[Mesorah] mishpat echad

[Dov Bloom]

Where did you (M Poppers) find this Massoretic note?  A lamed would indicate a unique word but my chumash has a bet. 

What I found was a Messora Ktana letter bet which indicates 2 instances. Since the word mishpat appears dozens of times both with kametz and patach, the bet probably refers to the phrase "mishpat echad"   which occurs twice (belishna). 

I found no parallel in any Messora Gedola. The only MG-type massoretic reference / explanation I could find (without a search of Messora Sofit) was a note brought down by Ginsburg: 
Mishpat echad (patach -vayikra 24:22) 
Umishpat echad ( kamatz - Bamidbar 15:16)   
veAPS (Echad Pasuk Siman) veAtem Tilketu leEchad (patach) Echod (kamatz) (yeshayahu 27:12)

This note (together with our bet) points out that the phrase (u)mishpat echad occurs only twice, once with a patach and once with a kamatz.

The cute "pasuk siman" has echad written twice, once with patach once with kamatz - hinting (siman)  that the phrase mishpat echad (belishna) occurs only twice, the first one (echad) with a patach and the second one with kamatz.

Ochla VeOchla (paragraph 23) has a list of 47 pairs of unique words:  both words appear only once with a patach and only once with a kamatz (like kochav - bamidbar 24:17 and Amos 5:26). Ginsburg's note didn't make the list because the Ochla VeOchla list is two both unique single words, and our pair (mishpat echad) is a pair of 2 unique two-word phrases. The note in Ginsburg sounds like a latter note modeled on the Ochla VeOchla style.


M Poppers wrote:
I'm not an expert on masoretic notes, but I think the note for this word indicates that there is none like it (i.e. it's not in s'michus [as indicated by Targum Onqelos: "dina" rather than "din"], and all cases like it which aren't in s'michus have a qamatz) and that there is at least one manuscript which vowelized the word with a qamatz. 

Michael Hamm <msh210 at gmail.com> wrote Subject  [Mesorah] mishpat echad 
Why does "mishpat" at the end of Emor, 24:22, have a patach rather
than a kamatz under the pe?