Back To The Future

By Hillel ben David (Greg Killian)

 

I. Introduction - God's ideal

 

In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth. God's narrative goes on to describe the idyllic world which He created for the benefit of man. After this ideal world was created, God placed man in His Garden which was planted eastward in Eden. The text goes to say that God walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. This was God's ideal:

 

Bereshit (Genesis) 2:4-15 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. When HaShem God made the earth and the heavens-- And no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for HaShem God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground, But streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground-- HaShem God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Now HaShem God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And HaShem God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground--trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. HaShem God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

 

This was the perfect world made exactly the way that God wanted. At this point man sinned and changed the ideal perfect world into something less. The Bible then goes on to describe the process and the people that God will use to restore the ideal and to end the suffering of His creation. The suffering of God's creation is described in:

 

Romans 8:18-2 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

 

This state of decay is the result of sin. The Bible records God's plan to bring His people and creation back to the ideal state in which they were created. Lets explore some of the aspects of God's ideal. Let's start by looking at the language that Adam and Eve spoke:

 

II. Hebrew - The original language

 

The Sages teach that the Hebrew Alef Bet was used to create the world:

 

Rab Judah said in the name of Rab: Bezalel knew how to combine the letters by which the heavens and earth were created.[1] It is written here, And He hath filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom and in understanding, and in knowledge,[2] and it is written elsewhere, The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding He established the heavens,[3] and it is also written, By His knowledge the depths were broken up.[4]                                                                                       

Because Hebrew was used to create the world, it is also very likely that Adam and Eve both spoke Hebrew. If they both spoke Hebrew, then Hebrew was the mother tongue until the Tower of Babel. At the tower of Babel, God indicates that there was only one language[5]:

 

Bereshit (Genesis) 11:1-9 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." But HaShem came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. HaShem said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other." So HaShem scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel--because there HaShem confused the language of the whole world. From here HaShem scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

 

To understand where Hebrew originated, lets look at the definition of "Hebrew". The first use of the word "Hebrew" is found in:

 

Bereshit (Genesis) 14:13 One who had escaped came and reported this to Abram the Hebrew. Now Abram was living near the great trees of Mamre the Amorite, a brother of Eshcol and Aner, all of whom were allied with Abram.

 

"Hebrew", here, is defined by Strong's as:

 

5680 `Ibriy, ib-ree'; patron. from 5677; an Eberite (i.e. Hebrew) or desc. of Eber:-Hebrew (-ess, woman).

 

At this point we need to see who "Eber" is:

 

Bereshit (Genesis) 11:14-26 When Shelah had lived 30 years, he became the father of Eber. And after he became the father of Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters. When Eber had lived 34 years, he became the father of Peleg. And after he became the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters. When Peleg had lived 30 years, he became the father of Reu.

And after he became the father of Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.When Reu had lived 32 years, he became the father of Serug. And after he became the father of Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters. When Serug had lived 30 years, he became the father of Nahor. And after he became the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters. When Nahor had lived 29 years, he became the father of Terah. And after he became the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters. After Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.

 

Eber is a distant ancestor of Abram. If the language of Eber was Hebrew, as evidenced by it's etymology, then it is reasonable to understand that Abram would speak the language of his family. The tower of Babel will take place long after Eber, in the days of Abram. This would indicate that Hebrew was the language of Adam and Eve.

 

So, if Hebrew was in the beginning, then we would expect that it will be the language of the future. There is a reference to this in:

 

Zephaniah 3:8-10 Therefore wait ye upon me, saith HaShem, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination [is] to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, [even] all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy. For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of HaShem, to serve him with one consent. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants, [even] the daughter of my dispersed, shall bring mine offering.

 

Since Abram was 48 years old at the time of the Tower of Babel; and since Abram did not participate in the sin of Babel, it is reasonable to conclude that Abram's language was not confused. We find this conclusion also, in the Talmud:

 

R. Simeon b. Pazi expounded [that verse as follows]: ‘Happy is the man that hath not walked’ — i.e., to theatres and circuses of idolaters ‘nor stood in the way of sinners’ — that is he who does not attend contests of wild beasts;[6] ‘nor sat in the seat of the scornful’ — that is he who does not participate in [evil] plannings. And lest one say, ‘Since I do not go to theatres or circuses nor attend contests of wild animals, I will go and indulge in sleep.’ Scripture therefore continues, ‘And in His Law doth He meditate day and night.’ Said R. Samuel b. Nahmani in the name of R. Jonathan: Happy is the man that hath not walked in the counsel of the wicked — that isour father Abraham who did not follow the counsel of the men of the Generation of the Division[7] who were wicked, as it is said, Come, let us build us a city, and a tower, with its top in heaven,’[8] nor stood in the way of sinners — for he did not take up the stand of the Sodomites, who were sinful, as it is said, Now the men of Sodom were wicked and sinful against the Lord exceedingly;[9] nor sat in the seat of the scornful — for he did not sit in the company of the Philistines, because they were scoffers; as it is said, And it came to pass, when their hearts were merry, that they said: Call for Samson that he may make us sport.[10]                                               

 

Therefore, the language of Eden had now been passed to Abram and his family on an exclusive basis. This explains how Hebrew could, seemingly, originate with Abram. Hebrew, by definition, means "beyond the river", refering to Abram who was beyond the Euphrates river.

 

According to the Midrash, Abram was 48 when the Tower of Babel was built. He was an adult who consciously chose not to participate in the endeavor. And as a reward, when the other clans were given their own languages, causing them to spread out and become separate nations, Abram was not so punished, and still spoke and thought in Hebrew.[11]

 

The gift of speaking Hebrew, then, is no small thing. It's not just exposure to a holier mode of speech. Hebrew gives us the tools to organize our concepts in the way Hashem intended. Instead of asking whether Judaism is a race or a religion, with the connotation of those words, we can look at Am Yisrael, and Adas Yisrael, and the meaning given those terms by the Chumash.[12]

 

Since the knowledge of God was given exclusively in Hebrew, it stands to reason that those who know Hebrew, know God better than those who do not speak Hebrew. Since the wicked of Babel were conspiring against God, therefore God took away their Hebrew. The gemara (Sanhedrin 109) and the Zohar teach that this was just one of many punishments which Hashem meted out to the tower-builders. Why then does the Torah single this out?

 

Rav Yoel Teitelbaum (the Satmar Rav) zatz'l explains that taking away these people's ability to speak Hebrew was not a punishment; it was Hashem's mechanism for stopping their plans. He explains: When people cooperate and work out their plans in the Hebrew language, miracles will occur for them. For that very reason, sinners cannot be permitted to conspire in Hebrew[13].                      

How do words from foreign languages crop up in the Torah which is written in the Holy Tongue?

 

The answer lies in the Torah account of the Tower of Babel which begins with the passage:

 

Bereshit (Genesis) 11:1 "The whole earth was of one language"

 

Which our Sages tell was the Holy Tongue of Hebrew. Even when Hashem confounded their language by introducing so many different tongues in order to disperse them, some traces of Hebrew remained in the new languages. We therefore find our Sages turning to foreign languages (an example is the word "hadar" used by the Torah for the esrog because it requires so much "hydra" - Greek for water - to nourish its growth) to reveal the meaning of an unusual word. The similarity of a foreign word to the mysterious Hebrew word is an indication that it is a survivor of that nation's original use of Hebrew.[14]

 

Ok, at this point we see that the one language, Hebrew, became many languages at the Tower of Babel. I believe that this incident took place on the sixth day of the third month, Sivan 6, which is the feast of Weeks, Hag Shavuot.

 

The sages understood that the Torah was delivered, at Mount Sinai, in seventy languages to all of the nations. They understood that the Spirit of God appeared as a tongue of fire which went out from the stone tablets to each of the children of Israel and asked if they would accept this covenant. When the answer was "yes" the tongue went back and helped carve the ten words. In Exodus Rabbah we read:

 

When G-d gave the Torah on Sinai, He displayed untold marvels to Israel with His voice. What happened? G-d spoke and the Voice reverberated throughout the world. ....it says, And all the people witnessed the thunderings (Exodus 18:15). Note that it does not say "the thunder", but "the thunderings", wherefore, R.Johanan said that G-d's voice, as it was uttered, split up into seventy voices, in seventy languages, so that all the nations should understand. When each nation heard the Voice in their own vernacular, their souls departed, save Israel, who heard but were not hurt...[15]

 

The midrash also records something similar:

 

On the occasion of matan (the giving of the) Torah, the Bnai Yisrael (the children of Israel) not only heard HaShem's Voice but actually saw the sound waves as they emerged from HaShem's mouth. They visualized them as a fiery substance. Each commandment that left HaShem's mouth traveled around the entire camp and then came back to every Jew individually, asking him, "Do you accept upon yourself this commandment with all halachot pertaining to it?" Every Jew answered, "Yes", after each commandment. Finally, the fiery substance which they saw, engraved itself on the luchot (stone tablets).[16]

 

Does this remind you of II Luqas (Acts) chapter 2?

 

II Luqas (Acts) 2:1-11 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (Both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs--we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!"

 

They say seventy languages because:

 

Bereshit (Genesis) 46:26-27 All those who went to Egypt with Jacob--those who were his direct descendants, not counting his sons' wives--numbered sixty-six persons. With the two sons who had been born to Joseph in Egypt, the members of Jacob's family, which went to Egypt, were seventy in all.

 

and:

 

Devarim (Deuteronomy) 32:7-9 Remember the days of old; consider the generations long past. Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain to you. When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel. For HaShem'S portion is his people, Jacob his allotted inheritance.

 

It appears that God's plan is to, one day, return to having all of His people speak one language, Hebrew. We will be returning to the language of the Garden of Eden. We will be going back to the future!

 

Did the Patriarchs Speak Hebrew?

 

By Prof. Gad Sarfatti

Department of Hebrew and Semitic Languages

Bar-Ilan University's Parashat Hashavua Study Center

http://www.biu.ac.il/JH/Eparasha/vayigash/sarfati.html

 

Chapter 45 of Genesis describes the dramatic meeting between Joseph and his brothers, in which he reveals his identity to them and urges their quick return to Egypt with their father Jacob. This is what he says to them in order to persuade them, "Behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that is speaking to you" (Gen. 45:12).

In his authoritative Aramaic translation, Onkelos renders the last phrase as "that it is in your language that I am speaking to you." Following him, Rashi explains, "It is my mouth that is speaking to you--in the Holy Tongue [Hebrew]." Ibn Ezra understands Joseph's remark in the same way, and provides the addendum, "For until now the interpreter stood between us." Rashbam and Radak (Kimchi) agree with Ibn Ezra, but Ramban (Nachmanides) dissents.After citing their opinions and Onkelos's translation, Ramban says:

 

It is possible that he said this to them simply as a means of pacifying them, for there was no proof [that he was Joseph] in the fact that someone in Egypt should speak in the Holy Tongue. In my opinion, Hebrew was a Canaanite language. For Abraham did not bring it from Ur of the Chaldees [in Mesopotamia] and from Haran, for there they spoke Aramaic, as the incident of the pile of stones erected by Laban and Jacob proves [see Gen. 31:47]. And it was not a private language spoken by a single person but a language of Canaan, and many people in Egypt knew it for the countries were close together--particularly the ruler, for it is customary for kings and rulers to know several languages.

 

For his assertion that Hebrew is "a Canannite language" Ramban makes reference to Isaiah, who does thus refer to Hebrew: "On that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear by the Lord of hosts" (Isa. 19:18). That the original language of the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) was Aramaic is proved to Ramban's mind by virtue of the fact that Laban gave the name "Yegar-sahaduta" to what Jacob called "Gal-ed" (Gen. 31:47), The former had remained in Mesopotamia and continued to speak Aramaic (which Ramban thinks was spoken in Ur and in Haran), while Jacob, who had grown up in Canaan, had learnt the local language.

 

This idea, that "the language of Canaan" was the language spoken in the land of Canaan as opposed to the Aramaic of Mesopotamia, appears earlier in Ramban's Commentary, when in his remarks on Genesis 11:28 (Parshat Noah) he explains that Terah and Abraham fled from Mesopotamia to Canaan because of the language difference between the two localities. God's intention in bringing Abraham to Canaan was "to make him great and give the land to him;" but Terah and Abraham's own understanding was different "from the time that [Abraham] was saved [from Nimrod], they wished to reach the land of Canaan and get far away from the land of the Chaldees because of fear of the king, for Haran was close to his dominions and they had a common population and language, for both spoke Aramaic; and Terah and Abraham wished to go to a people who did not understand the language of that king and his people."

 

Here Ramban expresses a view wholly opposed to the tradition passed down by the Sages of the Talmud and after. As we see in the following passage from Genesis Rabba 18:4, on the creation of Eve, the Sages of the Talmud held that Hebrew was the language originally spoken by all human beings, and the language through which the world was created:

 

"For this shall be called ishah (woman), for from ish (man) was this taken" (Gen. 2:23)--we learn from this that the Torah was given in the Holy Tongue. Rabbi Pinchas and Rabbi Hilkiya said in the name of Rabbi Simon: Just as the Torah was given in the Holy Tongue so was the world created with the Holy Tongue. Did you ever hear the forms gyne and gyneya, ita and itata, anthropos and anthropaia, gavra and gavrata? But ish and ishah [Hebrew for "man" and "woman," ah being the feminine ending], how does this come about? Because the two expressions correspond (i.e. alliterate).

 

This last sentence means that the verse "For this shall be called ishah (woman), for from ish (man) was this taken" could have been uttered only in Hebrew since only in that language are the terms for male and female humans so similar in sound. As proof of this the Midrash adduces other languages in which the names for the two sexes are completely different from each other: in Greek "man" is anthropos (and there is no feminine form such as anthropaia) and "woman" is gyne, in Aramaic the terms are gavra and itata respectively--and we might add that the same difference is found in other languages too: the Latin vir and mulier, the French homme and femme, and so on. Following on from this, and understanding the Biblical text in the most direct way, the Sages concluded that all other languages came into being at the time of the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11:9) while Hebrew remained the possession of Eber, son of Shem, and his descendants. This was also the opinion of Saadia Gaon, who translated the Bible into Arabic; Ibn Ezra, the great medieval poet Yehudah Halevi; Isaac Arama in Akedat Yitzchak; Elijah Bachur, and others, up till Moses Mendelssohn. As an illustration, here is a passage from Kuzari, the philosophic work by Yehuda Halevi:

 

We have the evidence of the Torah for this point. The Hebrew language was passed down from one person to another until it reached Eber (Eber received it from Noah and Noah from Adam); for Hebrew was the language spoken by Eber (Ever) and it was called Ivrit (Hebrew) after him because he preserved it even during the confusion of tongues at Babel. And Abraham preserved it after Eber. However, while he was in Ur Abraham spoke Aramaic because that was the local language; he retained Hebrew as a language of holiness and used Aramaic for everyday purposes. Kuzari 2:68

 

This conception, which was held by non-Jewish scholars also until the eighteenth century, contains two principles: that Hebrew was the first of all languages--the language in which the Creator spoke to Adam, and which was spoken by everyone until the time of the Tower of Babel; and that other languages spoken by other peoples came into being in the generation of Babel, Hebrew remaining the language of Eber, and in turn that of the Patriarchs and the Jewish people. The first of these principles is accepted by Ramban, as we can see from his comment on Exodus 30:13, in which he explains why Hebrew is known as "the Holy Tongue" (lashon ha-kodesh):

 

Because the words of the Torah and of the prophecies, and all sacred pronouncements, were all said in that language, and it is the language which the Holy One, blessed be He, speaks with His prophets and His congregation [when He pronounced] "I am the Lord your God Who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt" and "You shall have no other gods before Me" and the rest of the commandments, and the prophecies, and it is in Hebrew that He is called by His holy Names ... and through it He created His world and gave the names of "heaven" and "earth" and of everything that is in them, and His angels and all their hosts--He calls them all by name, Michael [i.e. Who is like God?] and Gabriel [Strength of God], in that language, and in that language He gave names to holy people on earth, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Solomon, and others like them.

 

But Ramban's comments on Genesis, cited above, prove that he did not accept the second principle. In his view, the Patriarchs spoke Aramaic, and it was only in Canaan that they learnt the local language--Hebrew or "Canaanite."

 

From the information that we possess today we must think Ramban correct in the main, even if we do not agree with him that Abraham spoke Aramaic. Hebrew belongs to the Canaanite language group within the Semitic family of languages and is very similar to its neighbors: Phoenician, Moabite, and the language which flourishes in the Tel-el-Amarna letters, which were written in the fourteenth and thirteentcenturies B.C.E. from Israel, Syria and Phoenicia to the king of Egypt. In his book History of the Hebrew Language (in Hebrew) Haim Rabin writes that "the Patriarchs, we know, came from Mesopotamia, where they did not speak a language of the Hebrew type; how then is it that we find the people of Israel, after they had taken possession of the Promised Land, beginning to write and to make use of a language which was already spoken by the Canaanites whom they dispossessed? The only possible answer is that at some stage our predecessors changed their language."

 

To the best of my knowledge this opinion of Ramban's is not mentioned by other scholars, not even to be denied. It was apparently felt to be so un-Jewish that it did not deserve discussion. Interestingly, the passage in Ramban's comment on Genesis 45:12, "for Abraham did not bring [Hebrew] from Ur of the Chaldees and from Haran, for there they spoke Aramaic, as the incident of the pile of stones erected by Laban and Jacob proves. And it was not a private language spoken by an individual but a language of Canaan," does not appear in the printed texts of Ramban.1 It is possible that the omission arose when a copyist's eye slipped from the words "Hebrew was a tongue of Canaan" to "a language of Canaan" at the end of the sentence, as a result which this passage has disappeared (homoiteleuton). However, it is also conceivable that the passage was dropped because it was simply too daring.

 

Irrespective of the reasons behind Ramban's view, we must admire his integrity, spiritual liberation and courage. Even if modern scholars do not agree as to the language spoken by the Patriarchs or brought by the people of the Exodus to the land of Israel, it is clear from extant epigraphic material that Hebrew is a Canaanite language.

 

Notes

1. Nor in several texts which copy from Ramban, from Rabbi Eliyahu Mizrachi and Rabbenu Bachya to Eliezer Ben-Yehuda in the great Preface to his dictionary. It was found by Rabbi Shaval in an old manuscript of Ramban and appears in his edition, published by Mossad Ha-Rav Kook. Later he also printed it in Mikraot Gedolot; Torat Haim (same publisher).

 

Translated by Dr Phyllis Hackett

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The Hebrew Alphabet

 

The Hebrew alphabet, detailed below, consists of twenty-two letters. All of these letters are consonants. Vowels are indicated by small dots and marks surrounding the individual letters. Four of the letters have a different form when they fall at the end of the word.

 

Each letter has a meaning and a numeric value associated with it. The letters are considered to be the building blocks of creation (see Sefer Yetzira for more information on this subject).

 

Traditional kabbalists take the view that the Hebrew language is divinely inspired and that this was the only language existing prior to the Biblical story of the destruction of the Tower of Babel.

 

The Hebrew letters can be considered as expressions in a mathematical formula. Each letter has a meaning and the combination of letters used in a word can be seen as the embodiment of the component individual letter meanings.

 

In many, if not all, magical and mystical systems the importance of knowing an entity's correct name is stressed. Knowledge of a name confers power over the entity concerned.

 

Recommended Reading:

 

·         The Wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet - Rabbi Michael L.Munk - Mesorah Publications, ltd

·         Letters of Fire - Matityahu Glazerson - Feldheim Publishers

·         Power of Aleph Beth (Vols I and 2) - Dr.Philip S Berg - The Research Centre of Kabbalah

 

 

 

This study was written by Hillel ben David

(Greg Killian).

Comments may be submitted to:

 

Greg Killian

2001 Bay Drive West #401

Miami Beach, FL 33141

 

Internet address:  [email protected]

Web page:  http://members.aol.com/gkilli/home/

 

(305) 865-2619

 

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