqeif" combination e.g . 'eht-qolee after the - ?

morris roger
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    Is that a TeXnical question or a question about Hebrew? In the latter case this question might be off-topic here and you may have a better chance of asking it elsewhere (A handful regular users of TeX.SX are active in related fields, but the majority probably does not know about hyphenation rules in Biblical Hebrew ...). – moewe Aug 22 '18 at 15:29

1 Answers1

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It is permissible to break words at a maqaf. My copy of the BHS does, anyway.

This does not happen automatically with xetex, but you can achieve this by specifying a hyphenation character with fontspec:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setmainlanguage{hebrew}
\setmainfont{SBL BibLit}[Script=Hebrew,Contextuals=Alternate]
\newfontfamily\hebhyphen{SBL BibLit}[Script=Hebrew,Contextuals=Alternate,HyphenChar=־]
\begin{document}
\begin{minipage}{5.5cm}
וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֗ים יִקָּו֨וּ הַמַּ֜יִם מִתַּ֤חַת הַשָּׁמַ֨יִם֙ אֶל־מָקֹ֣ום אֶחָ֔ד וְתֵרָאֶ֖ה הַיַּבָּשָׁ֑ה וַֽיְהִי־כֵֽן׃

\hebhyphen
וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֗ים יִקָּו֨וּ הַמַּ֜יִם מִתַּ֤חַת הַשָּׁמַ֨יִם֙ אֶל־מָקֹ֣ום אֶחָ֔ד וְתֵרָאֶ֖ה הַיַּבָּשָׁ֑ה וַֽיְהִי־כֵֽן׃
\end{minipage}
\end{document}

enter image description here

For completeness, here's how you could do it in lualatex.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[nil,bidi=basic-r]{babel}
\babelprovide[he,main]{hebrew}
\babelfont[hebrew]{rm}[Contextuals=Alternate]{SBL BibLit}
\exhyphenchar=`\־
\begin{document}
\begin{minipage}{5.5cm}
וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֗ים יִקָּו֨וּ הַמַּ֜יִם מִתַּ֤חַת הַשָּׁמַ֨יִם֙ אֶל־מָקֹ֣ום אֶחָ֔ד וְתֵרָאֶ֖ה הַיַּבָּשָׁ֑ה וַֽיְהִי־כֵֽן׃
\end{minipage}
\end{document}
David Purton
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