Another look with some new angles. This topic is responsible for this weekly column. It all started with the VAV that flips a past tense verb to become future tense. Partnered to future tense is TZIVUI, the command form of verbs. Let's start with a good example from this week's sedra of Eikev, with the words we say/sing in Birkat HaMazon (D'varim 8:10)

KA'KA'TUV: V'ACHALTA V'SAVATA U'VEIRACTA...
We've done this before, but there is new stuff here too. Be patient.
You ate is a-CHAL-ta (accented syllable is in upper case letters). You were satisfied is sa-VA-ta. You blessed is bei-RACH-ta. Each of these past tense verbs is flipped to future/command with a VAV HAHIPUCH (or VAV HAM'HAPECHET, as we used to call it). The flip of tense is done with a VAV/SH'VA at the beginning of the word, AND a switch of the accent from next-to-the-last syllable (MIL'EIL) to the last syllable (MILRA). a-CHAL-ta, you ate, v'a-CHAL- ta (not yet future tense; it means and you ate), v'a-chal-TA. Now it means and you will/shall eat. bei-RACH-ta gets a VAV, but because the word starts with a BET (as one of BET, VAV, MEM, PEI), the VAV changes to a SHURUK, and the DAGESH KAL drops from the BET (as one of BET, GIMEL, DALET, KAF, PEI, TAV). u'vei-RACH-ta means and you blessed. Push the accent to the end of the word and you get u'vei-rach-TA. Meaning, and you shall bless... Notice the position on the TROP-marks for v'a-chal- TA and u'vei-rach-TA. Some siddurim and benchers indicate the accent, some don't. With TROP, it's clear.

v'sa-VA-ta, however, does not behave the same way. It should have had the same accent-shift. But because the TROP on the word is an ETNACHTA (same for a SOF PASUK), the accent either stays put or goes back to the next-to-the-last syllable after it went to the last syllable from the next-to-the-last syllable where it was originally. Same difference. Two ways of saying it. Take a look in 8:12

PEN TOCHAL V'SAV'ATA U'VATIM TOVIM TIVNEH V'Y'SHAVTA:
There is v'sa-VA-ta again, at an ETNACHTA again. Accented MIL'EIL. At at the SOF PASUK is v'ya- SHAV-ta, also with its accent MIL'EIL, even though the word should be MILRA, being future tense. Check out B'reishit 27:43. There is v'ya-shav-TA, and you will sit (stay)... at the beginning of a pasuk (not ETNACHTA or SOF PASUK, and once in a while even at a ZAKEIF KATAN) with the accent shift as is the rule for the flipping (past to future) VAV.

There is another situation (besides ETNACHTA and SOF PASUK) where the accent does not move to the last syllable, even though the tense is flipping. Verbs whose (three-letter) roots end in ALEF or HEI, their past tense verbs stay MIL'EIL with a tense-flipping VAV. And you shall build, u'va-NI-ta. Check out Sho-f'tim (the book, not the sedra) 6:26 - u'va-NI-ta miz-BEI-ach, and you will build and altar... The root of the word is BET-NUN-HEI, so the accent stays MIL'EIL even with a tense-flip. Similarly, v'ka-RA-ta, as in D'varim 20:10 - When you approach a city to do battle, you shall first offer peace, v'ka-RA-ta ei-LE-ha sha-LOM. KUF-REISH-ALEF, so the accent of v'ka-RA-ta stays MIL'EIL.

And there is another situation for the accent to remain MIL'EIL, or rather to become MIL'EIL after it became MIL-RA. And that is the case of NASOG ACHOR, when the word is in a two word phrase with the following word very short or a 2-syllable MIL'EIL, then the accent migrates from the last to the next-to-the-last syllable. Let's go back to the word that started this week's column and find it in D'varim 27:7. Let's look at the whole pasuk.

V'ZA'VACHTA SH'LAMIM V'ACHALTA SHAM V'SAMACHTA LIFNEI HASHEM ELOKECHA:
v'za-vach-TA is "correctly" accent-shifted because of the VAV HAHIPUCH. So is v'sa-mach-TA. But look at v'a-CHAL-ta SHAM. Originally, the word is a-CHAL-ta. Then it switches accents to MILRA because of the VAV which switches its tense. v'a-chal-TA. Then the accent is switched back because of the application of NASOG ACHOR. We end up with v'a-CHAL-ta, which should mean "and you ate", but here means and you shall eat, but is MIL'EIL because of the word "there", SHAM. (Not so for v'di-bar-TA BAM - check TROP.)

Now follow this: there are some who want to suggest that since v'a-CHAL-ta means "and you shall eat" in the context with SHAM after the word, then we shouldn't say that reading v'a-chal-TA in our benching pasuk with a wrong accent, should NOT be considered changing the meaning, and thus requiring a Baal Korei to reread the word. This argument says, Because, in D'varim 27:7, the word meaning "and you shall eat" is pronounced v'a-CHAL-ta, then misreading the word in D'varim 8:10 shouldn't be considered changing thre meaning of the word. It should be "simply" considered accenting the wrong syllable in a word. Reading ha-a-RETZ instead of ha-A-retz is just mis-accented. The meaning is still the same. Not an error that you have to insist be corrected.

After checking with R' Nissan Sharoni and other knowledgeable people, the previous paragraph's argument seems very weak at best. In our first example, the word is v'a-chal-TA. It means and you will eat. If you pronounce it v'a-CHAL-ta you have not only mis-accented it; you have changed the meaning of the word.

And remember: there are several of these words to pronounce carefully in the SH'MA. v'a-hav-TA, v'di- bar-TA (and the next word does not cause the accent to go back to MIL'EIL, even though it is similar to SHAM, as mentioned above), v'na-ta-TI - to mention just a few.

One a totally different note, we get the second parsha of the SH'MA from this week's sedra. There is an important caution, especially in light of some sidduring that put a comma in the wrong place. The second half of the first pasuk is:
...L'A'HA'VA ET HASHEM ELOKEICHEM U'L'AVDO B'CHOL L'VAVCHEM U'V'CHOL NAFSHECHEM:
To love G-d and to serve Him (pause), with all your heart and all your soul. That's what the pasuk means. Many people mistakenly pause after Elokeichem, resulting in the pasuk saying: to love G-d, and you shall serve Him with all your heart and soul. That's not the same, so say it well.

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