What Belongs in Your Siddur: a Dagesh or a Comma?
From Avraham Ben Yehuda, here.
Recently, I was privileged to be part of a fun yet esoteric discussion on matters of Hebrew grammar. First some background: there is a grammatical phenomenon in Biblical Hebrew known as “nasog ahor,” literally, “stepped back.” In certain words that are accented on the last syllable but have an earlier syllable that is open, then sometimes the accented is shifted to that earlier syllable if the proceeding, grammatically connected word is accented on one of its earlier syllables. Examples that many are familiar with include the blessing on the Torah, the word is ba-HAR, but when connected to the next word, BA-nu, it becomes “a-sher BA-har BA-nu.” Or on the blessing on the bread, the word would normally be ham-mo-TZI, but when connected to LE-hem it becomes ham-MO-tzi L-hem.
The second is a phenomenon that is often a consequence of the first, and it is not well known at all. “Athei me’rhiq,” lit. “coming from afar,” and is when a word ends with an open, unaccented syllable vowelized with a qamatz or segol is joined to the proceeding word that is accented on the first syllable, placing a dagesh in the first letter of that latter word. The fact that the first word’s last syllable is unaccented may be due to the “stepped back” phenomenon described above. Examples that come to mind from the recent Torah readings include Genesis 30:33, w’A-n’tha BI, in which the beth has a dagesh, and 31:12, O-seh LACH, in which the lamed has a dagesh.
While the nasog ahor phenomenon makes sense to me, and interestingly enough, has its parallels in spoken English, for instance, I do not understand the latter phenomenon, nor am I aware of any explanation among the various authorities. However, based on the theories I outline in my book, (see the tab above) I can tolerate why this phenomenon of basically closing the final syllable of the first word, would happen only with the segol or qamatz. The segol is a t’nu’a q’tana, a minor or short vowel, and the only t’nu’a q’tana that occurs in open, accented syllables that end words, making it more versatile than the patah, the only other minor vowel that occurs in open or accented syllables, and because it does not have a natural semivowel at its end (the Y sound at the end of the long E and A sounds, or the W at the end of long O or U sounds), closing its syllable does not result in an unaccented consonant cluster, which as explicated by Gesenius, is not allowed. As for the qamatz, it is the only t’nu’a g’dola, major vowel, that does not have have a natural semivowel conclusion, and once again closing its syllable does not result in the formation of a consonant cluster, although this would then require us to explain why an ordinary qamatz is treated like the other major vowels if it is lacking this essential feature.
Like every rule, athei mer’hiq has its exceptions. For example, this week we read A-sa LO in Genesis 37:3 , and in that case, the lamed should have a dagesh, but it does not, or in 1:5, QA-ra LAY-la, and once again the lamed should have a dagesh, but it does not.
Last week, Dr. Marc Shapiro, k’darko baqodesh and blogs, released another must-read article on the Seforim blog. In it he made the following point:
In the ArtScroll siddur, p. 86 it reads:
ועל מאורי אור שעשית, יפארוך, סלה
There is a dagesh in the ס of סלה. This means that the comma after יפארוך is a mistake, as you cannot place a dagesh in this ס if preceded by a comma.
Dr. Shapiro’s assumptions in this matter are that the samech of sela receives a dagesh because of the athei me’rhiq rule, meaning that the previous word, y’fa-a-RU-cha, must be connected to it, and therefore it would be wrong to have a comma between the words. If there were a comma, then the samech would not receive a dagesh. It is then that I took issue with his argument, and wrote the following to him:
Actually you can have a dagesh. For example, אַ֭שְׁרֵי יֽוֹשְׁבֵ֣י בֵיתֶ֑ךָ ע֝֗וֹד יְֽהַלְל֥וּךָ סֶּֽלָה.
This is a well-known verse from the psalms.
From Avraham Ben Yehuda, here.