[Mesorah] kodashim

[Yitzchak M. Gottlieb]

David Cohen wrote:

> On Wed, Feb 20, 2008 at 8:26 PM, Michael Hamm <msh210 at math.wustl.edu> wrote:
>
>> A baal k'ria recently told me that kadashim/kodashim has a kamatz gadol
>> (rachav) at its start, but hakodashim has a kamatz katan.  Is this
>> correct?  I always thought each had a kamatz katan.  (And why would the
>> prefixed he make a difference?)
>
>
> In the expression "kodesh hakodashim," the kuf has no meteg, and the vowel
> under it is a chataf kamatz, which, if I'm not mistaken, is always
> pronounced (by those who distinguish between them) as a kamatz katan.
>
> In the expression "kodesh kadashim," the kuf has a regular kamatz under it,
> meaning that since it's an open syllable, one would expect it to be a kamatz
> gadol.  In addition, there is a meteg on that syllable, which ought to
> clinch the kamatz gadol.

There seems to be a disagreement about whether the presence of the ga'ya kallah
would force the kamatz to be a kamatz rahav.  The Radak is of that opinion,
others are less adamant.  There is a note in the Minchat Shai (I believe it's
around here, but could be in Vayikra) about the issue.  Regardless, the Radak
certainly believes these (in kodesh kodashim) are kamatzim k'tanim since in the
Michlol on nouns of this form (kodesh, hodesh, ohel, etc.) he brings examples
of kadashim (rahav) from Yehezkel instead of all of Tanach.

The ga'ya may appear as a standard ga'ya kallah in an open syllable before the
accented one.  If one does not accept the Radak's position on the effect of the
ga'ya, placing one would not change the pronounciation and be consistent with
the general placement of ga'yot.  Since there is no standardized mesorah for
g'yot kallot, this addition may have happened.  This does not however answer
the question of why these are written "b'kamatz l'vado."

> This is, in fact, how it appears in the "Simanim" tikkun.

Note that the Minchat Shai (which the Simanim quotes) almost always says "kamatz
l'vado" meaning a kamatz kattan that is not written as a hataf kamatz.

Zuki


-- 
Yitzchak Gottlieb
zuki at CS.Princeton.EDU