Towards Better Davening and Torah Reading
Parshat To'l'dot

The contents of this (weekly, so far) column are based on the sefer: EIM LAMIKRA HASHALEIM, a guide to correct pronunciation, specifically in davening and Torah reading. 

Beginners to Hebrew learn quite early that an APPLE is TAPU'ACH, and not tapucha. Calendar is LU'ACH and not lucha, and KORBANOT were brought on the MIZBEI'ACH, not mizbeicha. This phenomenon of Hebrew pronunciation is known as PATACH G'NUVA, the stolen PATACH. The vowel sound usually follows the sound of the consonant it is under. So the CHET with a PATACH should have been CHA. Instead, the vowel (and the accent as well) is "stolen" by an imaginary ALEF placed before the CHET. Hence, ta-PU-ach, LU-ach, RU-ach, etc. 

That's easy. So far, so good. But CHET is not the only final letter of a word that has its PATACH "stolen". So does HEI. The word for TALL is GAVO'AH, not GAVOHA. This is harder to pronounce than the CHET-ending words. HEI with a PATACH is HA. That's easier for people to pronounce than an (imaginary) ALEF with a PATACH followed by a non-silent, sounded HEI. AH, sounding the HEI at the end. HEI at the end of Hebrew words is most often silent. There are two situations when the HEI at the end of the word is NOT silent. A final HEI is sounded when there is a dot (MAPIK) in the HEI. ISHA (ALEF, SHIN, HEI) is a woman. ISHAH (ALEF, YUD, SHIN, MAPIK-HEI) means her husband. The other situation is the one presented here: PATACH G'NUVA under a HEI (at the end of the word). The HEI is sounded... AFTER the PATACH.

There is a particularly important instance of a HEI with a PATACH G'NUVA that demands special attention and care. G-d's name, ALEF, LAMED, VAV, HEI. ELOHA is the incorrect pronunciation of this name of HaShem. It isn't one of the names of G-d. The correct pronunciation is e-LO-ah, with the HEI sounding at the end. Using the K sound to replace the HEI sound, as in ELOKIM and ELOKEINU, this name is ELO'AK (not eloka). Get the point?

In the Shir-shel-HaYom-according-to-the-GR"A pullout for Sukkot, there was a "box" on the pronunciation of e-LO-ak, but it is important to repeat it because we are talking about G-d's name. End of the second perek of Hallel - MILIFNEI ADON CHULI ARETZ, MILIFNEI ELO'AK YAAKOV. Listen to how many people say ELOHA. (Maybe even yourself... until now.) Try to share this point with others. It's worth it. Think of Yom Kippur. Vidui. AL CHEIT... Between each section of the AL CHEITs we say - V'AL KULAM, ELO'AK SLICHOT - we are asking G-d to forgive us. Shouldn't we say His name correctly?

Apologies for driving this one into the ground, but it seems so important. Just like ANODOI is not G-d's name (and would even sound like someone was mocking the name), neither is ELOHA.

Let's continue. AYIN is also subject of PATACH G'NUVA, but Ashkenazim can almost ignore this one, since we don't pronounce an AYIN. For us it is silent. Even though most of us know that it really has a sound. That sound is so difficult for us to pronounce, that we don't try. And we've lost it from our way of speaking Hebrew. So, SHAVU'A is SHAVU'A, even if we don't pronounce the AYIN after the PATACH. But S'faradim and Teimanim do... with a twist, as you will read about in the coming paragraph.

S'faradim and Teimanim handle the PATACH G'NUVA differently from the way Ashkenazim do. If the vowel preceding the CHET is a CHIRIK (ee as in feet) or TZEIREI (a as in fate), then the "stolen" PATACH is sounded as if there were an imaginary YUD before the CHET, rather than the Ashkenazi's ALEF. G-d told Moshe and Aharon to bring about the plague of SH'CHIN (boils) by taking the soot of a furnace, PI'ACH HAKIVSHAN.

PEI-YUD-CHET. Ashkenazim pronounce the word as if it were PEI-YUD-ALF-CHET. PI'ACH. S'faradim and Teimanim pronounce it PI'YACH. Similarly, MIZBEI'YACH. Fragrance is REI'YACH (as opposed to Ashkenazi REI'ACH). And if the vowel before the CHET is a CHOLOM (o as in bone) or SHURUK (oo as in food), then the PATACH is sounded as if it were under a VAV - pronounced as it is supposed to be, like a W. RU-WACH (Ashkenazi RU-ACH), TA-PU-WACH, KO'WACH.

SHA-VU-WA# (# is the pronunciation of the AYIN). G-d's name: E-LO-WAH. 
Remember that in all cases of PATACH G'NUVA, the word is pronounced MIL'EIL (on the next-to-the-last syllable). The CHET, HEI, or AYIN not only lose their vowel, they lose the accent as well.

Again... careful attention to correct pronunciation can and should lead to more careful davening in general, to better understanding of what we are saying, and to improved KAVANA in the mitzva of "Serving G-d with all our hearts".