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.
Two topics from last week that elicited some serious reader feedback.

Here’s a good example:
DL wrote... The rule for when it is la-MA and when LA-ma is as follows:
Before a word starting with ALEF, HEI or AYIN, [including G-d’s name - even though it begins with a YUD, we pronounce it as if it begins with ALEF, and that’s how it behaves la-MA-wise], la-MA is MILRA without a DAGESH in the MEM. Before any other letter it is LAM-ma, MIL’EIL and with a DAGESH in the MEM. The rule is included in Sefer Dikdukei HaT’amim written some 1100 years ago by Aharon Ben Asher, the Masorete responsible for the Aleppo Codex. He lists 8 exceptions to the rule in Tanach (none are in Torah).

Interestingly, Rav Hirsch on last week’s Parsha (Sh’mot 32:11) suggests a difference in meaning between la-MA and LAM-ma. He writes that la-MA means for what purpose, while LAM-ma means for what reason. He suggests this with some hesitation, admitting that he did not check that it works in every case...

DL also confirmed that the four TROP marks discussed last week, that don’t necessarily appear above the accented syllable in the word, ARE doubled in modern printed texts.

It is different with the PASHTA (that’s the upper-right quarter of a zero - 0 - or a close- parenthesis leaning a little to the left). This TROP mark also is placed above the last letter of the word (to distinguish it from the KADMA). In this case, a second PASHTA is used to mark the accented syllable (when it isn’t the last one, which is marked already by the PASHTA).

In other words, the ZARKA, SEGOL, and the T’LISHAs have followed the lead of the PASHTA by being doubled to help accent the word correctly, but only the PASHTA was originally done that way.

DL also included in his email some reasons for these four TROP marks being placed where they are. We’ll leave that out for now. That you, DL.
On another note...

The name of this week’s sedra is particularly difficult to pronounce. It is too easy to say VAYAKEIL and lose the non-silent HEI and its TZEIREI. The KUF sort of catches in one’s throat and the word takes practice to say nicely. And, you cannot really separate the syllables too much, because they are part of the same word.

In 35:24 we find another example of NASOG ACHOR. T’RUMAT KESEF, the donation of silver. Three p’sukim earlier, the word precedes G-d’s name. T’RUMAT HASHEM. There it is pro- nounced MILRA, its “regular” pronunciation. Before the word KESEF, which is MIL’EIL, then T’RUMAT becomes MIL’EIL too. T’RU-mat KE-sef, as opposed to t’ru-MAT a-do-NOI.
Take a look in 35:35. All women who were CHACHMAT-LEIV, translated as “skilled”. The CHET is voweled with a PATACH. Later in the chapter, pasuk 35, we find CHOCHMAT-LEIV, with the CHET voweled by a KAMATZ-KATAN.

Rashbam notes the two forms of the word (their only two occurrences in the Torah), and says that in the first case, the word is desciptive of the women. CHACHMAT-LEIL is an adjective. Whereas CHOCHMAT-LEIV is more of a noun, translated as the natural talent of the master craftsmen.

One more. See 36:11. And he made blue-wool loops. LU-L’OT T’CHEILET. When the word for loops stands on its own, it is LU-LA-OT. When it is attached here to T’CHEILET, the KAMATZ under the second LAMED becomes a SH’VA NA. <mtc>

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