Column #99. 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.

We are still receiving feedback on the LIZMAN/LAZMAN BIZMAN/BAZMAN issue and we will report back to readers of this column when the smoke clears and we sort things out. Our thanks to some very erudite readers who have analyzed the issue in a very scholarly manner. There definitely is more to it than the potato pronunciation debate between Americans and Brits (excuse me, people of British origin). We'll see.

Let's take a look at some words in this week's sedra. (Some people are going to say: "Of course, every- one knows that". Others will say: "Hey, interesting, I never noticed that". And others probably aren't interested in this kind of thing. Which are you?) In the beginning of Sh'mot, the Torah tells us of the beginning of enslavement of the Jewish people, and their building the supply/storage cities of Pitom and Ra'amseis. That's REISH-AYIN-  MEM-SAMACH-SAMACH. That name appears five times in Chumash (and that's all for Tanach), including once in our sedra of Vayigash. But look at it carefully. B'reishit 47:11 tells us that Yosef set his father and brothers up and gave them property in a prime location in Egypt, as Par'o had commanded. The area is called RA'- M'SEIS. Same spelling, but different vowels, including a SH'VA NACH under the AYIN and a SH'VA NA under the MEM. (In the name in Sh'mot, the SH'VA under the MEM is NACH.) According to Ibn Ezra, these are two different places. RA'-M'SEIS is an area in Goshen, and the people of Israel lived there. RA'AM-SEIS is a  supply city where Jews did not live. In Sh'mot 12:37, the Torah tells us that the Children of Israel traveled from RA'- M'SEIS to SUKOT... RA'-M'SEIS being the place where the people lived. Similarly, in Bamidbar 33, which is in Parshat Mas'ei, the Torah reviews the travels of Bnei Yisrael, RA'-M'SEIS is mentioned twice more. Only one of the five occurrences is RA'AM-SEIS. I wonder how many people realized there are two different pronunciations for
two different places.

In B'reishit 46, 26 and 27, we find a pair of almost the same words with different accents, just as there was in Vayeitzei. Rashi here (as well as there) comments. All the "souols" that ARE COMING (present rather than past tense) with Yaakov to Egypt... are 66 in number (not counting wives). ha-ba- A (accented MILRA, on the last syllable). Next pasuk - Add to that, Yosef and his two sons (and Yocheved who was born at the Egyptian border) and we get: all the souls of Yaakov's house that CAME (past tense) to Egypt, are 70.

ha-BA-a. MIL'EIL (accent on next to the last syllable). These words are spelled the same, come from the same root, and have the same vowels, yet the difference in accent gives then different meaning from each other and they may not be interchanged when reading the Torah. A good Baal Korei (Baal K'ri'a) will get them right; a sloppy one will mess up one or the other or both and technically should be corrected and instructed to repeat the mis- accented word(s) correctly. As we've mentioned before, care must be exercised when correcting a Baal Korei (young or old), not to cause him embarrassment. It might even be a nice idea to go over to the Baal Korei BEFORE Torah reading, and point out the two words. So too with any "tricky" words in the Torah reading. This always reminds me of the spelling books I used as a kid in Crown Heights Yeshiva. Many words were marked with a little devil- with-pitchfork and the words were known as spelling demons. You know, the ones that dare you to get them right. So too, each sedra has a list of words to watch out for. EIM LAMIKRA HASHALEIM has
a section that does exactly this, sedra by sedra, perek and pasuk by
perek and pasuk.
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