[Avodah] mi k(h)mocha

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Aug 23, 2012 at 09:29:43PM +0000, shalomyitz at comcast.net wrote:
: In the b'rachot after shema, why do we say mi KHamokha baeilim HaShem, 
: mi Kamokha nedar bakodesh. In other words, why is there a dagesh in 
: the second Kamokha, but not in the first? 

A diqduq question is really more for <mesorah at aishdas.org> than here.

You're asking about Shemos 15:11, not really the siddur. It's in the
mesoretic notes on the chumash that that's the niqud.

The Beis Yoseif writes that one must be careful to pronounce the kaf
of the second "mi kamokha" so that that it doesn't sound like one were
saying "Who is like you among the gods, Hashem? Mikhah", referring to
Pesel Mikhah (not myself).

Grammatically speaking:

"Mi khamokha" implies the two words are read together, so that the vowel
at the end of "mi" softens the khaf at the start of "khamokha". OTOH,
"mi kamokha" would normally imply it should be read more separated. And
the trop matches: the first "mi-khamokha" has a maqaf connecting the
words, the "mi kamokha" does not.

There are two other such inconsistancies in Pesuqei Dezimra -- this is
based on the mesoretic text, not your siddur publisher:

Tehillim 148:2:
    Haleluhu khol mal'akhav
    haleluhu kol  tzeva'av

and Teh' 150:5:
    Heleluhu vetziltzelei shama
    Heleluhu betziltzelei seru'ah

And again the trop too fits. In both cases the first iteration has a
merkha for haleluhu connecting it to the next word, and the second has a
revia-mugrash (a trop specific to sifrei Emes -- Iyov, Mishlei, Tehillim).

Notice that in all three cases, the first iteration has the second word
start rafui (soft, ie undotted), and flowing from the first word, and
the second iteration has it degushah and separate. I figure that might
imply a pattern, but I don't know what it would be.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             You cannot propel yourself forward
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