Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 20/01/2004 12:55, Jason Hare wrote:

> ...
>
> I just opened my siddur (Siddur Qol Ya'akov -- Artscroll) and found the
> first appearance of the Rafe over a letter. Its first appearance is on page
> 2 in the beginning of the atifat talit (donning of the tallis).
>
> "Bar'chi nafshi et haShem, haShem elokai gadalta me'od, hod v'hadar
> lavashta. Oter or casalmah, noteh shamayim kayriah."
>
> The rafe appears over the resh of "bar'chi" to indicate that it is NOT
> borchi (with a closed first syllable and a silent shva). What it represents
> is that we have bar'chi (long vowel kamets, with a vocal shva and aspirated
> kaf).
>
>  
This is a quote from Psalm 104:1-2. It is interesting that in BHS there 
is a hataf patah in place of the sheva here (also in 103:1,2) which has 
the same disambiguating effect. But no rafe. In the L codex there is 
also no rafe on the resh (although there is rafe on the kaf according to 
normal practice), but interestingly enough there is a simple sheva in 
103:2, and in 103:1 and 104:1 it looks like there is a simple sheva and 
also, quite separately and a little higher up so just inside the body of 
the resh, a horizontal line which looks like patah or rafe, and which 
also looks a bit like an afterthought. Is this perhaps not really a 
hataf patah but some other mark?

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/