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  • From: Shoshanna Walker <rosewalk AT concentric.net>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] 5 scrolls or 1
  • Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 18:47:28 -0400

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





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