The Statement: Bamidbar Perek 9:2 Veyaasoo Bnai Yisroel Es Hapasach Bemoado. And Bnai Yisroel will make the Pesach sacrifice in its proper time.

The Rule: One of the rules of pronunciation concerns the Taamim of Esnachta and Sof Posuk. If a word has as its Taam either of these two Taamim and the vowel sound on the accented syllable is either a Patach or a Segol, then these two vowel sounds will always be changed to a Kamatz.

The Question: In our Posuk the word Pesach is changed to Pasach. The Segol is changed to a Kamatz without an Esnachta or Sof Posuk as the Taam. In our case the Taam is a Tipcha and yet it changes the Segol to a Kamatz.

The Reason: Rav Yakov Kamenetzky in his Sefer Emes L'Yakov explains the reason for the Kamatz even though the Taam is not an Esnachta or a Sof Posuk. If the sentence does not contain an Esnachta to show a pause within the sentence, then the Esnachta is replaced by a Tipcha. The Tipcha in this instance is the biggest pause within the sentence. In this instance the Tipcha will also have the power to change the Segol to a Kamatz sound just as the Esnachta did.

To reach Rabbi Terebelo you can email him at the following address: mterebelo@juno.com