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What is the correct ניקוד (and concomitant translation) of the word שתכלה in the phrase

עד שתכלה רגל מן השוק


Is it תִכְלֶה, which would be קל or תִכָּלֶה, which would be נפעל?

Does this difference also determine which of two similar שרשים is in effect?

(I linked to the Shulchan Aruch for ease of finding on the page even though it is quoting from a much earlier source.)

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Would this distinction have halachic ramifications? Maybe the former is more like "until everyone goes home" and the latter is more like "until everyone is sent home," and the latter only starts when it's no longer safe or practical to be out (later than the former standard)? –  Isaac Moses Nov 30 '10 at 20:09
I don't think it would have legal ramifications since 1) mostly everyone holds that these days this timeframe is an absolute, independent of people's habits and 2) that would be hard to justify in light of רבה בר בר חנה's opinion in the גמרא. –  WAF Nov 30 '10 at 20:23

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Tichle (kal) makes sense to me, as does the pual t'chule, as in "vaychulu hashamayim". I don't know of any word tikale (nif'al), though that doesn't, of course, mean one doesn't exist.

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How would you translate the phrase precisely? –  WAF Dec 2 '10 at 3:10
"Until the foot is detached from the thigh". No, seriously: If, as I suspect, it's tichle, then "until legs[1] will cease from the [ shuk [2] ]". Notes: [1] "Legs" I wrote in plural like many singular-form plurals in Hebrew indicating large quantities. Maybe a better translation is "each leg" or something, though. [2] I don't know how to translate shuk. –  msh210 Dec 2 '10 at 6:26
msh210, "shuk" is "marketplace." Not "shok." –  Shalom Dec 2 '10 at 14:20
R'Shalom, the shok = leg thing was a joke. I wasn't (and am not) sure whether shuk has an extended meaning of "the outdoors". It seems like it might, based on how it's used (like here and in harbe yosef ika b'shuka (though that's Aramaic, not Hebrew)). –  msh210 Dec 2 '10 at 16:41
The *shok*=leg thing may have been a joke, but I wonder whether there are any acharonim who interpret a remez along those lines. –  Chanoch Dec 3 '10 at 5:28

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