[Mesorah] Shalsheleth

[Joshua Meisner]

On Thu, Nov 27, 2008 at 9:33 PM, David J Havin <djhavin at iprimus.com.au>wrote:

>  Why, in each of the seven instances in the *Tanach*, does the *Shalsheleth
> *appear on the first word of the sentence?
>
The shalsheles serves a role similar to that of a zakeif gadol; much as the
zakeif gadol replaces the zakeif katon within a one-word secondary division
of a passuk that has no room for a preceding pashta, y'tiv, or munach
(unless said one word is very short or very long), so, too, the shalsheles
replaces the segol within a one-word secondary division that has no room for
a preceding zarka.  Since segol is only used at the head of a chain of
secondary phrases (each of which, save the last, is concluded by a zakeif),
it follows logically that shalsheles would only be used as a ta'am in a
one-word initial secondary phrase, making it the first word in the passuk.

- Josh
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