[Mesorah] Fwd: שבת שבתון הוא או שבת שבתון היא

[Sholom Simon via Mesorah]

A question from a friend of mine:

I was asked earlier today about an interesting repetition between two
> pesukim with one significant difference. One appears in parshas achrei
> (vayikra 16:31) and describes yom kippur as שבת שבתון היא, and the other in
> parshas emor (vayikra 23:32) says שבת שבתון הוא (pronounced hu).
> To make matters worse, the trop is exactly the same in both instances with
> the sequence kadma, mercha, pashta. I thought to suggest that what the
> article referred to is different between the two pesukim, similar to how in
> parshas tazria it could be written צרעת הוא or צרעת היא and still be
> consistent depending on whether the lesion referred to is זכר (as in נגע)
> or נקבה (as in מכוה). So here in the yom kippur pesukim the referent of היא
> would be שבת and that of הוא would be yom kippur. However, I think the fact
> that the trop is the same makes it unlikely for the referent if the article
> to be different between the two pesukim.
>

(Note: trop is the same up until the esnachta)

My own thoughts: as we've been discussing. trop does more than grammar.  It
might help a flow, highlight a parallelism, etc.  So my friend's argument
that the trop is the same may not mean much of anything.

Nevertheless, why "hee" and "hoo" in those different psukim?

Thoughts, anyone?

-- Sholom
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