The difference between מְחַיֶּה and מְחַיֵּה in the second בְּרָכָה of the Amida

[lethargic_man]

This last year, I've been reading my way through Samson Raphael Hirsch's commentary on the Torah. He talks quite a bit about the meanings of Hebrew words (though he often gets his etymological derivations completely wrong, writing either in ignorance of or before the advent of modern Hebrew philology); and something he mentioned in last week's sedra answered something I'd been wondering about for years:

The second benediction of the Amida focuses on תְּחִיַת הַמֵּתִים the resurrection of the dead. (Indeed, it mentions it no fewer than five times, which would be good evidence, even if the Talmud didn't tell us so, that at the time the benediction reached its present form, rabbinical Judaism had a problem with other denominations—the Saduccees and Boethusians—denying the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead.) However, the בְּרָכָה makes use of two grammatical forms, מְחַיֶּה and מְחַיֵּה. What is the difference between them?

As I understand it, the vowel on the last letter of the root of a verb turns to a סֶגוֹל when that root letter is a ה, which indicates that מְחַיֶּה is the correct present participle. So what, then, is מְחַיֵּה?

From Hirsch's writing about another word using the same grammatical form, I now understand that מְחַיֶּה is the verb form ("bringing life"), and מְחַיֵּה the noun ("bringer of life").

Another of my incredibly finicky questions about Hebrew grammar answered. Thanks, R. Hirsch!

Comments

resurrection

[michaelkoplow]

My reading of this was (and is) that the version with the tsere is the semichut. This is consistent with the text, and Occamly simpler. Which doesn't mean it's right.

Re: resurrection

[lethargic_man]

Yes, I did consider that beforehand. Can't remember or work out now why I rejected it as a solution. Possibly just insufficient grammatical knowledge on my part.

Now, what do you make of the vowels in this position in עֹשֶׂה שָׁלוֹם (as in עֹשֶׂה שָׁלוֹם בִּמְרוֹמָיו) versus עוֹשֵׂה הַשָּׁלוֹם? Either theory explains the difference, but neither well.

PS re verbs

[michaelkoplow]

Forgot to add--if this is a question of semichut, it has nothing to do with participles. *Mehhayeh* is a participle here being used as a noun (if it weren't being used as a noun, this semichut stuff wouldn't make sense). Compare *ma'aseh* with a segol and *ma'aseh* with a tsere.

Again, I'm not at all sure I'm right about this.