Column #34. Contents of this weekly column are based on the sefer: EIM LAMIKRA HASHALEIM, by R' Nissan Sharoni, Ashdod, a guide to correct pronunciation of Hebrew, specifically in davening and Torah reading.
Last week’s column ended thus:

BIRCHOT HASHACHAR: Here’s an interesting one. First bracha. la-SECH-vi (MIL’EIL), not la-sech-VI. [Ed. note: Checked several Siddurim. Many don’t indicate accents. Some do. Found la-SECH-vi a few times. Rinat Yisrael seems to disagree. They have la-sech-VI. Waiting for reader feedback to enlighten or further muddle the point.]

The word after la-SECH-vi is MILRA, bi-NA. It’s easier to say it the Rinat Yisrael way (if it is correct) - la-sech-VI bi-NA (both words MILRA). But that doesn’t mean it’s right that way. We’ll await the final verdict.
First of all, the easy part. The second word in the phrase loses the DAGESH in the BET and is vi-NA, not bi-NA. (And not VI-na either.)

Now for the SECHVI issue. Thanks to two readers - YL and SL - who pointed me in the right direction. The word SECHVI appears once in Tanach, in Iyov 38:36 to be specific. In fact, the phrase in the first of Birchot HaShachar, the morning brachot, comes from that pasuk, where it is in the form of a rhetoric question: ...MI NATAN LASECHVI VINA? Who gave the SECHVI understanding, reasoning, intuition (different translations of BINA).

Okay, what’s a SECHVI? Good question. Very good question. Rashi and other commentaries say that SECHVI is the rooster, and that it also is the person’s heart or mind, the place where thoughts are formed. Targum on the pasuk has two versions: LIBA, heart and TARNIGOL,, rooster. No help there. In the context of the pasuk in Iyov, it seems likely to translate SECHVI as the mind or heart, rather than rooster. Who has put wisdom in the inward parts (of the person) or who has given understanding to the mind? Rooster doesn’t fit well there.

This does not yet relate to the morning bracha. But we’ll get there soon. Pronunciation of SECHVI in the Iyov pasuk is MIL’EIL - SECH-vi. And if you look in a modern Hebrew dictionary, where the “main” definition is rooster (and some will refer to the other translation), the pronunciation is MILRA, sech-VI.
If this is so, that rooster is sech-VI and heart/mind is SECH-vi, then the pronunciation in the bracha will depend on what the word means in that context. (And if the different accenting is not a function of the meaning of the word, then we’re back to the proverbial square one.)
Rambam, for example, says (in Hilchot T’fila) that when one hears a rooster crow, he should say the bracha HANOTEIN LASECHVI VINA... That’s pretty straightforward that SECHVI means rooster. On the other hand, the TUR states clearly that SECHVI means HEART and that the bracha acknowledges and thanks G-d for our powers of reasoning and understanding, AND since SECH- VI also means rooster, our Sages connected the bracha to hearing of the rooster in the morning.

R’ Chaim Donin (To Pray as a Jew) writes that the bracha acknowledges our HEARING, just as POKEI’ACH IVRIM acknowledges SIGHT.

R’ Elie Munk (The World of Prayer) puts it this way: “This bracha does not refer to the crowing of the cock... Therefore this bracha should be recited even if one did not hear... for it is just an expression of gratitude at enjoying the benefit of light... The break of day awakens new faith and fresh initiative everywhere... To him (Adam HaRishon) it meant that G-d had given him the chance to begin life all over again, and to atone for the transgression (of yesterday)... This blessing really expresses our gratitude for the gift of intelligence... not intelligence in general, but to our ability to make distinctions... (the root of BINA is related to BEIN, between), ...a thought process (the ability to distinguish between things) without which no knowledge can exist... it is a blessing for the first independent activity of the conscious mind. For it is man’s highest bliss to become aware, upon awakening, that he retains full possession of his mental facul- ties. His consciousness of the change from night to day proves this to him.”

[Side comment: We see the value we attach to knowledge and reasoning power in the first bracha of request in the weekday Amida. It is into this bracha that acknowledges G-d as the Giver of knowledge and understanding that we insert Havdala on Motza’ei Shabbat.]

Did we settle the issue of pronunciation? Is it SECH-vi or sech-VI? Rinat Yisrael says the latter; everyone else seems to say the former.

But that is no longer the point. A column called TOWARDS BETTER DAV|ENING... should not be just about MIL’EIL and MILRA. It should be about understanding what we say, and meaning it. I hope this discussion (and others like it) helped further that goal.

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