Man and Animal

Since, in my previous post, I had to drop one of my pet peeves, I figured it's time to bring another one to the forefront:

Most weeks, after שמונה עשרה of מנחה on שבת we recite the צדקתך exerpt consisting of three פסוקים. There is a common tune that is used by just about everyone to finish it off. I can't really repeat it in the form of a blog but I'm sure most of you are familiar with it. The problem is, that the tune tends to group the words as follows [אדם ובהמה] ...[תושיע ה]. This intonation implies rather foolishly that man and beast will save השם. Indeed, תושיע is in the singular. However, as we have discussed, that is not necessarily an indication of a singular subject. The proper way to say this would be to go high on the word תושיע which would group the words as follows: [אדם ובהמה תושיע] ...[ה].

Of course, those who daven נוסח ספרד will not encounter this problem as the three פסוקים are read in the reverse order.

Another similar issue is found at the end of the שיר של יום for Thursday. The last פסוק reads:

ויאכילהו מחלב חיטה; ומצור, דבש אשביעך

I'm not sure how common this mistake is but I know I was making it before someone pointed it out to me. It is not "I have satiated you from a honey rock" but rather "from a rock, I have satiated you with honey." Hence the necessary pause after the word ומצור.

(I guess it was kind of silly for me to post this right before two consecutive שבתות when צדקתך will not be recited.)