Towards Better Davening and Torah Reading
A number of weeks ago, we had two consecutive columns on the SH'VA NAs in the SH'MA. Let's review the SH'VA NACH and flag a few tough ones. SH'VA NACH does not add any vowel sound the the letter it is under. YISRA'EL. The SH'VA under the SIN is NACH. The first syllable is YIS (rhymes with kiss). There is a technical, virtual SH'VA NACH under the LAMED as well, even though you cannot see it. Third syllable is EIL. Simple. The only "hard" SH'VA NACHs are the ones people tend to NA and especially when it is easier or more natural to pronounce the SH'VA as a NA, with a little vowel sound for the letter under which the SH'VA is. These hard NACHs fall into a few different categories. [1] SH'VA NA at the beginning of a word and a VAV is prefixed to the word. The conjunctive VAV is usually voweled with a SH'VA NA. But if the word it is prefixing starts with a SH'VA, since you cannot have two consecutive SH'VAs at the beginning of a word, the VAV becomes a SHURUK - AND - it takes the word's first letter unto itself to become the first syllable of the word, and it changes a SH'VA NA to a NACH. B'CHOL L'VA-V'CHA UVCHOL NAFSH'CHA UVCHOL M'ODECHA. Once, the word B'CHOL remains intact. Twice, the word is prefixed by a VAV. The VAV becomes a SHURUK, the DAGESH KAL in the BET of B'CHOL drops out. The SH'VA under the VET becomes NACH as the VET/SH'VA "break away" (so to speak) from the CHOL syllable to which they were linked in B'CHOL. First syllable is UV (rhymes with GROOVE) and the second syllable is CHOL. B'LECH-T'CHA becomes UV LECH T'CHA. K'SHARTAM becomes UK SHAR TAM. It is very tempting (proof of which is that so many people do it) to say U K' SHAR TAM, retaining the little vowel sound for the KUF that the SH'VA NA had given it. But the SH'VA is NACHed by the prefixed VAV.

If the SHURUKed VA has a METEG under it (little vertical mark), then there is dispute. Some say that in this case, the U does stand alone and does not change the SH'VA under the following letter, nor does it take the letter into its opening syllable. So whereas it is UV LECH T'CHA VADERECH, the next word is U V'SHOCH B'CHA, followed by UV KU ME CHA.

Others say that even with a METEG, the prefixed- VAV situation is the same as originally described above. UV SHOCH B'CHA UV KU ME CHA - no difference between the U at the beginning of each of these words.
[2] Another hard type of SH'VA NACH are the ones under a letter that is simply hard to say without a little vowel sound. It takes effort. In SH'MA we have L'VAV-CHA, V'SHINAN-TAM, V'DIBAR-TA, MITZ-VOTAI - the SH'VA NACH under the VET, NUN, REISH, TZADI, respectively, are easy to say without adding any vowel sound to the letter. But VA-A'VAD-TEM is hard to say with a SH'VA NACH under the DALET. Even when the DALET is the end of the word, it is hard to withhold a little vowel sound from it. Say KAVOD. Pay attention to the way you say the DALET. DALET was not really meant to stop abruptly without a vowel sound. The Yemenite pronunciation of the DALET without a DAGESH is sounded like the TH in BREATHE. That does lend itself to a SH'VA NACH. VA A'VAD TEM. Try not to end the word with D'TEM. VA AVAD and then TEM. So too with the other VA-AVAD-TEM (the one with the ALEF). In addition to the two words mentioned so far, there is also V'LI MAD TEM. More than enough for now. To be continued...

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