More on HALLEL... (and other things) • Here's a reminder that goes for the opening bracha for Hallel, the first bracha for candle- lighting, and all Birchot HaMitzva. It is very common for people to say ...ASHER KID'SHANU B'MITZVOTAV V'TZIVANU and then to pause before saying the end of the bracha, LIKRO ET HAHALLEL, L'HADLIK NER CHANUKA, or what- ever. The pause is in the wrong place, but it is commonly put there because up to and including the word V'TZIVANU is the "standard" part of the bracha, and the ending changes from mitzva to mitzva. One should be careful to pause before V'TZIVANU, "He Who has sanctified us with His mitzvot", pause, V'TZIVANU LIKRO ET HA- HALLEL,"and commanded us to recite the Hallel" or V'TZIVANU L'HADLIK NER... and commanded us to light the candle (of Shabbat, Yom Tov, Chanuka). The V'TZIVANU belongs with the ending of the bracha. • In the first part of Ps. 116, the part that is skipped on Rosh Chodesh and on Pesach from the second day, we find the word for fools - PEI- TAV-ALEF-YUD-MEM (sofit). When looking at the word and seeing the ALEF-YUD-MEM ending, one might read the word as P'TA-IM (or P'SA-IM). In fact, the ALEF has no vowel, in which case,the ALEF is totally silent and as if it isn't there at all. The word is correctly pronounced P'TA-YIM. There are other words with this silent ALEF. In all cases where the ALEF has no vowel under it, the word is read as if the ALEF is not there. Another example of this "dropped ALEF" is in Birkat HaMazon. Last paragraph begins with the word YUD-REISH-ALEF-VAV. The YUD has a SH'VA NA under it. The REISH has no vowel, the ALEF has no vowel, and the VAV has a dot in it, meaning that it isn't a VAV but a SHURUK. And that SHURUK is the vowel of the REISH (not of the ALEF, even though it looks like it goes with the ALEF). The word is NOT YIR-U,but rather Y'RU. One syllable. Y'RU. It's hard to say, because many of us are used to saying YIR-U.The two words are different. YIR-U means "they will see". That's future tense, third person, plural. Y'RU is the Command form (TZIVUI), second person, plural. Y'RU ET HASHEM... Fear G-d, His holy ones (K'DOSHAV). In YIR'U,the YUD is a prefix to the root of the word, indicating third person and future. In Y'RU, the YUD is part of the root of the word. • a-NA HASHEM ho-SHI-a NA. Accent on the SHI. But, hatz-li-CHA, emphasis on the CHA. [The Parshat Miketz Homepage]
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