Richard Steiner, Kol Nidre - Yeshiva University Blogs

32Richard C. Steinersaying “from this Yom Kippur to (next) Yom Kippur,coming upon us—all of them I shall/hereby regret,” 107 and(that) he wrote that that is the true (version), and (that) hewho says “from last Yom Kippur” is committing anerror....Here, too, the word for “regret” is expressed by a participle, but inthis case the stem of the participle is itpaʿal rather than qal.In short, it seems that the prospective reading of Kol Nidre gaveאִ‏ יחָ‏ רַ‏ ט (1) ‏:אִ‏ תְ‏ חָ‏ רַ‏ טְ‏ נָא/אִ‏ יחָ‏ רַ‏ טְ‏ נָא rise to three different emendations ofדְּ‏ אִ‏ י־חָ‏ רִ‏ ‏(י)‏מִ‏ תְ‏ חָ‏ רַ‏‏.(מִ‏ שְׁ‏ תְּ‏ בַ‏ עְ‏ נָא to אִ‏ שְׁ‏ תְּ‏ בַ‏ עְ‏ נָא emendation of(attributed to Rashi), (2) טְ‏ נָא (attributed to Rabbenu Meir),and (3) טְ‏ נָא (attributed to Rabbenu Tam, by analogy with his4. Why Singular Participles?The emendations attributed to Rabbenu Tam raise several questions.Why did he not emend the perfects דַ‏ רְ‏ נָא)‏ ‏,נְ‏ , etc.) toimperfects נִ‏ שְׁ‏ תְּ‏ בַ‏ ע ‏,נִ‏ נְ‏ דַּ‏ ר)‏ etc.)? And even if he had some reason toנָדַ‏ רְ‏ נָא)‏ prefer participles, why did he decide to use singular participles“I shall vow,” מִ‏ שְׁ‏ תְּ‏ בַ‏ עְ‏ נָא “I shall swear,” etc.) instead of the expectedplural participles נָדְ‏ רִ‏ ינַן)‏ “we shall vow,” מִ‏ שְׁ‏ תַּ‏ בְ‏ עִ‏ ינַן “we shall swear,”etc.)? One obvious answer to both questions is phonetic. He may havewanted the emended verb forms to sound as much as possible like thetraditional forms of Kol Nidre. The change fromto דִּ‏ י נָדַ‏ רְ‏ נָא וְ‏ דִ‏ י מִ‏ שְׁ‏ תְּ‏ בַ‏ עְ‏ נָא involves only the first vowel or the firstconsonant of each verb and, hence, is far less acoustically salient thana change to דִּ‏ י נָדְ‏ רִ‏ ינַן וְ‏ דִ‏ י מִ‏ שְׁ‏ תַּ‏ בְ‏ עִ‏ ינַן would be. But why would RabbenuTam have wanted the emended forms to sound like the traditionalones? One possibility is that he felt that such a minimal change wouldbe less likely to provoke controversy. Another possibility, perhapsmore likely given what we know of Rabbenu Tam, is that he believedthat the oral reading tradition of Kol Nidre had become corruptedbefore his time through auditory errors (Hörfehler); hence, inattempting to reconstruct the original verb forms, he was obligated toassume that they sounded like the corrupt forms current in his time. 108אִ‏ שְׁ‏ תְּ‏ בַ‏ עְ‏ נָ‏ אדִּ‏ י נְ‏ דַ‏ רְ‏ נָא וְ‏ דִ‏ י אִ‏ שְׁ‏ תְּ‏ בַ‏ עְ‏ נָא107The participle מתחרטנא may refer either to future ab initio regret or, as B.Septimus suggests (oral communication), to a present declaration of regret (cf.Abudarham at n. 98 above).108I owe this second explanation to B. Septimus, who notes that Rabbenu Tamdid not shy away from controversy.http://www.biu.ac.il/JS/JSIJ/12-2013/Steiner.pdf