[Mesorah] בראשית נ, יב

Thu Dec 28 14:31:50 PST 2023

Rav Breuer explains that what decides whether a verse will have an Etnahta or not, is how many words it has in its 2nd part, after its main break:

When a verse has more than 5 words in the 2nd section it always has an Etnahta.

See how these verses illustrate this very vividly:

עֵ֥ת לָלֶ֖דֶת        וְעֵ֣ת לָמ֑וּת        עֵ֣ת לָטַ֔עַת        וְעֵ֖ת לַעֲק֥וֹר נָטֽוּעַ׃         (5)

עֵ֤ת לַהֲרוֹג֙        וְעֵ֣ת לִרְפּ֔וֹא        עֵ֥ת לִפְר֖וֹץ        וְעֵ֥ת לִבְנֽוֹת׃         (4)

עֵ֤ת לִבְכּוֹת֙        וְעֵ֣ת לִשְׂח֔וֹק        עֵ֥ת סְפ֖וֹד        וְעֵ֥ת רְקֽוֹד׃         (4)

עֵ֚ת לְהַשְׁלִ֣יךְ אֲבָנִ֔ים        וְעֵ֖ת כְּנ֣וֹס אֲבָנִ֑ים        עֵ֣ת לַחֲב֔וֹק        וְעֵ֖ת לִרְחֹ֥ק מֵחַבֵּֽק׃ (5)

When there are 2-4 words in the 2nd section, then usually, but not always, there will be an etnahta. The more words (from 2-4), the greater the chance of the Etnahta.

When there is 1 word in the 2nd section, then there will usually NOT be an Etnahta, but there are quite a few exceptions. Here, when the verse contains more than 1 sentence, it increases the chances of an Etnahta:

וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֱ-לֹהִ֖ים יְהִ֣י א֑וֹר וַֽיְהִי־אֽוֹר

But, see this verse, with no less than 23 words in it, but with no Etnahta! 

It divides into two on the Tipha, the strongest break before the Sof-passuk (note that 2 hyphenated words are always considered 1 word):

וַיַּקְהֵ֣ל דָּוִ֣יד אֶת־כׇּל־שָׂרֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֡ל שָׂרֵ֣י הַשְּׁבָטִ֣ים וְשָׂרֵ֣י הַמַּחְלְק֣וֹת הַמְשָׁרְתִ֪ים אֶת־הַמֶּ֟לֶךְ וְשָׂרֵ֣י הָאֲלָפִ֣ים וְשָׂרֵ֣י הַמֵּא֡וֹת וְשָׂרֵ֣י כׇל־רְכוּשׁ־וּמִקְנֶה֩ ׀ לַמֶּ֨לֶךְ וּלְבָנָ֜יו עִם־הַסָּרִיסִ֧ים וְהַגִּבּוֹרִ֛ים וּֽלְכׇל־גִּבּ֥וֹר חָ֖יִל אֶל־יְרוּשָׁלָֽ͏ִם

(There are actually a handful of exceptions to the 1st rule I wrote above, when there are 5 words in the 2nd section, but each has a clear reason.)

After having written all that, I don’t see how it is relevant to the verse we are discussing:

וַיַּעֲשׂ֥וּ בָנָ֖יו ל֑וֹ כֵּ֖ן כַּאֲשֶׁ֥ר צִוָּֽם - בראשית נ, יב

Sure, this verse, according to the above rules, could have been divided by a Zakef. Why does that matter?

וַיַּעֲשׂ֤וּ בָנָיו֙ ל֔וֹ כֵּ֖ן כַּאֲשֶׁ֥ר צִוָּֽם

If the verse would have been divided, as we would expect, on the word כֵּן, then the te’amim would have been one of these options:

וַיַּעֲשׂ֥וּ בָנָ֛יו ל֖וֹ כֵּ֑ן כַּאֲשֶׁ֖ר צִוָּֽם

Or:

וַיַּעֲשׂ֨וּ בָנָ֥יו ל֛וֹ כֵּ֖ן כַּאֲשֶׁ֥ר צִוָּֽם

Don’t see any musical difficulty with either of them.

Yitzhak

From: Mesorah <mesorah-bounces at lists.aishdas.org> On Behalf Of Rabbi Berysz Rosenberg via Mesorah
Sent: Thursday, 28 December 2023 3:58 PM
To: Yisrael Dubitsky <yidubitsky at gmail.com>
Cc: mesorah at aishdas.org
Subject: Re: [Mesorah] בראשית נ, יב

Indeed two of the pesukim have 10 words each, but one of them has 3 makafim and one even 4. So from the point of view of neginah it's sort of 6 and 7, rather than 10 words.

Rabbi Berysz Rosenberg

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Am Do., 28. Dez. 2023 um 15:41 Uhr schrieb Yisrael Dubitsky via Mesorah <mesorah at lists.aishdas.org <mailto:mesorah at lists.aishdas.org> >:

Perhaps Price's Concordance will have the list -- but i havent checked it.

but see Bereshit 10:13-17 for pesukim without an etnahta (among them 10-words-long pesukim).

On Thu, Dec 28, 2023 at 2:55 PM Akiva Miller via Mesorah <mesorah at lists.aishdas.org <mailto:mesorah at lists.aishdas.org> > wrote:

Aharon Gal wrote:

> Pasuk of this size could have used Zakef as the main dichotomy.

A pasuk without an esnachta?!? I've seen this only in the very shortest of pesukim. Az Yashir has two such cases (at 15:12 and 15:18), and they are both only four words long.

OOOPS! I just saw that Shemos 15:24 lacks any esnachta, and it is a whopping 7 words long.

Trivia question: Does anyone know which is the longest pasuk to lack an esnachta? For that matter, is there a pasuk anywhere that has two?

Akiva Miller

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