Published November 16, 2009
B’reishit 18:25 - It would be sacrilege even to ascribe such an act to You - to kill the innocent with the guilty, letting the righteous and the wicked fare alike; it would be sacrilege to ascribe this to You! Shall the whole world’s Judge not act justly?’
That the last phrase of this pasuk ends with a question mark - or more accurately, with a question mark and an exclamation point - is indicated by the word HASHOFEIT. Notice that the HEI is voweled with a CHATAF-PATACH and that the SHIN consequently has no DAGESH in it. This is the characteristic of a HEI HASH’EILA, the questioning HEI - in contrast to the HEI HAYEDI’A, the declarative HE, which would have a PATACH under it and cause a DAGESH CHAZAK in the following letter (most of the time).
Whether the phrase is an actual question or - as in this case - a rhetorical question, an expression of incredulity, the HEI HASH’EILA is used.
Although we aren’t too particular about a SHIN with or without a DAGESH, occasionally, even we must be careful of the distinction: e.g. HAVEIN YAKIR LI…
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