Fwd: Morsels of Hebrew Grammar by Dr. Meshullam Klarberg - Parshas Haazinu

[Jeremy Rosenbaum Simon]

Some people may be interested in this, which covers Ha LAdoshem

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From: Shema Yisrael Torah Network <shem...@shemayisrael.com>
Date: Tue, Sep 3, 2013 at 6:57 PM
Subject: Morsels of Hebrew Grammar by Dr. Meshullam Klarberg - Parshas Haazinu
To: Morsels <mor...@shemayisrael.com>


Parashat Haazinu from 5763
      The correct reading of the Divine Name
      ve'al kulam alo'ah selichot (refrain in Confession of Yom Kippur) ('and for all of them G-d of forgiveness') One must take care to read the Patach under the Heh of G-d's name before the Heh and not after. The Aramaic equivalent of this Divine Name has a Kamatz and an Alef at the end. To the best of my knowledge reading with the Patach after the Heh produces no Hebrew word at all although it is very close to the pronunciation of aloha - the greeting of Hawaiian natives.


      * * * *
      One or two words and other problems

      ha-ladonaai (Deut. 32:6) There are a number of problems here. Is this one word or two? What does it/they mean? What are the correct vowel points?

      The Masorah in the Chumash edited by R' S. Z. Netter (Vienna 1859, republished Schocken, Tel Aviv 1959) states 'The Heh is large and is written separately and is written below the lower joint of the Lamed, and the Lamed has a Sheva Nach and the rest of the Name is read with its regular vowel points Sheva Cholam Kamatz.' In a number of places R' Netter expanded on the Masorah adding information from latter authorities. Here the only part which is to be found in other versions of the Masorah, is 'The Heh is large'. Most of R' Netter's information here, is taken from Minchat Shai.

      Targum Onkelos renders ha-ladonaai 'There is before G-d' translating the letter Heh at the beginning of the word as the Aramaic word Heh Alef ('there is'). (R' N. Adler* of London, in Netina laGer, treats Heh Alef as interrogative but he does not produce any further example of such usage. The single Heh in the Hebrew text may have influenced him. Jastrow* of Philadelphia, in his Dictionary of Aramaic, translates Heh Alef as 'there is' and quotes many examples.) R' Y. Kapach in an editorial note (to Helek haDikduk, Maharitz, Yemen 18th cent.) refers to a passage in the Yerushalmi (Megilla 1:9), which also translates it as two words.

      Yonatan ben Uziel translates ha-ladonaai 'ha'efshar …' ('is it possible …?') Clearly he regards the letter Heh at the beginning of the word as interrogative and as a prefix. It is then all one word.

      This dispute may be related to a further dispute as to the correct reading of the word(s). According to Maharitz (Helek haDikduk, Yemen 18th cent.) the Heh has a Gei'a (a small upright line below it indicating secondary stress), which means that the following Sheva under the Lamed must be a Sheva Na. There is no vowel mark under the Yud for, he explains, it (the Alef which we read in place of the Yud) is pronounced 'with the Lamed'. That is to say that the Sheva Na, which in the Yemen tradition is quite vowel-like, is read straight through to the Dalet, giving no pronunciation to the Alef. This is in not line with the vowel pointing elsewhere for Adnut with a prefix of Bet, Chaf or Lamed. It seems to me that his editor, R' Y. Kapach understands him as saying that we have two words here. Yemenite reading tradition disagrees with me. Yemenites follow Helek haDikduk by Maharitz closely and read ha-ladonaai as one word. (We must assume that they understand Maharitz!) Interestingly, Rabbi Wolf Heidenheim (Ravva) who lived in Germany, and was a younger contemporary of Maharitz, explicitly claimed that it was to be read as two words.

      The most widely accepted view, that of Minchat Shai, is that though it is written as two words it is to be read as one with the Heh having a Patach, the Lamed having a Sheva Nach, and the rest of the word having the standard Adnut reading. This is supported by the 'Keter' which has a Sheva under both the Lamed and the Yud. This is the manuscript of Ben Asher and the authoritative text of the Masorah. It should be noted that Radak and R' Bachya already present this vowel pointing followed by Minchat Shai. Maharitz was aware of them and writes that his point of view opposes theirs.

      * An orthodox 'Doktor Rabiner' leading a less than fully orthodox community

      Responses

      Rabbi Yitzchak Lisitzin pointed out that Tishri/Tishre is an Aramaic word meaning 'beginning'. For 'tachel lispor' (Deut. 16:9) ('you shall start counting') Targum Onkelos says 'tishare lmimne' ('you shall start counting'). Rabbi A. Levine states that only Tishri is correct and that many versions of Targum are inaccurate.

      These comments have been put into book form for publication in English and Hebrew. Dedications are available for both books.

      I will be pleased to have comments on these notes on the Parasha.
      Good Shabbos, Meshullam Klarberg, 35/4 Meshech Chochma, Kiryat Sefer, Israel 71919
      E-mail address: fre...@bezeqint.net

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Jeremy R. Simon, MD, PhD, FACEP
Associate Professor of Medicine at CUMC (Emergency Medicine)
Scholar-in-Residence, Center for Bioethics
Columbia University

[bgg1]

Rav Moshe Feinstein was a da'as yechidi on this point and held that the end would be pronounced -ha. The reasoning was that the Shem HaShem should never change. This was related to me by my father-in-law (talmid and relative through marriage of R' Moshe). I will try to find out if this was ever put in print.

K'sivah vaChasimah Tovah

Ben

On Tuesday, September 3, 2013 9:33:54 PM UTC-4, Jeremy Rosenbaum Simon wrote:

Some people may be interested in this, which covers Ha LAdoshem

[Ari]

Ben,

How does ah change the name as opposed to ha?

And then how did rav Moshe explain the mapiq?

Ari Kinsberg

MA, PharmD, RPh, Certified Immunizer

Brooklyn, New York

**************

Give a child the best birthday present ever . . . the ability to live to celebrate yet another birthday. Visit https://www.dkmsamericas.org/register to register as a bone marrow donor.

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[Giorgies E. Kepipesiom]

On Tuesday, September 3, 2013 11:14:12 PM UTC-4, bgg1 wrote:

Rav Moshe Feinstein was a da'as yechidi on this point and held that the end would be pronounced -ha. The reasoning was that the Shem HaShem should never change. This was related to me by my father-in-law (talmid and relative through marriage of R' Moshe). I will try to find out if this was ever put in print.

This sound to me outrageous.  What does it mean "that the Shem HaShem should never change"? What is it changing from? What Shem HaShem ends in "Ha" that we should not "change" to "aH"?

If Rav Feinstein actually said this, and it can be definitively prooved that he said it, and that he said it as an actual p'sak halacha rather than a sichas chullin shel talmidei chachamim, then so be it, and those who follow every p'sak of his (including his daas-yachid chumras) should follow it. Until such definitive proof is forthcoming, I maintain that this is so outrageous that whoever repeated this in his name has either misheard or else ...
But who knows; after all, doesn't one of the flagship institutions of the Yeshivish-Litwish world bear a name ending in Govoha?

GEK

[Ari]

I'm happy to say on erev Rosh hashanah that I agree with gek

Ari Kinsberg

MA, PharmD, RPh, Certified Immunizer

Brooklyn, New York

**************

Give a child the best birthday present ever . . . the ability to live to celebrate yet another birthday. Visit https://www.dkmsamericas.org/register to register as a bone marrow donor.

--

[Avram Herzog]

Hi,


For what it's worth, I'm with Giorgies on this one. I find it hard to believe that Rav Moshe would make such a comment--it just makes no sense, not the pronunciation and not the rationale.


Shanah Tovah,
Avi H

[Giorgies E. Kepipesiom]

On Wednesday, September 4, 2013 4:49:12 PM UTC-4, Avi Herzog wrote:

  For what it's worth, I'm with Giorgies on this one.  I find it hard to believe that Rav Moshe would make such a comment--it just makes no sense, not the pronunciation and not the rationale.

What I have been thinking here is that perhaps Rav Feinstein (I am uncomfortable referring to him by the familiar "Reb Moshe") holds that there is no patach g'nuva for a hay, only for a chess (ayyin being moot, since most do not pronounce the ayyin at all, either way). Many people are under the impression that hay at the end of a word is pronounced HA, regardless of the dot inside the hay. Since RMF's expertise is halacha and not diqdook, perhaps he too shared this notion. Now, doffing his diqdook hat and donning his posek hat, he rules that with words like l'hismahmeha or govoha it doesn't matter if they are "mispronounced" l'hismahmei-ah or govo-ah, but the shem Elo-Ha may not be mispronounced Elo-AH.

The above is just a guess as to how this great posek might have said such a thing. But as I originally posted, absent conclusive proof that he actually issued such a p'sak, I proceed under the asumption that he never said such an outrageous thing.

GEK