Sunday, December 16, 2007

The Trup On Asher Kana Avraham

A question on the Yahoo Leining Group about two pesukim with similar words but different trup, both in parshat Vayechi.

The answer for why the trup would differ is that there is a slight shift in a phrase, la`achuzat kever, to earlier in the verse. Based on William Wickes, trup is a continuous dichotomy, subdividing phrases and subphrases so long as a subphrase has at least three words in it, and the specific trup used to divide the subphrase is dependent on the disjunctive trup at the end of that phrase. Lengthen the phrase or shorten it, and naturally different words will get the particular signs. But it does not really matter, since the disjunctive trup on a given word is not an absolute mark of pause, but rather relative to the overall continuous dichotomy in the verse.

The first pasuk is in Bereishit 49:30:
בַּמְּעָרָ֞ה אֲשֶׁ֨ר בִּשְׂדֵ֧ה הַמַּכְפֵּלָ֛ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר עַל־פְּנֵֽי־מַמְרֵ֖א בְּאֶ֣רֶץ כְּנָ֑עַן אֲשֶׁר֩ קָנָ֨ה אַבְרָהָ֜ם אֶת־הַשָּׂדֶ֗ה מֵאֵ֛ת עֶפְרֹ֥ן הַֽחִתִּ֖י לַֽאֲחֻזַּת־קָֽבֶר׃

The trup tree for the second half of the pasuk is pictured to the right:


The second pasuk is Bereishit 50:13.
וַיִּשְׂא֨וּ אֹת֤וֹ בָנָיו֙ אַ֣רְצָה כְּנַ֔עַן וַיִּקְבְּר֣וּ אֹת֔וֹ בִּמְעָרַ֖ת שְׂדֵ֣ה הַמַּכְפֵּלָ֑ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר קָנָה֩ אַבְרָהָ֨ם אֶת־הַשָּׂדֶ֜ה לַֽאֲחֻזַּת־קֶ֗בֶר מֵאֵ֛ת עֶפְרֹ֥ן הַֽחִתִּ֖י
עַל־פְּנֵ֥י מַמְרֵֽא׃
The picture to the right is its trup tree.

Though in both cases, we might want to draw an extra subdivision at the point of the telisha ketana.

Comparing the two pictures, we can see that in the second pasuk and picture, we separate off al-penei mamrei immediately. (That phrase was entirely absent from the first pasuk and picture.) This gives us the left branch, which is roughly parallel to the first picture. However, what is branched off immediately in the first pasuk in laachuzat kaver. Thus, in the first picture this has been taken care of, but that same phrase is still in the middle of the second picture.

But then, in the second picture, and the first, we branch off mei'eis efron hachiti. Then, in the second picture, we still have laachuzat kever to branch off.

In general, to give a sense of what we are doing: in both instances, we have a long half-pasuk, and in both cases, they end with a bunch of PPs, that is, Prepositional Phrases. We simply repeatedly, recursively branch them off as the right branch, until we branch off no more.

As to the specific trup in play, that is secondary, and is purely a function of the trup at the end of the phrase. And since there is one extra level of branching, because of the additional Prepositional Phrase (al penei mamrei), the relative trup chosen to designate the subdivision is one deeper level.

That is why in the first pasuk the revii was on hasadeh, while on the second one the revii was on the achuzat-kever. In both instances, it marked the same level of division in the tree, based on the number of PPs. And similarly for the rest of the trup, as we branch down lower.

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