Reply To: Correct Pronunciation of Tav

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#979005
akuperma
Participant

simcha613: If Ha-Shem was fanatic about pronounciation, then Humash would have included a guide to pronounciation. From the fact that it didn’t, we can conclude that there is nothing wrong with diverse accents (and if you are fanatic about being a litvak, or a galicianer/southeast or a teimani, or whatever – you lose — HaShem approves of all Yidden no matter how they prounce ?).

Based on Shemos, the number of Jews in Egypt was about the same as the number of people in Brooklyn – and Brooklyn has at least a dozen major accents. Even among frum Jews, they don’t all speak English the same.

The people who get all snotty about accents are fools of bigots. Torah is NOT about whether you can distinguish between the absense of the dagesh is ? or ?, not to mention all the other issues.

And assuming the whole of the oral tradition was transmitted to Moshe on Sinai, that suggests something other than what we call “speech” (perhaps something like telepathy, since I doubt anyone could say and understand so much in the time allowed – remember you are talking about the total oral tradition including what we’ve forgotten over the millenia). Meaning, the download from Ha-Shem to Moshe probably didn’t involve the IPA and mispacing a dagest here and there.