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The viduy of the על חטא lists sins from alef to taf, yet the letter samech ס is switched to a sin ש. Why?

(Interestingly I noticed that in between sections of viduy we say סלח לנו מחל לנו כפר לנו, which is roshei teivos סמך. So the samech is there, but hidden.)

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    Many times ס and ש are interchanged. I feel like this question applied in more contexts. Most of the piyutim and selichos I've seen that are Alef beis use ש instead. It might just be practically more words start with ש than ס – robev Oct 01 '17 at 16:35
  • ברנו ממצוותיך ולא שוה לנו – kouty Oct 01 '17 at 20:30

1 Answers1

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Many acrostic piyutim interchange ס with שׂ because of their sound being the same. I suppose it is because the author could not find a fitting word that began with ס. One example of this would be in the prayer "L'chai Olamim", in which the line for ס goes:

.הַסִּגּוּי וְהַשֶּֽׂגֶב לְחַי עוֹלָמִים

Also in the prayer "Kel Adon" on Shabbat, the line for ס is replaced with a שׂ:

.שְׂמֵחִים בְּצֵאתָם וְשָׂשִׂים בְּבוֹאָם

These are just two examples, but it seems that it is quite common in acrostic prayers. So Vidui is not the only prayer which replaces ס with a שׂ in the acrostic.

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  • However, there's none that changes ט with ת or כ with ק or א with ע. A similar sound is not a reason to change. – Al Berko Sep 20 '18 at 11:06
  • @AlBerko Maybe not, but that's what they do. Let me ask you this - would you switch beit and veit? Shin and sin seem more like a difference between beit and veit and less like separate letters. – ezra Sep 20 '18 at 14:45
  • ב is a letter and it can take two forms, just as H2 (hydrogen) can have 2 forms gas and liquid. But H2 cannot change to C or N, just as ט cant change to ת or ס to ש. – Al Berko Sep 20 '18 at 15:36