Biblical Hebrew's original text was written without vowel markings, since ancient Hebrew script, like other Semitic abjads, recorded consonants only, leaving pronunciation to be preserved through oral tradition until the Masoretes, Jewish scholars working primarily in Tiberias between roughly the seventh and tenth centuries CE, developed a comprehensive system of vowel points and cantillation marks specifically to fix correct pronunciation and liturgical chanting of the biblical text with precision, producing the Masoretic Text that remains the authoritative Hebrew Bible text for Judaism today.
Biblical Hebrew remains the required language of Torah scroll writing for synagogue use, copied by hand according to strict scribal rules by trained scribes called soferim, and Hebrew liturgical readings from the Torah and other biblical books remain central to synagogue worship, with the specific cantillation melodies, trope, associated with the Masoretic markings varying somewhat by community while all deriving from the same underlying Masoretic textual tradition established over a millennium ago.
The Aleppo Codex and the Leningrad Codex, the two most important surviving Masoretic manuscripts, dated to the tenth and early eleventh centuries CE respectively, remain the primary textual basis for virtually all modern printed and critical editions of the Hebrew Bible used by scholars and religious communities alike.