[Mesorah] aleph with a dagesh

[Mandel, Seth via Mesorah]

________________________________
From: Mandel, Seth
Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2017 12:22 PM
To: Sholom Simon; Mesorah AishDas List
Cc: Micha Berger; Lori Linzer; debbyhowarth at aol.com; David and Esther Bannett
Subject: Re: aleph with a dagesh


I am not a chasid of all the attempts to uncover meanings in the Masorah before people understand the Masorah.

The Masorah was not a composition of grammatical rules.  It was an attempt to commit to writing the traditional way of chanting/reciting the Biblical text.  The Masoretic apparatus was part of that, a way of making sure that the way words were written and pronounced were preserved.

The tradiition was that the aleph was realized as a glottal stop.  In almost all languages with such a phoneme, it is sometimes elided and sometimes stressed, in addition to the normal pronunciation.

Just as the Masorah shows which cases the aleph is elided (by not having any vocalization and a rafeh sign above it), it shows the places where it is stressed by putting in a dagesh.

Only after understanding the totality of the Masorah would d'rushim become appropriate.  As was the case in Parshat Tzav, when various d'rushim of why the vayyishchat with a shalshelet reflects hesitation: the drush is based on ignorance of the Masorah, and ignorance of the intricacies of trop.


Rabbi Dr. Seth Mandel


________________________________
From: sholom90 at gmail.com <sholom90 at gmail.com> on behalf of Sholom Simon <sholom at aishdas.org>
Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2017 12:00 PM
To: Mandel, Seth; Mesorah AishDas List
Cc: Micha Berger; Lori Linzer; debbyhowarth at aol.com; David and Esther Bannett
Subject: aleph with a dagesh

Over the yom tov, I noticed an aleph with a dagesh.  (As Emor is my son's bar mitzvah parsha, and, thus, he's layned it at our shul every Pesach-2 and Sukkos 1 & 2, I'm surprised I didn't notice it before).

I took a quick scan via the R'aG (rabbi google) and found the following at https://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/35510/aleph-with-a-dagesh

Anyone have any other comment?

In four places in Tanakh, our text has an aleph with a dagesh: Gen 43:26, Lev 23:17, Job 33:21, and Ezra 8:18. What is the significance of this, and for the first two examples, how would you indicate its existence while laining?

Commentaries that I've seen:

Gen 43:26 -- Radak points out that it's there, but otherwise says nothing. Minchat Shai says to look in ספר הנקוד הגדול from רב אשי, but I don't know where to find that.

Lev 23:17 -- Ibn Ezra says he doesn't know what it means.

Job 33:21 -- Malbim comments that this is from the binyan Pual, that normally comes with a dagesh.

On all four, Minchat Shai mentions the phonomenon, but does not explain it, besides pointing to ערומים from Gen 2:25, where he says:

מצאתי להרמ״ה ז״ל בהקדמת ספרו שכתב זה לשונו כל אתא דקריא דגש באורייתא לו סמיך לה מקמא אתא דכתיבא ולא קריא בר מן חמשה תלת מנהון מלאים וא״ו ותרין מנהון מלאים יו״ד

and then lists עָרוּמִּים, תְּלוּנֹּתָם, תְּלוּנֹּת, and our two examples, וַיָּבִיאּוּ and תָּבִיאּו. I'm not sure of who he's quoting, and I'm having some trouble parsing the Aramaic, but he seems to be saying that the Vav and Yud male are causing a dagesh, but only in these five instances (in Torah). Can someone fully translate this passage, and help shed some light?

I'll also add that in my tikkun, by Gen 43:26, there's a note to "pronounce the aleph strongly"!

A good mo'ed everyone!

-- Sholom
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