[Mesorah] R'tzon Konam vs. Koneihem

[Mandel, Seth]

This is "corect" in Biblical Hebrew, not in L'shon Chazal.
The fact that all old mss. have qonehem, whether Ashk'nazi, S'faradi, or Teimani, settles the question about what was original.
Later siddurim changed many things, but most were ignorant of Chazal Hebrew, and what they did was hypercorrections, not how Chazal originally composed the text.
That is linguistically and historically.  I will not get involved in sociopolitical arguments about whether one should follow this that or the other siddur, rabbi, or grammarian.  So I will just say what the facts are, not prescriptively what one "should" do.  Cf. the grammatical rules invented by English grammarians, like "no double negatives," even though they were standard in English (and are still mandatory in Russian and other languages).  Languages are not mathematically construction, and double negatives (or triple or quadruple, as are found in Chaucer and Shakespeare) are not to be treated as if they were mathematical equations.
But most English speakers were taught in school the grammars that grammarians wrote, and so stopped using double negatives.  Only the "unlettered folk" still use them, e.g. "I ain't seen nothin'."  All the forms in that are grammatically correct according to traditional English, but not according to grammarians.  Similarly "qonehem."
What should one say? that is a socio-political decision.

Seth Mandel
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From: mesorah-bounces at lists.aishdas.org [mesorah-bounces at lists.aishdas.org] on behalf of Richard [rabbirichwolpoe at gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 20, 2013 9:41 PM
To: Joseph I. Lauer; mesorah-bounces at lists.aishdas.org; Mesorah at lists.aishdas.org
Subject: Re: [Mesorah] R'tzon Konam vs. Koneihem

I just consulted Baer's Avodas Yisrael [p. 78 in the weekday shacharis.]

Konam: Kein Tikkein Vayetar Yitzchok also in Siddurei S'pharadim*  also Roma and it is correct.

"Koneihem" CvS sounds like 2 r'shuyos** despite its occasional use EG in Midrash Rabbah

But our T'fillah should choose clarity...and so it is in Birkas Halvanah both old and new editions,* in Bavli Sanhedrin and in the Rambam, leaving us no doubt.

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* Koneihem is found in Siddur Avodat Hashem

**  this was my concern, too.
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“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”
~  Leo Tolstoy

Shalom, RRW
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