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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] "extra" patach in Ex 20,3 / Deut 5,7 ?

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  • From: Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
  • To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] "extra" patach in Ex 20,3 / Deut 5,7 ?
  • Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2006 01:12:47 +0200

Dear Gary,

What you've stumbled on is the double-pointing of the Decalogue, in both it's Exodus and Deuteronomy versions. Both have two sets of cantilation marks - one, known as the "lower" (ta'am tahton), divides the text into verses in the standard way. The other, known as "upper" (ta'am 'elyon), divides the text so that each "commandment" is a single, distinct, unit. For example, in Ex. 20, vss. 8-11 in the lower are all one big "verse" (the fourth commandment) in the upper. For this reason, the word "leqaddesho" in verse 8 has both a sof-pasuq ("verse-end") for the "lower" and a revi'i for the "upper". In some cases, the change in accent causes a change in vowel, from short to long. Not just in "panay". Look at the first "mittahat" in vs. 4. In the BHS print, The tav has both a qamatz and a patah.

The reason for all of this is "ritual". In the public reading of the ten commandments in the synagogue on Shavu'ot, which is considered to be the anniversary of the giving of the Torah, the section is read so that each commandment is a single unit, thus sort of "recreating" the original Sinai event. Some printed Hebrew Bibles (like BHS), superimpose both sets of marks on the same text. Others simply ignore the "upper". Yet others reprint the Decalogue in an appendix at the end of the volume.

Yigal Levin


----- Original Message ----- From: "Gary Martin" <garmar AT u.washington.edu>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 19, 2006 8:29 PM
Subject: [b-hebrew] "extra" patach in Ex 20,3 / Deut 5,7 ?


Can anyone provide documentation for this phenomenon of double pointing
(vowels and accents) on the same letter in panay of Exod 20,3-4 (also
mitaxat) and Deut 5,7? Does it occur in places outside these two parallel
texts? Any leads to relevant discussions/literature would be much
appreciated.



Thanks!



Gary Martin

Ph.D. Candidate, Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Near and Middle Eastern
Studies

University of Washington, Seattle



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