Who's agitating my dots?

(מ"ג:כ"ו)

וַיָּבֹא יוֹסֵף הַבַּיְתָה וַיָּבִיאּוּ לוֹ אֶת הַמִּנְחָה

Any explanations available on the anomalous דגש in the א of ויביאו ?
It appears not.

(From) the Fats of the Land

The ברכה to יעקב begins ויתן לך האלהים מטל השמים ומשמני הארץ כ"ז:כ"ח. One might be tempted to translate the last phrase as "from the fats of the land," with the מ"ם as a prefix meaning "from." However, if that were the case, there should be a דגש in the שי"ן. But there is not. It therefore seems to be that the מ"ם is in fact part of the word - משמן. The same would apply in עשו's ברכה in פסוק ל"ט although it is harder to understand in context there.

 MG said...

The Minchas Shai brings down old manuscripts that in fact did have a dagesh in the shin, then dismisses these versions. He quotes the Eben Ezra and the Radak who both say that the "מ" of "מטל" applies to both words, implying that the "מ" of "משמני" is not one of שימוש. Then he quotes the Chizkuni who seems to imply that the "מ" is indeed a שימוש here.
עיין שם.

November 22, 2009 9:31 PM

Bigsan and ...

This post will probably be of little interest to those who lain in הברה ספרדית.

I'm not sure why but this year, my "pet peeve" energies have been spent on the widespread misconception that מרדכי was אסתר's uncle. It states explicitly twice that they were cousins but everyone seems to teach that he was her uncle. (Also see this article on the subject.)

Anyway, another part of the story the kids tend to know very well is that of Bigsan and Seresh. Now for the younger kids, it is always a challenge to remember the difference between Seresh and Zeresh, Haman's wife. But it doesn't have to be that hard!

The geniuses at Kol Rom have just released [many years ago] Megillas Lester, a brilliantly executed 3D-animated film revolving around the story of the מגילה. They put up a number of fascinating behind the scenes video and one of them discusses where they went specifically with חז"ל and when artistic license was used. He discusses something that never occurred to me. The name of the second guard was actually Teresh. It never appears that way in the מגילה because it is always preceded by a וי"ו. I've included the video below (jumping to the important part):

Exceptions Ahoy!

In general, the first letter of a word beginning with בג"ד כפ"ת will usually have a דגש. However, if the word is connected to the word preceding it and that word ends with a vowel sound, the דגש is removed. The letters that are capable of producing a vowel sound are א, ה, ו, י. I've always found AHOY to be the easiest mnemonic for this rule. There are two exceptions to this rule in the תורה and both are found in this week's פרשה. In fact, they are both in אז ישיר.

The first is טו:יא מִי-כָמכָה בָּאֵלִם ה', מִי כָּמכָה נֶאְדָּר בַּקּדֶשׁ. The first מִי-כָמכָה follows the rule. The second does not. מנחת שי cites two reasons for this. First, he says that since the name מיכה is the name of an עבודה זרה, it is not proper for the name to "appear" to be mentioned next to השם's name which it would if you were not to pause sufficiently between מי and כמכה. The second reason is an allegorical explanation in the name of ר' יוסף קרא. [Perhaps there is a difference between the two as to whether or not one should bother to go back if they slip up. According to the first approach, once you've said it, it's pretty much too late. But perhaps according to the second approach you do accomplish something by going back. Nevertheless, this should NOT be corrected in shul.]

The second example is טו:טז בִּגְדל זְרוֹעֲךָ יִדְּמוּ כָּאָבֶן. It should be כָאָבֶן. Once again, according to מנחת שי, we are afraid of an improper stringing of words. Without the דגש, it might sound like יִדְּמוּךָ אָבֶן, which would essentially be stating that a rock is comparable to חס ושלום ,השם. And while we are dealing with this particular phrase and the significance of the דגש, it is important to note - as pointed out to me by a reader - that the דגש in the דל"ת makes the accompanying שוא נע extremely important. Yidmu would be a word denoting similarity but the proper pronunciation - yidemu - denotes silence.

MG said...

The Mesorah Gedolah in Daniel perek 5 lists all the exceptions to the "AHOY" rule. In "Az Yashir" you have the two you mention plus 3 more: "Ga'oh Ga'ah" which appears twice (once in the Shira and once by Miriam) and also "Am zu Ga'alta" where the Gimmel has a dagesh even though it shouldn't. The Minchas Shai explains this last one as needing a dagesh because without a dagesh one might confuse the shoresh as being from the word "M'Go'al" which is derogatory.

DECEMBER 16, 2008 12:11 AM

Do you Sea what I Sea

This particular issue presents itself twice on שמחת תורה. First, in וזאת הברכה ל"ג:י"ט and then in בראשית. On days 3, 4 and 5 we find the word ימים. But there is, of course, a very important difference. In וזאת הברכה and on days, 3 and 5, the word is יַמִּים with a פתח, meaning seas. On day 4, the word is יָמִים with a קמץ. This is easily overlooked and a very important distinction. En garde!

(I know someone is going to point out the דגש in יַמִּים but, as I have mentioned before, since for the most part, most בעלי קריאה do not precisely differentiate, I don't include that as a significant difference. Nevertheless, for those who lain in הברה ספרדית with little or no differentiation between קמץ and פתח, it might be a good idea to use the דגש to differentiate.)