[Mesorah] Nikud on YKVK

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

Many siddurim and chumashim either have the YKVK Name without nekudos, or they abbreviate it with a double yod. This thread refers only to the other ones - the ones which use the YKVK consonants, and place certain nekudos with those letters.

My understanding is that the nekudos chosen for this purpose are the nekudos of the Shem Adnus, as an aid towards knowing what pronunciation to use. Indeed, there are cases (such as the second pasuk of Vaeschanan) where the YKVK appears with the nikud of Elokim, as a reminder of the alternate pronunciation in that case.

The part that I find confusing is this: In the Shen Adnus, the aleph gets a Chataf Patach. But when the YKVK has vowels, the first one is a sheva. Why the change? Why not use the chataf patach?

Perhaps some printer felt that the yod was too narrow for a chataf patach. Couldn't he at least have used a regular patach, to maintain proper (at close-to-proper) pronunciation? I skim through my Chumash and I see *plenty* of words which start with yod-patach or vav-patach.

So why did they choose to use a plain sheva? My only guess is to guard against someone pronouncing the YKVK with the correct vowels as in the Beis Hamikdash; perhaps "ya..." is too similar while "y'..." is sufficiently different?

Akiva Miller

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