[Mesorah] Heh Hayedia

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

Michael Poppers wrote:

> I'm sure we're all aware of "[v']haAy" (Gen 12:8).

The first thing I thought of when I saw this, was "But Ai is spelled with an ayin. Is an ayin capable of taking a dagesh?" But none of you more learned gentlemen said that, so I kept my mouth shut.

I also noted that this heh has a kamatz, not the much more common (for heh hayediah) patach.

Then I found a very relevant article at http://www.shemayisrael.com/parsha/klarberg/archives/balak63.htm which begins with the following:

> Heh hayediah ('the Heh of the definite article')
>
> yerek hassadeh (Num. 22:4) ('the vegetation of the field'): The
> Heh has a Patach and the following letter, Sin, has a Dagesh.
> This is the normal or 'default' pointing for Heh hayediah ('the
> Heh of the definite article').
>
> haa'anashim haa'eleh (Num. 22:9) ('these men'): When the letter
> following the Heh hayediah is Alef, Ayin (in most cases), or
> Resh - letters that do not receive a Dagesh - the Heh has a
> Kamatz.

On the one hand, my guess about the ayin seems to be confirmed. On the other hand, I'm intrigued by the comment "Ayin (in most cases)". What about the other cases? Does the ayin have a dagesh, or does the heh have a patach?

The rest of that article was way above my head, but I highly recommend it to the rest of the Mesorah listmembers.

(By the way, I found that article simply by entering "heh hayediah" into Google. That article was the very first hit.)

Akiva Miller

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