Towards Better Davening and Torah Reading
for Vayeishev

Column #6. The 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. 

First a correction from last week. paragraph halfway down the left column on page 10 should have read as follows: 

When the vowel under the VAV is a PATACH, rather than a SH'VA, we get va-yo-MAR, which means "(and) he said." (and not "will say") 
Okay, as promised last week, we will take a closer look at the VAV-switched past-to-future words in the Sh'ma. Following a lengthy conversation with the author of EIM LAMIKRA HASHALEM, we're ready (almost) for this topic. 

Here's a review with an addition:
v'a-hav-TA means "(and) you shall love". It is made of the word a-HAV-ta, meaning "you loved" (past tense) with a VAV HaHipuch before it, which flips the tense to future AND shifts the accent from the next-to-the-last syllable (MIL'EIL) to the last syllable (MILRA). Pronounced with a VAV and MIL'EIL the word remains past tense, "and you loved", which is NOT what the Torah is saying.

That mis-accented word has a different meaning and is therefore a more serious type of Sh'ma-problem. 

In contast, we have already looked at v'sa-VA-ta, which means, "and you will be satisfied". Its VAV also switches the meaning of sa-VA-ta (you were satisfied) from past to future, but the accent doesn't move to the last syllable. The word remains MIL'EIL as it was in the past tense. (Or, maybe it does switch to the last syllable and then switch back to the next-to-the-last syllable for another reason. Either way, we pronounce the word v'sa-VA-ta. In this case, saying v'sa-va-TA is "just" a wrong pronunciation, but does not change the meaning of the word. A less serious Sh'ma-problem. We are supposed to pronounce all words properly, but if the word doesn't change meaning, we can apply the ruling in Shulchan Aruch that "he who is not meticulous in his pronunciation of the words of Sh'ma still fulfills the mitzva". It is harder to say that in the case of a changed meaning.

There is a third type of "former past verb that is now future tense because of the VAV HaHipuch". ha-YA means "was". v'ha-YA can mean "and he (or it) was", if the VAV is a VAV HaChibur (conjunctive VAV) or it can mean "and it will be" if the VAV is the tense-switching type. Here's the point: the accent stays MILRA (on the last syllable) for both past and future tenses. If one says v'HA'ya, he is "just" mispronouncing the word, but not changing its meaning. 
There are over 30 words in Sh'ma that are verbs that switched from past to future (including duplicates). Only v'sa-VA-ta is a MIL'EIL word that stays MIL'EIL. There are 7 words whose accents went from MIL'EIL to MILRA with the past-to-future tense-switch, and these are the ones to be particularly careful about. It takes practice to break the over-MIL'EIL practice of the American background. These 7 words are: v'a-hav-TA, v'di-bar-TA, v'na-ta-TI (twice), v'a-saf-TA, v'a-chal-TA, and v'a-mar-TA. Take out a Siddur, turn to Sh'ma, and find these 7 words. Mis-accenting any of these changes their meaning. Keep that in mind. It is not just a matter of mispronouncing.

The other 25 words or so (more than 10% of thewhole SH'MA!) are all MILRA in both the past and the future to which they've been flipped. So an incorrect accent will not change the meaning. Like v'sa-VA-ta (but the opposite), saying these words incorrectly will not threaten the propriety of the performance of the mitzva.

Some of these words are more commonly mispronounced than others. They include:

v'shi-nan-TAM, v'sar-TEM, v'li-mad-TEM, v'ha-YU.
We won't complete the list here. We've got some other pronunciation issues that will call upon some of the other words in future columns. .
Let's review with an example. And you shall teach your children and speak these words... v'shi-nan-TAM l'va-NE-cha v'di-bar-TA BAM. Typical American (and other) Ashkenazic type probably reads this as v'shi-NAN-tam... v'di-BAR-ta... Both wrong, but the second one is worse because the meaning of the word is changed by the wrong pronunciation. 
By the way, v'shi-nan-TAM l'va-NE-cha is the command to learn and teach Torah. v'di-bar-TA BAM is the command to recite the Sh'ma (twice a day). There are also other things we learn from v'di-bar-TA BAM.

Remember, it doesn't matter if you use the Ashkenazic or Sefardic pronunciation of Hebrew when you daven, the accents should be correct. v'na-ta-TI or v'naw-sa-TI. They are both MILRA. No matter how many Rabbanim and Talmidei Chachamim you hear say v'naw-SA-ti, it's wrong.
Layning the SH'MA with Taamei HaMikra is very helpful to correct accenting of the words. Not foolproof, but helpful. And especially if you picture yourself reading these parshiyot in shul in front of a very large, fussy congregation of expert Baalei Kri'a, each of whom is looking to catch your mistakes.