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Lashon Hakodesh

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Lashon Hakodesh TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments 15 Introduction 21 Chapter 1: The Language of Adam 25 Chapter 2: The Tower of Babel 41 Chapter 3: Abraham the Hebrew 58 Chapter 4: The Jews in Egypt 86 Chapter 5: Replacing Lashon HaKodesh 102 Chapter 6: The Language Wars 131 Chapter 7: Foreign Influences on Lashon HaKodesh 156 Chapter 8: Development of Aramaic 175 Appendices: Appendix A: The Scripts of Lashon HaKodesh 187 Appendix B: Egyptian Names in the Bible 208 Appendix C: Prayers in Aramaic 220 Appendix D: Maharal on Aramaic and Lashon HaKodesh 234 Postscript 242 Biographical Index 245 Additions and Corrections 292 About The Author 323 CHAPTER 1: The Language of Adam ur study of the history of Lashon HaKodesh begins with the history of the world itself. The Mishnah teaches that God created the world with ten utterances.2 The Midrash adds that they were spoken in Lashon HaKodesh.3 On the sixth day of Creation, God brought humankind into existence.O Man’s first words recorded in the Torah were also in Lashon HaKodesh, for upon the creation of Eve, Adam declared: “[She is] bone from my bones, flesh from my flesh. This shall woman) because this was taken from ish ,אשה) be called isha man).”4 ,איש) LASHON HAKODESH AS THE LANGUAGE OF CREATION By this declaration, Adam named his mate “woman.” Only in Lashon HaKodesh is the word for “woman” related to the word for “man”; for in 2 Avos 5:1. 3 Bereishis Rabbah §18:4, §31:8. 4 Genesis 2:23. 26 LASHON HAKODESH: HISTORY, HOLINESS, & HEBREW -essen—(אשה) and “woman” is isha (איש) Lashon HaKodesh, “man” is ish tially the same word with one extra letter appended to it.5 The Midrash points out that in no other ancient language is the word for “woman” re- lated to the word for “man.” For example, in Greek, the word for “woman” is gini (γυναίκα), while the word for “man” is anthro (άνθρωπος); and in ”while the word for “man ,(אתתא) Aramaic, the word for “woman” is itssa 6.(גברא) is gavra THE TORAH WAS WRITTEN IN LASHON HAKODESH From this, the Midrash deduces that the Torah was originally writ- ten in Lashon HaKodesh. In other words, the current Lashon HaKodesh text of the Torah that we read regularly is the original, not merely a translation from some other language.7 Given that the Torah is the marks the אּשה of ש Ibn Ezra and Radak (to Genesis 2:23) point out that the dot inside the 5 They explain that it is .אישה should be spelled אּשה because technically ,י absence of the letter -her husband”). Accord“) אישּה in order to avoid confusion with the word י spelled without a ing to their explanation, the relationship between the Lashon HaKodesh words for “man” and “woman” is etymological. that the Hebrew word for (אנש .Interestingly, Radak writes elsewhere (Sefer HaShorashim s.v marks the ש and the dot inside the ,איש as opposed to אנש woman” is related to the root“ According to this explanation (which is preferred by academia), the .נ absence of the letter relationship between “man” and “woman” in Lashon HaKodesh is simply phonetic, rather than etymological. See D. Curwin, “ish and isha,” Balashon: Hebrew Language Detective (October 17, 2008) [http://www.balashon.com/2008/10/ish-and-isha.html]. 6 Abarbanel (to Genesis 2:23) adds that in the “Roman language” (i.e., Latin), male is masculus and female is foemineus. See Eitz Yosef (Bereishis Rabbah §18:4) who notes that the Midrash only felt the need to show that the words for “man” and “woman” are not related in Greek and Aramaic, because those are the most ancient and well-respected of languages. Therefore, the Midrash only sought to disprove the notion that the Torah was originally written in one of those languages and was then translated into Lashon HaKodesh. This answers the obvious question that in English, the words “woman” and “female” seem re- lated to the words “man” and “male.” However, since English is clearly a more recent language, one would not seriously think that the Torah was originally written in it. Furthermore, accord- ing to linguistics scholars, the word “woman” is not etymologically related to the word “man;” it evolved from the Middle English word wifmone (related to the Modern English word “wife”). The same is true of the English word “female,” which evolved from femelle and is not related to the word “male.” See “woman, n.,” Oxford English Dictionary Online 3rd ed. (Oxford University Press, June 2011), and “female, n. and adj.,” Oxford English Dictionary Online 3rd ed. (Oxford University Press, March 2012). 7 The Midrash (Bereishis Rabbah §31:8) also proves this point from the fact that Moses was com- manded to “make a snake” (Numbers 21:8), and, without explaining why, the Bible states that The Language of Ada 27 blueprint of the world,8 the fact that the Torah was written in Lashon HaKodesh supports the Midrash’s earlier claim that the world was cre- ated through Lashon HaKodesh. ADAM SPOKE LASHON HAKODESH This Midrash also implies that Adam himself spoke Lashon HaKodesh, for the starting point of the Midrash’s claims is the name that Adam gave his wife.9 Nonetheless, as we shall soon see, this idea is not univer- sally accepted. HOW DID ADAM KNOW LASHON HAKODESH? Indeed, Rabbi Yitzchak ben Moshe HaLevi Duran (1350–1415), also known as Efodi after his magnum opus, writes that God ingrained Lashon HaKodesh in Adam, making it an innate component of his na- ture.10 Rabbi Yitzchak Abarbanel (1437–1508) elaborates on this idea11 and explains that God did not teach the language itself to Adam. Rather, He imbued Adam with the intellectual ability to deduce the words of he “made a copper snake” (Numbers 21:9). The Midrash notes that in several other instances God commanded people to make objects, and each time He told them which material to use, yet God did not tell Moses to make the snake out of copper. If so, then how did Moses know what to do? The Midrash explains that Moses reasoned that the snake should be created out of a material that is similar to snakes, so he decided to make the snake out of copper, because -in Lashon HaKodesh is very similar to the word for “cop ,(נחש) the word for “snake,” nachash The Midrash deduces from this that the Torah was originally written in .(נחשת) per,” nechoshes Lashon HaKodesh, because in no other language is the word for “snake” related to the word for “copper.” (Interestingly, in English there is a connection between snakes and copper because of the “copperhead” snake.) 8 Before something is built, a blueprint is designed to record every detail of the future edifice, and then the blueprint is used to direct its construction. So too, the Torah contained the design of the entire creation. When God created the universe, He followed the plan recorded in the Torah. This is what the Zohar (Exodus 161a) means when it writes that God looked into the Torah and created the world. Similarly, Bereishis Rabbah §1:1 states in regard to the creation of the world that the Torah was the tool of God’s craft. Thus, the physical universe is a manifesta- tion of the Torah. Incidentally, this also explains why the Torah is so complex: it parallels the universe’s complexity. 9 In fact, Maharzu (Bereishis Rabbah §18:4) interprets this Midrashic passage’s ultimate goal as proving that Adam spoke Lashon HaKodesh (as opposed to proving that the world was created through Lashon HaKodesh). 10 Ma’aseh Efod (Vienna, 1865), pgs. 27, 29–31. 11 In his commentary to Genesis 2:19–20. 28 LASHON HAKODESH: HISTORY, HOLINESS, & HEBREW Lashon HaKodesh through his own capacities. This intellectual poten- tial, coupled with the fact that God spoke to Adam in Lashon HaKodesh, allowed Adam to instinctively develop fluency in it. Only after God in- stilled in Adam this ability to develop Lashon HaKodesh on his own was he deemed worthy of naming the animals.12 This is because, as shall be explained later, only the words of Lashon HaKodesh intrinsically reflect their meaning. Therefore, Adam had to know the language in order to give the most fitting names to the various entities. ADAM SPOKE ARAMAIC Although the sources above assume that Adam spoke Lashon HaKodesh, the Talmud clearly states that Adam’s spoken language was actually Aramaic,13 as if to reject the notion that he spoke Lashon HaKodesh. The Talmud proves this from a verse in Psalms ascribed to to me are Your thoughts, God.”14 (יקר ,Adam: “How honorable (yakar In this verse, the Aramaic word for “honorable,” yakar, is used instead If Adam used an Aramaic word, it 15.(כבוד) of the Hebrew word kavod means that he spoke Aramaic. The Talmud’s statement contradicts the aforementioned Midrash. Furthermore, it begs the question: If Lashon HaKodesh was the language with which God created the world, then why did Adam—the pinnacle of creation—not speak Lashon HaKodesh? While there are no conclusive answers to this question, several answers have been proposed, each of which bears mention. THE KUZARI’S BRIEF HISTORY OF LASHON HAKODESH In his epic work Te Kuzari, Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi (1075–1141) re- cords a debate over the significance of Lashon HaKodesh. The Kuzari king 12 See Genesis ibid. 13 TB Sanhedrin 38b. 14 Psalms 139:17. 15 See Maharsha to TB Bava Basra 75b who explains the Talmud’s assertion thusly. Rabbi Ben- also (יקר) Zion Meir Chai Uziel (in his glosses to TB Megillah 9a) points out that the word yakar exists in Lashon HaKodesh, where it means “precious,” see A.
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