Illustration Credit: Elad Lifshitz, Dov Abramson Studio



Most Hebrew letters—except some at the ends of words—have (nekudot, vowels) under or above them. But sometimes you get a letter that has no vowel at all! Check out this word from the first aliyah in this week’s parashah:

In this first Hebrew word (va-tirena), what sound is attached to the aleph? Not the segol (the “eh” sound); that is under the reish. Not the kamatz (the “ah” or “aw” sound); that is under the final nun. The answer is: there is no sound! The aleph is just blank and not pronounced at all. Meaning, the word might as well be written like this:

So why is the aleph there, and why does it matter? Well, actually it matters quite a lot! That aleph lets us know that the word is part of the three-letter שֹׁרֶשׁ (shoresh, root) י.ר.א, which means to fear, or to have great respect for someone. That shows that this phrase means: “The midwives feared God.” Shifrah and Puah, the women responsible for helping the Israelite women give birth in Egypt, wouldn’t follow Pharaoh’s command to kill the baby boys, because they were afraid of God and respected God more than this wicked, earthly king.

But there’s more: It is so important to get it right and not to put any sound under this aleph. Because if you make the slightest change, you could end up with this:

Look at the difference:

Saying that Shifrah and Puah saw God instead of fearing God means something totally different. So putting in the aleph without a sound is super important for getting the meaning right! Next time you see a letter without a vowel, it might be there for a very good reason!

-------------------

Click here to return to the Table of Contents for Parashat Shemot from Devash

-------------------