248 words in the SH'MA (counting Keil Melech Ne'eman and Baruch Sheim... - but not EMET). Ask someone what the most common word in SH'MA is. ET? No, there are 8 of those. AL? Better - there are 10. The most is HASHEM. 11 times, plus 7 variations of ELOKIM (not counting ELOHIM ACHEIRIM), and 1 KEIL. 56 words (22.6%) begin with VAV, all but one are the conjunctive VAV or the tense-flipping VAV. (Actually, VA'ED means "and forever", so its VAV is really conjunctive, as well.) Summarizing last week's topic (and the week before) as seen in SH'MA... of the 56 VAV- words, 16 are VAVs that became SHURUKs because the letter that follows them are voweled with SH'VA NA. Said SH'VA NAs become NACH. The twice appearing UV- SHOCH-B'CHA, because there is a METEG under the VAV (the SHURUK), some say that the SH'VA stays NA and others (majority opinion) say that the SH'VA becomes NACH like the others. SHURUK is usually considered a T'NU'A GEDOLA, a long or major vowel, and as such, would not need the following letter to join it in a closed syllable (meaning the SH'VA would remain NA, belonging to the following syllable). We can explain the fact that this SHURUK (the one the VAV/SH'VA became) is really not a "full-grown" SHURUK; it is really a VAV/SH'VA that couldn't stay as is because of SH'VA under the following letter. So it looks and sounds like a SHURUK, but isn't strong enough to stand on its own (even with a METEG, according to most opinions). Others say that the METEG gives it the strength not to need the next letter, so its SH'VA can stay NA. [The Parshat Balak Homepage]
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