First let's start with a Pesach report. Two of the most-often repeated topics in this column are the correct pronunciation of G-d's name ALEF- LAMED-VAV-HEI, with a PATACH under the HEI. That PATACH is exactly like the one under the CHET in the word TAPU'ACH (apple). The PATACH is sounded first, then the HEI. The word is not ELOHA. It is e-LO-ahhh or e-LOwahhh. Not ELOHA. There, it appeared again in this column. The report: people don't get it. The seem to refuse to believe it, or something. Anyone who reads this column and says e-LO-ak rather than ELOHA is hereby recruited to gently, politely, softly tell other people of your acquaintance so that more and more people will pronounce G-d's name correctly. And then there is the AMEN CHATUFA, the premature, early, you-said-it-too-soon AMEN. No matter how long a chazan drags out (stretches) the ending of a bracha, even if it feels like an invitation to say AMEN as he finishes the bracha, resist, hold back, wait. Your AMEN is a mitzva only when it FOLLOWS a bracha, not cuts into the bracha's ending. Again, people don't seem to get the point. Maybe they don't read this column. Maybe they think the points are too nit-picky to make the effort to change their habits. So, you who read this column, are hereby recruited (again) to help with the BASH campaign (break anti-halachic shul habits). Don't yell at anyone, be gentle, constructive, instructive, soft, polite in your reminders that AMEN should be said after the bracha ends. This avoids, tell others, the absurd- sounding, HAM'VAREICH ET AMO YISRA'EL BASHAMEIN. While we are talking about "bad" habits, how do you feel about the common song for HINENI MUCHAN UMZUMAN for S'firat HaOmer? K'MO SHEKATUV BATORAH, as it is written in the Torah, Hineni Muchan Umzuman. Guess what? That's not written in the Torah. We have to rework the melody so that it comes out straight. Anyway, let's move on to some other issues, using Parshat K'doshim as a source of the reviews. ELOHEI MASEICHA, molten gods. Under the ALEF woiuld be a CHATAF-SEGOL (five dots). When the conjunctive VAV is prefixed to the word, the result is a TZEIREI under the VAV and no vowel under the ALEF. The ALEF becomes virtually not there and the word is VEI-LO-HEI. Not V'ELOHEI. Vayikra 19:15, ... nor honor the person of the mighty... LO TEH-DAR P'NEI GADOL. The HEI of TEH-DAR has a SH'VA NACH under it, so the HEI is sounded, just as it would be (should be) at the end of a word when there is a MAPIK (dot) in it. TEHHH-DAR. Avoid TE-DAR. There are other words that have a HEI in the middle, and the HEI has no vowel under it. In that case, the HEI is silent, as if it were not there. The tribal leader of Menashe, as mentioned at the beginning of Parshat Bamidbar, is GAMLIEL b. P'DA-TZUR. There is a HEI after the DALET, but the HEI is unvoweled, so the name is not P'DAH-TZUR. In 19:34 is the command to love a Ger. v'a-hav- TA
LO, and you shall love him... Care must be taken to accent the TA syllable,
and not say v'a- HAV-ta LO, even though the accent might have receded to the
next-to-the-last syllable by the "rule" of NASOG ACHOR. There is no NASOG
ACHOR in this situation and the word v'a-HA-tahas a different meaning, and
you loved (him). That's not what the pasuk says. [The Parshat K'doshim Homepage]
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