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Why do some say “hagEfen”, while others say “hagAfen”? Any difference?

ninamag
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  • The body is a duplicate of the question linked by @Scimonster, and the title is a completely different question. Perhaps [edit] the body to flesh out the question in the title? – Isaac Moses Jun 02 '15 at 16:04
  • Are you asking why some have the custom of saying gefen and others have the custom of saying gafen? – Aaron Jun 02 '15 at 16:32
  • yes, why do some say gefen, and others gafen. – ninamag Jun 02 '15 at 17:45
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    Ashkenazim say GAFEN and Sefardim say GEFEN. I read that the reason why Sefardim say GEFEN is that they consider the amen (or l'chaim that they say) that follows the blessing to be a part of the blessing. Therefore, GEFEN is not the last word of the blessing and, as such, does not switch from GEFEN to GAFEN. – MichaelKatz Jun 02 '15 at 18:52
  • If you can follow the Hebrew, I very much recommend watching the following (very funny) video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw1p213qb0M that happens to peripherally deal with this question. – Nic Jun 02 '15 at 19:00
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    @MichaelKatz teimonim say jofan or gofen in your pronunciation – MoriDowidhYa3aqov Jun 02 '15 at 20:18
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    Related: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/13709/how-come-sepharadim-say-boreh-peri-hagefen-but-shelo-asani-aved – Scimonster Jun 02 '15 at 21:15

1 Answers1

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The reason that there is a custom of saying gafen and gefen is both a grammatical, as well as a historical one.

The Grammatical reason is that there is a vowel switch when Hebrew words are in "Pausal Form"

Words marked with either an athnah or a silluq, or followed by a sof pasuq are “in pause.” When a word is “in pause,” the vocalization is slightly changed. The change is manifested by minor changes in the vowels of the word. Note the following four changes that occur:

A qamats may change to a patah. For example, כָתָב becomes כָתַב.

A segol may change to a qamats in a segholate noun. For example אֶרֶץ becomes אָרֶץ.

Words with the accent on the final (tonic) syllable may shift accent to the previous (pretonic) syllable. For example, as the accent shifts כָתָבָה becomes כֳתְּבָה.

The 2nd person masculine singular pronominal suffix retracts. For example, לְךָ becomes לָךְ which is identical to the 2nd person female singular pronominal suffix form.

Source: http://gericlements.edublogs.org/files/2011/12/41-Hebrew-Pausal-Forms-283zm8f.pdf

However, this is unique to Biblical Hebrew and stops by the time of Mishnaic Hebrew as Aramaic had by then totally influenced the language. So therefore when blessings are instituted by the Rabbis, they are never in this pausal form. So originally, both Ashkenazim and Sephardim used to say בּוֹרֵא פְרִי הַגֶּפֶן.

This is attested to by The Ashkenazi Haggadah, which is the 15th-century manuscript by Joel ben Simeon.

Gefen

This is also attested in the Birds Head Haggadah, which is the oldest illuminated Ashkenazi haggadah in existence from the 1300s

Birds Head Haggadah Gefen Source: https://cja.huji.ac.il/browser.php?mode=set&id=1

As time went on, Ashkenazi scholars decided to make the Hebrew blessings more in line with biblical Hebrew, which would mean that since the word גֶּפֶן is at the end of the sentence, then its pausal form should be גָּפֶן. But the Sepharadim did not make these changes to their blessing, so it remained as it always was, גֶּפֶן.

Note: Recently Hacham Ovadia Yosef said that indeed גֶּפֶן is the correct spelling because according to him, the blessing does not end with גֶּפֶן, but rather it ends with אָמֵן, which means that גֶּפֶן does not need to take the pausal form.

Note: Yemenites also have a custom to say גָּפֶן. I'm ignorant as whether this was always their custom or whether they underwent recent grammatical changes as well.

Aaron
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    Why is Borei Peri Hagefen coming after Shehechiyanu and Hamavdil in the Hagada? – Double AA Jun 02 '15 at 20:12
  • No idea. But i think you can search through the entire manuscript here http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=19214 if it would help. If the whole manuscript isn't there, let me know because i own a facsimile and can share it with you – Aaron Jun 02 '15 at 20:20
  • @Aaron. Thanks for the great answer! Based on this answer, is there something wrong with this last sentence. "Recently Hacham Ovadia Yosef said that indeed גֶּפֶן is the correct spelling because according to him, the blessing does not end with גֶּפֶן, but rather it ends with אָמֵן, which means that גֶּפֶן does not need to take the pausal form." (If the blessing does not end with gefEn, then gefEn needs to take the pausal form, which is gAfen?) – ninamag Jun 03 '15 at 06:19
  • does a word being in pausal form mean, the word in question is at the end of the blessing, or that the word in question is not at the end of the blessing? – ninamag Jun 03 '15 at 07:13
  • @ninamag So, the last word of a sentence/statement takes the pausal form in Hebrew. If it's not the last word, it does not take the pausal form. According to Ovadia Yosef, the blessing over wine does not end with the word gefen, the blessing ends when people respond amen. So since the last word of the blessing is actually Amen, then according to him, Amen should take the pausal form, not gefen. Personally, i think he's just trying to protect a Sephardi minhag. And i have no idea if the word Amen even has a pausal form – Aaron Jun 03 '15 at 19:24
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    You have examples of pause backward (pataḥ becomes qamats, כתְבה becomes כתָבה). Regarding pausal forms in Mishanic Hebrew: we have plenty! Just look for verbs spelled with an "extra" vav. But without surviving vocalisation from the Mishnaic Period, what makes you so sure that segol-qamats pausal didn't survive? – magicker72 Mar 09 '21 at 19:52
  • With the brachot seemingly out of order, and an additional pointing mistake (קדושה needs a dagesh in the ש), what makes this manuscript trustworthy? – magicker72 Mar 09 '21 at 19:56
  • @magicker72 if you want to find old Ashkenazi manuscripts from this time period and see the vocalization I would implore you to do so. – Aaron Mar 09 '21 at 20:01
  • @Aaron I don't disagree with your statement overall, but I'm not the one writing the answer. You're presenting this manuscript as evidence, so why did you choose this one? Why is it trustworthy, in spite of the visible issues? – magicker72 Mar 09 '21 at 20:13
  • @magicker72 I've added the oldest illuminated Ashkenazi Haggadah we have in existence, same vocalization of "gefen." – Aaron Mar 09 '21 at 21:34
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    I know this is late, but there are a couple of things wrong with the answer: A) In the pausal form, a Patach becomes a Kamatz, not the other way around. B) A character vowel cannot be adjacent to a Shva in Biblical Hebrew. I think you meant to write כָּתְּבָה with a Kamatz Kattan, not כֳּתְּבָה. – QwertyCTRL. Mar 11 '24 at 22:09