Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Shoshanna Walker <rosewalk AT concentric.net>]

> Shoshanna,
> a) God did teach you, but you have forgotten!!

OK, I am being friendly, this is not a friendly (or accurate) statement

> b) It was Jewish elders that translated the Torah to
> Greek, so I dont see why the name couldnt be written
> in Greek at the time of writing down Oral Torah

In any case, it wasn't written as pronounced - as I have posted 
twice.  "LeAlem" - remember??

Now see this, and read carefully:

http://www.shemayisrael.com/chanukah/more/chanukah.htm

"Five elders translated the Torah into Greek for King Ptolemy (a 
successor to Alexander the Great). The day this was accomplished was 
as unfortunate for Israel as the day that the Golden Calf was 
worshipped, because it is impossible to present a truly adequate 
translation of the Torah in any foreign language. On another 
occasion, Ptolemy gathered together seventy-two elders and placed 
them in seventy-two separate rooms, not informing any of them why he 
was summoned. He approached each of them and said, "Write down the 
Torah of your teacher Moses for me." Hashem arranged that the same 
thoughts occurred to all of them and they made the same thirteen 
modifications in their translations. [This translation is commonly 
known as Targum Shiv'im, or the Septuagint.]
(Sofrim 1:7-8; Megillah 9a)

"The Tur (Orach Chayim 580; see also Shulchan Aruch, ad loc.), 
quoting the opinion of the Halachot Gedolot, tells us that one should 
observe a fast day on the eighth day of Tevet because it is the 
anniversary of the day that Ptolemy commissioned his translation of 
the Torah. On the day the translation commenced, adds the Tur, "A 
three day period of darkness descended upon the world." This, Rav 
Cohen suggests, is the "darkness" of the Greek exile.

"II. THE LIGHT OF THE ORAL TORAH

"It remains to be explained why the translation of the Torah should 
cause global darkness. What was the great tragedy of translating the 
Torah into another language, and why should it cause the world to 
become dark? The tragedy, Rav Cohen explains, is implicit in the 
words of Massechet Sofrim-"because the Torah could not be translated 
adequately." Although the written text of the Torah can be translated 
with reasonable accuracy into another language, all the nuances-the 
double-entendres and the various implicit insinuations in the words 
of the Torah-are lost in the process. Gematria (numerology), 
acrostics and other word-based analyses are impossible to carry over 
from one language to another. The entire body of the Oral Torah which 
lies beneath the surface of the written text was thus severed-and 
deleted-from the Torah. It is interesting to note that, as Rav Cohen 
points out, the Sadducees (a sect that believed in the literal 
interpretation of the written Torah and denied the existence of an 
oral tradition) were a powerful force in Israel only until the 
Hasmonean uprising which culminated in the Chanukah miracle (Megillat 
Ta'anit, Ch. 5). Once the Hasmoneans succeeded in uprooting Greek 
culture from the hearts of the Jewish people, the Sadducees also 
submitted to the halachic renderings of the Torah-true elders of the 
generation. The Greek influence on Torah analysis that caused the 
Sadducees to give credibility to the written word alone was done away 
with along with the Greek culture. The Oral Torah is compared in the 
Midrash to a light that illuminates the darkness:


Best wishes,

Shoshanna



> c) From Isaiah.."Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria
> my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance." - God's eye
> view is far different than man's, He may not mind a
> Greek guy knowing His name :)
>
> Best wishes,
> Sujata