Towards Better Davening and Torah Reading
for Chayei Sara

Feedback to last week's column has been good, running from great interest in the topic to "I'm not interested but I gave it to a friend who liked it". We'd still like to hear from readers about this (and other) column, so we can polish things up and always try to improve Torah Tidbits.

The contents of these columns are based on the sefer: EIN LAMIKRA HASHALEIM, a guide to correct pronunciation, specifically in davening and Torah reading. - Phil Ch.

This column will again be about pronunciation (and mispronunciation), but of the less serious type, namely - when the mispronunciation is "just" that, but does not change the meaning of the word. If the meaning of a word actually changes, then, in Torah reading, for example, the Baal Korei should be corrected and repeat the word. A "mere" sloppy pronunciation is just... sloppy. meLECH still means king, even though the word should be pronounced ME-lech. (I hope it was clear last week that the accented syllable in words used as examples was written in UPPER CASE, and the unaccented syllable(s) is/re in lower case. We'll continue using that format.)
Remember that accenting the last syllable is called MILRA and accenting the penultimate (next to the last) syllable is called MIL'EIL. (Interesting that MILRA is, but MIL'EIL isn't.)

Speaking of ME-lech, note that all the three-letter words that rhyme, i.e. that have SEGOL-SEGOL vowels under the first two letters, are pronounced MIL'EIL. E-rev (evening), YE-led (child), BE-ged (garment), E-lef (1000), KE-tem (stain), KE-ter (crown), E-fes (zero), VE-red (rose), LE-mech (father of No'ach's father), YE-red (Lemech's great-grandfather), PE-leg (Avraham's great-great- great-grandfather), NE-fesh (soul), DE-let (door), SHE-men (oil)... Sorry, got carried away. It makes a fun game with your family of guests. Go around the table and each person says a word that rhymes with the starter word (in this case, MELECH), and someone else has to give its meaning. Anyway, the point is that all the words of this format are MIL'EIL. There is one exception - which really isn't an exception, because it doesn't have the exact format - and that word is e-MET (truth). All of the above has been leading up to this point. Many people - especially those who are native English speakers - tend to say E-met. Or E-mes. The word is e-MET or e-MES. But we are used to the Yiddishized, Yeshivishized, Anglicized pro-nunciation. What he just said was "E-mes". "You will show truth to Yaakov, and loving mercy to Avraham... (last pasuk in Micha), should be ti-TEIN e-MET l'ya'a-KOV CHE-sed l'av-ra-HAM... Many people will read it TI-tein E-mes...

As mentioned above, e-MET is not really an exception to the rule. The vowel under the ALEF is a CHATAF-SEGOL (five dots), not a SEGOL (3 dots, an inverted "and therefore"). CHATAF-SEGOL means that the ALEF should have had a SHVA under it. But that would render the ALEF unpronounced, since it and the SHVA are both silent. The CHATAF-SEGOL sounds like a shortened SEGOL (most pronounce it exactly like a SEGOL), to give the ALEF some sound, but it never is accented. Therefore, the word is pronounced e-MET. A word like e-MET really does not havetwo syllables; the ALEF with its SHVA-like vowel are considered part of the MET syllable. This is another way of looking at the accent issue.

Another example of this same thing are the words that rhyme with MA-yim (water). There are so many, and they are all pronounced MIL'EIL. SH'NA-yim (two), ya-DA-yim (hands), ye-ru-sha- LA-yim (the -ru- syllable is also accented, but to a lesser extent than the -LA- syllable)... and so on.Another good word-format for the game. There is an exception here too, which also is not really an exception. cha-YIM (really chai-YIM). Not CHA- yim, as many of us pronounce it. The reason for CHAYIM being accented MILRA (on the last syllable) is the extra YUD. The word is spelled CHET with a PATACH (the horizontal bar vowel, like the "o" in hot, like the "aaa" in the doctor's saying, say "aaa" when he wants to look in your throat), YUD with a DAGESH CHAZAK in it and a CHIRIK (the single dot vowel, which can be like the "i" in hit or the "ee" in feet) under it, follwed by another YUD (which gives the CHIRIK under the first YUD a stronger sound - feet, rather than hit), and then the MEM sofit, the final MEM. The dot in the first YUD gives it an emphasis which sort of double it, with a YUD being attached to the first syllable - CHAI, not just CHA, and to the second syllable, YIM. The second YUD makes the vowel under the first YUD a CHIRIK GADOL rather than a CHIRIK KATAN. All the other words of the type mentioned before - legs, scissors, heavens, teeth, eyeglasses, etc. end in a -yim syllable that has a CHIRIK KATAN and the accent is MIL'EIL, on the previous syllable. Not chai-YIM. The stronger CHIRIK in a closed syllable (one with twoconsonants, one voweled and one not) pulls the accent, so chai-YIM is MILRA.

Both e-MET and chai-YIM appear often in the davening and are frequently mispronounced by us English-influenced daveners.

The whole point of this column (and all the others in this series - last week's and in the future, IY"H) is to make us more aware of the proper pronunciation of Hebrew in general and the Hebrew (Lashon Kodesh) that we daven and read the Torah with. This in turn allows us to pay more attention to the meaning of the words, which leads to davening with more and better KAVANA. So it is not just a grammar lesson; it's goal is better davening and Torah reading, in every sense of the phrase.