[Mesorah] Goy Gadol? or Gadol Atzum?

[Mandel, Seth]

I hate casting cold water on things that I consider important, and I approve of the questions being asked.  However, my quest for the truth requires me to address the (Heisenberg) Trop Uncertainty Principle, which has nothing to do with Heisenberg, but is one of the basic facts of trop.
To wit: the whole system of trop is built on divisions, and subdivisions.  The classification of trop into Keisarim, M'lakhim, Sh'niym, and Shalishim, or whichever names you prefer (since none of these terms exist in the early sources), is quite useful for most p'suqim and clauses.  But it fails when used for a list.  Unless a list has subcategories, the trop used for the words is arbitrary in the sense that it follows rules of assigning trop if the meaning shows no major and minor elements.
A classic example is Ex. 28:4, where the Torah is discussing the Bigdei K'hunnah.  7 b'gadim are listed.  In modern English, we might separate all with commas or perhaps semicolons, or we could make a numbered list, or use bullets or letters.  None of those options are used in trop.
So trop is assigned to all 7 b'gadim.  I would argue that the trop does not indicate that any of the b'gadim are more especially connected with the ones that the trop connects them with.  But rather the trop divides any lists into groups of one or two words and uses "standard" trop to string them all together.
This is used many times in the Torah, and I personally would not make much out of it.
And so, although I applaud R. Akiva for observing and asking, I believe this is just a list, with no element being thematically more connected to another.  A noun with 3 adjectives; 3 d'rashot by Chazal.
Of course, one can always make a d'rash.  But it is important to distinguish between an explanation that is mandated by the trop versus one that the trop allows but does not require.

Seth Mandel

________________________________________
From: mesorah-bounces at lists.aishdas.org [mesorah-bounces at lists.aishdas.org] on behalf of Kenneth Miller [kennethgmiller at juno.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2014 2:14 PM
To: mesorah at aishdas.org
Subject: [Mesorah]  Goy Gadol? or Gadol Atzum?

Devarim 26:5, "Vayhi sham l'goy gadol atzum v'rav"

What's the best way to parse the "gadol"? Is it closer to goy or to atzum? I do see "goy gadol" with mercha-tipcha, which I usually understand to be a joined phrase, but it's always good to check.

Here's why I ask: The Hagada has separate paragraphs for perushim on "goy", "atzum", and "rav", but not for "gadol". In my experience, it is lumped together with "atzum", but that's not necessarily so.

"An Exalted Evening" (by Rabbi Menachem Genack, based on the teachings of RYB Soloveitchik) pg 67 fills three whole paragraphs, explicitly on the phrase "goy gadol". It's very nice, and I recommend it to others, but before I say it over at my Seder, I wanted to double-check how it holds up to the trop.

Thanks!
Akiva Miller
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