More of our ongoing review of past lessons, based on words in this week's sedra and in davening...

EIM LAMASORET (which is part of EIM LAMIKRA HASHALEIM) lists ten words from the sedra that areVAV-switched from past to future and that means the accent goes from MIL'EIL (next to last syllable) to MILRA (last syllable). And THAT means that a Two of them are in the first pasuk of SHEINI (8:25). misplaced accent changes the meaning of the word. v'ti-har-TA... v'hei-naf-TA (from ti-HAR-ta, hei-NAF- ta). Besides Torah reading, we have this word-form to watch out for in davening. As we've pointed out in the past, there are more than a few of these VAV- words in the SH'MA. v'a-hav-TA, v'di-bar-TA, and others. On the other hand, some of the VAV-switched tenses words in SH'MA are NOT in the same category of warning. v'shi-nan-TAM (l'va-NE-cha), for example, is also accented on the last syllable, but so is its past tense form without the VAV. The word is NOT shi-NAN-tam that became v'shi-nan-TAM because of the tense-switching VAV. In this case, if a person says v'shi-NAN-tam, he's just wrong, but he hasn't changed the meaning of the word. The mistake, therefore, is less serious.

V'SHI'NANTUM L'VANECHA V'DI'BARTA BAM...
Of course, all words should be pronounced correctly, and the accent should be placed on the correct syllable, but for practical purposes, we should know what misaccents change the meaning of the words - these come close to invalidating the SH'MA or Torah reading. (Invalidating is a harsh word, but some sources suggest as much.)

ASAFSUF • V'HA-SAF-SUF
ASAFSUF is the EIREV RAV, the Egyptians that came out of Egypt with the Jews. The only appearance of the word is in this week's sedra (11:4), see above. The word is prefixed with a VAV and HEI. Read it. Again. It is V'HA-SAF-SUF. Silent ALEF.

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