12 votes
Accepted

Are these vowels?

Based off your comments, I have concluded that the symbols you are seeing are helpful aids that have been put in the Sefaria Siddur, apparently based on the Metsuda Siddur. The three dots are to ...
robev's user avatar
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9 votes
Accepted

What rule governs the varying nikkud in words מִשְׁתֶּה and מִשְׁתֵּה?

When משתה is in construct state it has a tzere instead of a segol and would mean "drinking-party of" instead of just "drinking-party".
Double AA's user avatar
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8 votes
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Why are there varying vowels on proper nouns in Megillas Ester?

There are grammatical rules in general, but for your case: It's always שושַן הבירה, otherwise שושָן. It's always מרדכַי except on an esnachta, sof pasuk, or in exactly one case a zakeif katon ויגידו ...
Heshy's user avatar
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8 votes
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Hebrew/Aramaic names with Nekudot for Mishna Tractates

Here are the mishnayos (and their titles) with nikud, based on the Kaufmann manuscript from "late 11th - mid-12th c.".
WAF's user avatar
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7 votes

Gemara text with Nekudos

Depending on which tractate you're looking for, you could try Tuvia's who also makes his texts available online for free at e-daf.com. (It's one of the "size" options in the dropdown. Note: they don't ...
Loewian's user avatar
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7 votes

Why are there varying vowels on proper nouns in Megillas Ester?

מרדכי takes a Kamatz when it is on a hard pause (same as most nouns that have a patach or segol on the primary stress). שושן takes a Patach when it is attached to הבירה (same as any noun ending in a ...
Double AA's user avatar
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7 votes

Vowels in tefilat Hashachar

This kind of vowelization doesn't appear anywhere in the Tanach, because nouns in semichut, or which mark possession, can never have a definite article in front of them. Dayan Levi Yitzchak Raskin, ...
b a's user avatar
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7 votes

In Parshas Chukas, why is first mention of Parah Adumah "פָרָה" instead of "פָּרָה"?

Generally, when a word ends in a vowel sound, without a pausal cantillation note on that word, the first letter in the next word loses its dagesh. Usually, the rule is stated in terms of the previous ...
Isaac Moses's user avatar
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6 votes
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What is the dot in this vav?

It's a Dagesh Forte which indicates gemination of the consonant "w". So the word would be read something like Yiwwadha' with a prolonged /w/ sound. The word is in passive future third-person ...
Double AA's user avatar
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6 votes

Difference in Nikkud for לא כי in Torah and Mishna

The letters בגדכפת take a Dagesh Kal at the start of a word, unless they follow a word ending in אהוי. There are four major exceptions to this rule when the Dagesh Kal is there even after a word ...
Double AA's user avatar
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6 votes

Are there "don't read X but Y" that differentiate between Tzere and Segol or Patach and Kamatz?

If you're willing to accept a drasha that doesn't explicitly use the words אל תקרי, then Shekalim 6:6 should qualify: זֶה מִדְרָשׁ דָּרַשׁ יְהוֹיָדָע כֹּהֵן גָּדוֹל, (ויקרא ה) אָשָׁם הוּא אָשֹׁם ...
Heshy's user avatar
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5 votes

What are the reasons or rules for the different variations in vowels on the Tetragrammaton?

The divine name YHVH is always an instance of Qere and Ketiv. The convention used for representing Qere and Ketiv is to give the consonants of the written word but point the consonants with the vowels ...
paquda's user avatar
  • 4,881
5 votes

Etnachta on גֶשם vs. גָשם

The word גשם occurs at an etnachta only in Prov 25:23, where it has a kamatz. It occurs at a sof pasuk four times (1 Kings 18:41, 18:44, Zech 14:17, Eccl 12:2), each time with a kamatz. All ...
magicker72's user avatar
  • 9,777
5 votes

Why דָּת in Esther but דַּת in kidushin?

Shadal, while commenting on the word זמרת in Exodus 15:2, discusses cases where there is a kamats instead of the expected patach (or other reduction) in smikhut. The cases he mentions are: Isaiah 11:...
magicker72's user avatar
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5 votes
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Penultimate stress of אתה

The words אתה and עתה both have "minor" pausal forms אַ֔תָּה and עַ֔תָּה, that occur only at lesser disjunctives: tipḥa x5, zaqef qaton x23, pashta x2, and revi'a x2; and in the poetic books:...
magicker72's user avatar
  • 9,777
4 votes

Can we teach reading Hebrew without using the full names of the letters and vowels?

I read the following in the introduction to the Eizer L'Seifer Movo Likrio, which is the aid to the original book Sefer Movo Likrio, which is used in Lubavitch cheiderim to teach small children the ...
ezra's user avatar
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4 votes

Aleph with a Dagesh

In his book on Tiberian Hebrew (pp. 135ff), Geoffrey Khan suggests that in fact, the dot in the aleph is to be pronounced as a doubling of the consonant, not simply as a sign that the aleph should be ...
Argon's user avatar
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4 votes
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Why do Torah scrolls not have vowels or Trope?

The vowels and cantillations are part of the Oral Torah, and were thus to be memorized and transmitted from generation to generation. Only when we (relatively recently) began writing down the Oral ...
Adám's user avatar
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4 votes
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What rule governs the nekuda under the words אֶת and אֵת?

If the word את has its own Taam (trop) then it will be אֵת - with צירי- But if it has no taam of its own, and is connected to the following word with a makaf (hyphen) then it will be אֶת - with a ...
RibbisRabbiAndMore's user avatar
4 votes

Origin of Nikkud signs names in Rabbinical literature

There's a really good paper by the great scholar Aron Dotan, called The Relative Chronology of Hebrew Vocalization and Accentuation (can be read for free after registration), where he discusses the ...
Kazi bácsi's user avatar
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4 votes

Why does Artscroll indicate that the מ of למנצח should have a שוע נע?

Rav Aharon Lopiansky, in his amazing siddur called Aliyos Eliyahu, has a section on the bottom called Mesores HaTefillah. There he explains the sources for the parts of the siddur, and variant ...
robev's user avatar
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4 votes

Are the vowel points part of the inspired word?

The answer is, yes and no. A Torah scroll or scroll of the prophets or miegilaos or other writings (those do exist, there is a tehilim scroll in the back room of the kotel cave) is always written ...
4 votes

Are the vowel points part of the inspired word?

The Idea in Brief The Masoretes from the 10th Century provided the codified system of system of vowel points and accent markings of the received Hebrew text. They assigned the vowels and accent marks ...
Joseph's user avatar
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4 votes
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Why is there no דגש in the ת in the word "וּכְתַבְתָּ֛ם"?

The correct verb form without the and should be: כְּתַבְתָּם – inscribe them. Although in second person plural the kamatz shortens to a sheva na, the tav won't receive a dagesh, because it doesn't ...
Kazi bácsi's user avatar
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4 votes
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Pausal form with a non-pausal cantillation mark

According to the article Exegesis and Pausal Forms with Non-Pausal Accents in the Hebrew Bible by Dr James D. Price, there are a few such examples. He lists: Munaḥ (prose books): Judg 9:36 (הִנֵּה־...
magicker72's user avatar
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4 votes
Accepted

How to automatically add nikud to a text?

I'm not sure what was so hard, as I googled "nikud" and this was the first result: http://www.nakdan.com/Nakdan.aspx?lang=eng
robev's user avatar
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3 votes

Gemara text with Nekudos

You can get 7 daf a week with nekudot on the dvar malchus from lubavitch as a PDF http://dvarmalchus.org/Download.aspx?History=True Online. The entire 7 year cycle. Scroll down towards the end of the ...
yosefkorn's user avatar
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3 votes

Dagesh for adornment

A shewa naʿ generally reflects a reduced vowel. The words you cite have a shewa naʿ where no originally short vowel existed. For example, we find מִקְדָּשׁ but in Shemot 15:17 we have מִקְּדָֿשׁ. We ...
Argon's user avatar
  • 3,556
3 votes
Accepted

Koach hasabal or Koach hasevel

The form סַבָּל / sabbāl, meaning 'bearer of burdens', is based on Nehemiah 4:4: וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוּדָה כָּשַׁל כֹּחַ הַסַּבָּל וְהֶעָפָר הַרְבֵּה וַאֲנַחְנוּ לֹא נוּכַל לִבְנוֹת בַּחוֹמָה And ...
paquda's user avatar
  • 4,881
3 votes

shlichim / shluchim

See here (footnote 1): In their first endnote on the book Heilman and Friedman express surprise that Lubavitch emissaries are referred to as shluchim: “The precise Hebrew or Yiddish word for ...
Menachem's user avatar
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