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From: martillo@ihuxt.UUCP (Yehoyaqim Shemtob Martillo)
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: Purim and Parschas Zachor
Message-ID: <327@ihuxt.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 14-Mar-84 19:08:14 EST
Article-I.D.: ihuxt.327
Posted: Wed Mar 14 19:08:14 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 15-Mar-84 01:37:43 EST
References: <1050@pegasus.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 33

The word zayin segol kaf segol resh almost occurs in the t"anak as the
pausal form zayin qamac kaf segol resh.  This is found in dibrei hayamim
rishon (1 Chronicles).  It is simply a man's name and has no relevance to
the discussion.  I have seen references to Hebrew dialectual
pronunciations in which cere and shwa na` were pronounced identically and
in which patax and segol were pronounced identically.  Obviously, this has
no relevance to current Ashkenazi mispronunciation.  But there is evidence
that Ashkenazim once used a different pronunciation.  In the Ashkenazi
yeshibot, students generally say mishnayos rather than the expected
mishnoyos.

If at one period the Ashkenazim used the alternate pronunciation I
described, they would not have distinguished between zayin shwa' na` kaf
patah resh and zayin cere kaf segol resh.  In order to make certain that
they would not make the error described in the Talmud in a previous
response, they might have been careful to pronounce (incorrectly and
purposefully) zayin segol kaf segol resh which could not be mistaken as
construct for zayin qamac kaf qamac resh.

Thus, the second reading is not really a correction of an error in which
case only the single word would be said but rather a purposeful
pronunciation error to teach us about the maxloqet (disagreement) which
eventually lead to the birth of Haman and to tell us what the proper
interpretation of the pasuq actually was.

By the way, Sefardi minhag is of course correct, and we do not read the
pasuq twice.

					Yehoyaqim Shemtob Martillo
					ATT Bell Laboratories
					Naperville, Illinois
					(312) 979-2410