Torah Reading: Mistakes
Question
During laining today of Parashat Behar, the baal koreh read the word "בארצך" with a sheva under the tzadi, instead of a segol. The gabbai corrected him, but did he have to, as the meaning of the word regained the same? וְלִ֨בְהֶמְתְּךָ֔ וְלַֽחַיָּ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר בְּאַרְצֶ֑ךָ תִּהְיֶ֥ה כׇל־תְּבוּאָתָ֖הּ לֶאֱכֹֽל׃ (ויקרא כ"ה: ז)
Answer
Shalom!
Thank you for your question!
There is always much tension on the issue of when it is appropriate to correct the Baal Koray, the Torah reader.
On the one hand, some sources teach that one should never correct the Baal Koray if doing so will embarrass him but on the other hand the Rambam (Hilchot Tefilla 12:6) and the Shulchan Aruch (OC 142:1) rule that even small errors should be corrected.
As you correctly note, common custom is only to correct the Baal Koray when the mistake made changes the meaning of the word (Rema, OC 142:1). In the event that the Baal Koray omitted a letter from a word, but the omission does not change the meaning of the word, one is not required to repeat the word or the verse. (Mishna Berura 142:4). In your case, there is indeed a difference between a segol and a sheva and it was proper for the Gabbai to correct him since a segol is plural form and shevoh is singular form.
It is worth adding that the Torah should always be read with the traditional tune, known as the “trop.” If, for whatever reason, the one reading the Torah does not know the trop for the reading, it is permissible to have someone stand beside him and whisper the notes to him as the appear in a chumash. (Mishna Berura 142:8). Ultimately, however, the Torah reading is acceptable, b’dieved, if it was read without the trop. (OC 142:2)
There is a fascinating custom cited in the Beit Yosef (OC 142) of saying the verse “v’hu rachum y’chaper avon… (He the merciful one is forgiving of iniquity…)” after the Shabbat morning Torah reading to atone for any errors that might have been made in the course of the Torah reading. This custom is no longer practiced today.