Friday, September 11, 2009

The trup on the big nose

Here is a short post on Nitzavim. The pasuk reads:

כג וְאָמְרוּ, כָּל-הַגּוֹיִם, עַל-מֶה עָשָׂה יְהוָה כָּכָה, לָאָרֶץ הַזֹּאת; מֶה חֳרִי הָאַף הַגָּדוֹל, הַזֶּה.23 even all the nations shall say 'Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger?'

Shadal notes something interesting about the trup on this pasuk, as pictured to the right. The disjunctive accent which separates a clause ending in tipcha is the tevir. And it is placed on "Chori".

Thus, the division is:
מֶה חֳרִי || הָאַף הַגָּדוֹל

Shadal thinks that the disjunctive accept would be better placed upon the word haaf. Thus:
מֶה חֳרִי הָאַף || הַגָּדוֹל

The difference between the two is as follows. In the former, ha`af hagadol is a unit, and there is chori of that. Thus, "what is the heat of this great anger", as was rendered in the JPS translation above.

In the latter, chori ha`af is the unit, and hagadol is modifying it. Thus, one would translate it, "what is this great heat of anger."

2 comments:

Rabbi Joshua Maroof said...

Not to be prudish, but I noticed that the titles of several recent Frum Satire/Jewish Comedy posts have been somewhat inappropriate and for "adults only" audiences. You might consider removing it from your blogroll since it otherwise displays objectionable content prominently next to your posts.

joshwaxman said...

thanks. i'll think about how to handle this; maybe move it to my other blogroll without titles for a while.

to his credit, he says that he's *not* going to do that... ;)

kol tuv,
josh

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