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Towards Better Davening and Torah Reading

Correction/clarification/comment
Let's look at the "heart" words of the SH'MA again. One of them was SH'VA-classified incorrectly. Don't bother looking at past columns; here's the story. And we'll try to look at the forest too, not just the trees and the fine detail of bark and leaf.

In the first passage of SH'MA, we are commanded to love G-d with all our heart.

The command is in second person singular - B'CHOL L'VA-V'CHA (SH'VA NA under the VET). Still in the first passage, we are told that the words of Torah should be on our hearts. Because the word is at the end of a pasuk, the SH'VA under the VET changes to a SEGOL. AL L'VA-VE-CHA.

Beginning of the second passage, we are commanded to love G-d and to serve Him with all our hearts. This time the command is in second person plural - B'CHOL L'VAV-CHEM. The SH'VA under the VET is NACH. The first VET has a PATACH under it, which is a short vowel that "prefers" to share its syllable with the followed letter that has a SH'VA NACH. Here the first syllable is L'VAV. In contrast to the first passage's L'VA, with a KAMATZ (long vowel) under the VET, followed by V'CHA. The word L'VA-V'CHEM is found three more times in the SH'MA, warning against our hearts straying, commanding us to place G-d's words on our hearts (or as we might say in English, "to take to heart"), and in the third passage, commanding us not to follow the negative temptations of our hearts (and eyes). Our commitment to G-d and His Torah is very much a matter of the heart.

On another matter...
TET-BET-AYIN-TAV, meaning RING, appears 38 times in Sh'mot (concerning the Mishkan or Kohen Gadol's garments. The only other place in Tanach that has a lot of rings is Megilat Esther (6 times). (Only two other occurrences - B'reishit and Bamidbar.) In singular, the word is TABA-'AT. In plural (most common) it is TABA-OT in its free-standing form - rings, and TA-B'OT (SH'VA under the BET rather than KAMATZ) in its S'michut form: rings of gold, rings of the Aron, rings of copper...


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