[Avodah] Geshem or Gashem?!

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Oct 05, 2018 at 12:01:40PM +0000, Professor L. Levine via Avodah wrote:
: From  https://ohr.edu/this_week/insights_into_halacha/4903

I have yet to see a discussion that starts at the beginning. Bemechilas
kevod everyone who holds "gashem", and who am I to argue against the Gra,
the Netziv, the CC, R' Aharon Kotler, R YS Elyashiv, or Rav Moshe?

But this article gets closer, by mentioning Sepharadim and the Levushei
Mordekhai.

Yes, in the Leshon haQodesh of the Tanakh, "gashem" is the correct pausal
form. And, if one davens in the language of the Tanakh, then "geshem" vs
"gashem" boils down to asking whether this is one item in a long list,
or a phrase with a significant pause (esnachta or sof-pasuq, or in sifrei
Eme"s, oleh veyoreid).

The reason why Sepharadim end the berakhah on wine with "gefen" is because
they more often daven in Chazal's Hebrew, rather than the Tanakh's. And
Mishnaic Hebrew doesn't have pausal forms.

On Fri, Oct 05, 2018 at 12:28:54PM +0000, Mandel, Seth via Avodah wrote:
:            they came late in the game, after grammarians had already
: started changing the pronunciation.

: The fact is that all ancient vocalized mss. (from the time of the
: rishonim) have geshem. All that I have ever seen do, whether S'farad,
: Ashkenaz, Italian, or Teimani. There are hundreds. And so there can be
: no reasonable argument about what the Rishonim said.

But this doesn't prove that our mesorah was necessarily that there was a
significan pause after "umorid hagashem". Yes, the Teimanim say "Jafen"
on wine, and yet still say "geshem" here with a segol. Their mesorah is
that is is not a pause.

But for Ashkenazim, those older manuscripts do not prove whether or
not there is a pause, since the diqduq they used would have "geshem"
either way.

As for Nusach haAri, Lubavitch's Alter Rebbe liked R Wolf Heidenheim's
(Ravah's) siddur and diqduq, so his Nusach Ari was one of the early
adopters of these language innovations.

Interestingly, this means that most Ashkneazim today are davening
in a nusach that is primarily a haskalisher attempt to reconstruct an
authentic nusach, that is based on some ahistorical assumptions of
what "authentic" was, to boot.

And R/Dr Mandel is the only person I know who unwound that shift
from Mishaic to Biblical Hebrew across all of davening. Unless you're
willing to take that drastic step ("sabe'einu mituvakh, vesamcheinu
biyshu'asakh"), saying "geshem" when most of your Hebrew is Mishnaic
could something different than it did in those manuscripts, depending
if a pause was intended. And, depending on whether the phrase might
even be an exception to the usual rules of diqduq. (See R Spitz's
article.) We simply can't know.

R' Spitz concludes:
   Postscript: This is just one of a number of places where the majority
   consensus of Poskim maintain that dikduk decides the proper reading
   of tefillos.[30] Although many Gedolim through the ages spoke
   about dikduk's importance,[31] unfortunately its study at present
   is much neglected. In the words of Rabbi Yisroel Reisman in his
   excellent book Pathways of the Prophets:[32] "The myth of the lack
   of importance of (at least) a minimal amount of knowledge of dikduk
   must be dispelled. This is an area where a small amount of time and
   effort go a long way. Let's do it!"

But to some up this post, we also need to know *which* diqduq.

To provide the footnotes for that last quote:

   [30] See at length Rabbi Yisroel Reisman's Pathways of the Prophets,
   "Rules of Dikduk" starting on pg. 312.

   [31] For example see the Rambam's Peirush HaMishnayos (Avos Ch. 2,
   1), Beis Yosef (Orach Chaim 142, 1), Yesod V'Shoresh HaAvodah (Ch. 5,
   3), Shu"t Chavos Yair (124), Shu"t Sheilas Ya'avetz (vol. 1, 10),
   and Bnei Yisaschar (Introduction to Igra D'Kallah and Mayon Ganim 13,
   6), all cited in the aforementioned chapter.

   [32] Pathways of the Prophets (pg. 325).

   L'iluy Nishmas the Rosh HaYeshiva - Rav Chonoh Menachem Mendel ben
   R' Yechezkel Shraga, Rav Yaakov Yeshaya ben R' Boruch Yehuda, and
   l'zchus for Shira Yaffa bas Rochel Miriam and her children for a
   yeshua teikef u'miyad!

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Brains to the lazy
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