Talk:Yosef Qafih
The translation kapach is a lot more common amoungst ashkenazim. 203.214.151.141 23:55, 12 August 2007 (UTC) Qafih is much closer to how he pronounced his own name. Same goes with his family and the majority of his students. Accuracy in Hebrew pronunciation was important to him, and continues to be something unique among Yemenite Jews. He would've loved for Ashkenazim to have learned from this. Indeed, there are great Ashkenazi posqim who themselves called for Ashkenazim to improve their pronunciation of Hebrew.
R. Avraham Yishaq Hakohen Kook, (the leading Ashkenazi Rabbi in this country 70 years ago), states that "the essential aspect of any pronunciation is the distinction it provides between letters and vowels, and in this respect the Sepharadi pronunciation cannot equal the Ashkenazi, and even more so the Yemenite pronunciation which is superior to both, in that it differentiates more than the other two..." (Orah Mishpat p. 20).
The words of R. Ya'aqov Kaminetzky (in a letter of approbation to the book Safa Berura on the subject of the pronunciation of Hebrew, reprinted in the excellent book Qosht Imre Emeth, on the same subject, p.14): "It is very important to clarify the truth...I know that many will say 'Who is this person who wishes to introduce new things [pronunciations] such as these? As a certain person once said to me after I pointed out to him that our pronounciation of the undotted daleth is plainly incorrect [as explained above]: 'Do you imagine that the Hidushe HaRim [a great Tora sage of the last century] did not read Shema properly?' I replied that he certainly performed his obligation b'diavad. It is also possible that he himself read it entirely correctly, but could not influence the conduct of the entire community...But if only a few will pay heed [to what you have written], it will have been worthwhile".