[Mesorah] aleph with a dagesh

[Sholom Simon via Mesorah]

Without getting into the debate of whether grammar is descriptive or 
prescriptive . . .

I guess the question is: why do those particular words have an 
alef-dagesh?  Is there any grammatical reason at all?  Or, is the 
answer: "we don't know, but that is the mesorah on those words"?

At 12:22 PM 4/16/2017, Mandel, Seth wrote:

>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