Contents of this weekly column are (mostly) 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.
One reader called in a very impoprtant comment about last week’s column. Specifically, about the statement that when a T’LISHA K’TANA is followed by a KADMA V’AZLA, then it’s link to the KADMA word is stronger than the link between the KADMA and AZLA words. Incorrect staement. It should have read: SOMETIMES the link be- tween the T’LISHA and the KADMA word is stronger... It’s the BIG TRUCK DRIVER thing. Sometimes - and that’s how it was in the examples from last week - you mean the driver of a big truck. So big and truck are linked more strongly than truck and driver are. But not always. Sometimes you mean that the truck driver is big. Then the KADMA and AZLA words are linked with no pause at all. This seems to be the more common situation. Last week’s examples were the exceptional ones.

Here’s a “regular” one: The first T’LISHA K’TANA in the Torah is in B’reishit 1:21, in the description of the fifth day of Creation, and it’s followed by a KADMA V’AZLA: ASHER SHA-R’TZU HAMAYIM, that proliferate in the water. The KADMA V’AZLA words make up their own two-word phrase and go together more than the ASHER with the T’LISHA K’TANA does with them. In 1:25, again, VAYA’AS ELOKIM (with a TK) ET CHAYAT HAARETZ... the animals of the land makes a neat KADMA V’AZLA phrase. This is the norm. Next pasuk, again, V’YIRDU VIDGAT HAYAM... The KADMA V’AZLA fits its phrase well. Just note that the DAGESH of VIDGAT dropped out of the first letter, indicating that the previous word’s TROP is a linker and not a MAFSIK, a pauser.

Another reader doubts the whole idea of any distinction among the linking TROP notes (the M’SHARTIM) as to “strength” of the link. We’ll have to look into this possibility some more.

Another reader commented that the way most Ashkenazim read the T’LISHA K’TANA, there is a cadence at the end of the note (in the sense of “a falling inflection of the voice, as at the end of a sentence”) which makes it extremely difficult not to pause before the next word. This negates the identification of a T’LISHA K’TANA as a M’SHAREIT, which it is. So obviously, we are not reading it properly. Most of us, that is.

We’ve asked this before; here it is again.

Are we nitpicking with all of the above?

[nitpicking: Minute, trivial, unnecessary, and unjustified criticism or faultfinding]

No, this is not nitpicking.

We are talking about reading the Torah in public. The Torah that G-d gave us through Moshe Rabeinu. The Torah that Moshe established should be read in public so that we would hear it often. Reading it properly makes it better understood, and makes the experience of hearing it more beautiful.
We are talking about davening. Talking to G-d. Praising Him, thanking Him, asking Him to fulfill our needs and desires. Asking for His help. Proclaiming our love for Him.

No, we are not nitpicking. We are striving Towards Better Davening and Torah Reading.

On another note... The name ELIYAHU appears 60 times in the two MELACHIMs. 5 additional times in the beginning of Melachim Bet, he is called EILIYA, without the VAV. Only one other place is Eliyahu HaNavi referred to: at the end of MAL’ACHI, the haftara for Shabbat HaGadol. That is the 6th time he is called EILIYA.

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