Column #49. 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.

Let’s take a break from the still-popular subject of the misplaced comma, and go back to the book that started this all - EIN HAMIKRA HASHALEM. Many people have called me over the past year to inquire about the book.
The first chapter in the book (which we’ve never really looked at) presents the letters of the ALEF-BET. There are 22, as we well know, with 6 of them having two different pronunciations each, and 5 of them (two overlaps) having different written forms when they are at the end of a word.

Each letter is sounded via one of five parts of our vocalization mechanism.
ALEF, HEI, CHET, AYIN are from the throat. (exactly why ALEF is on this list, I am not sure.)

GIMMEL (and its twin), YUD, KAF (CHAF), KUF are from the palate (roof of the mouth).

BET (VET), VAV, MEM, PEI (FEI) are from the lips.

ZAYIN, SAMACH, TZADI, REISH, SHIN are from the teeth.

DALET (and its twin), TET, LAMED, NUN, TAV (and its twin) are from the tongue.

As we know, and as mentioned above, the 6 letters known as BEGED-KEFET - BET, GIMMEL, DALET, KAF, PEI, TAV are sounded differently, if they have a DAGESH in them or not.

During the course of our Exile, many communities lost or forgot the correct sounding of some of the letters, and of some of the non-DAGESHed versions of BEGED-KEFET letters.

One must be meticulous, states the author of EIM HAMIKRA HASHALEM, to correctly sound the letters, especially in SH’MA, davening in general, and with the Torah reading.

This is especially so with letters that easily interchange.

Please note that we are dealing with two different things here. If we talk about ALEF and AYIN, as in the words ATA, meaning you, and ATA meaning now, then some of us cannot help but interchange these words because we have lost the sound of the AYIN and we consider both ALEF and AYIN to be silent letters.

On the other hand, those Jews who do sound the gutteral AYIN are still cautioned not to confuse and interchange similar words with ALEF and AYIN. In other words, this second issue would apply to words like B’EIMA (with fear) and B’HEIMA (animal). In this case, it is not that we don’t know the difference between the sounding of ALEF and HEI, it’s just that sloppy pronuncia- tion leads one to sometime swallow a HEI or to sound an ALEF like a HEI. (Brooklynites can relate to this from words like idear - idea to the rest of you - and teacha, as in he or she who teaches a class.)

AHARON provides an interesting example of a swallowed HEI. The English version of this name AARON is a manifestation of the swallowed HEI. So is ARON in Hebrew.The HEI of AHARON has a CHATAF-PATACH, which is a very short vowel, easily swallowed.

YAKOV rather than YAAKOV is another example. If a YAAKOV wants to spell his name YAKOV and is called YAKOV by other people — fine. But when we say that name in davening or red it in the Torah, we must be careful to pronounce the AYIN with its CHATAF-PATACH, no matter how “brief” a sound it is.

Back to the first time of interchanged sounds. Ashkenazim (by and large) have lost the distinction between CHET and CHAF. Say the word CHACHAM and then ask a S’faradi to say it for you. Sometimes, meaning of words are changed because of this.

TBDATR • Take, for example, the phrase VAY’CHAL MOSHE. With a CHAF, it means And Moshe finished. The phrase appears three times in the Torah - once when Moshe finished talking to the people, he put on is mask. Once when he finished the work of erecting the Mishkan, and again in D’varim when he finished reviewing the SHIRA (maybe, all of the Torah) with the people, shortly before he left this world. And then there is VAY’CHAL with a CHET, as in the opening phrase of the Torah reading for fast days. Moshe pleaded (davened) before G-d and asked His forgiveness of the people for the sin of the Golden Calf. Technically, officially, when an Ashkenazi starts that fast day reading with the words VAY’CHAL MOSHE, he should be corrected to the gutteral CHET and not the CHAF sound that comes from the palate. But we’ve lost it. <mtc>

BTW (by the way), most of these Towards Better Davening and Torah Reading (TBDATR) are signed off with <mtc>. This not the initials of the writer of the column (that would be PC) but RASHEI TEIVOT for “more to come”.

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