[Avodah] Targumim from Sinai

[T613K at aol.com]

From: Simon Montagu _simon.montagu at gmail.com_ 
(mailto:simon.montagu at gmail.com) 


>>RSBA reminded me in an Areivim thread that the Targumim are  from
Sinai. This surprised me at first, because my memory was that at  most
they are described as "beRuahh hakodesh", but I was wrong: the Taz  on
SA OH 285 SK 2 explicitly says "hatargum yesh lo ma`ala  she-nittan
besinai". 

....How can this be reconciled with the gemara  in Megilla? I can
imagine one possibility: the targum was given as part of  TBSP and
Onkelos was the first to write it down....

 
 
>>>>>
I would like further clarification on this point,  too, but this is what I 
think it means:  not that the actual Aramaic words  used by Onkelos were 
given on Sinai together with the Torah [who even spoke  Aramaic back then?  Why 
would Hebrew-speaking Israelites need a translation  in a language they did 
not even speak?] BUT that the correct understanding and  interpretation of 
the words of the Torah Shebichsav were transmitted orally  along with the 
Torah Shebichsav -- for example, that the shoresh p-k-d means "to  count" in 
Bamidbar 1:49 ("Don't count the tribe of Levi with the rest of B'Y")  but 
means "to appoint" in Bamidbar 1:50 ("Appoint the Levi'im to their jobs in  the 
Mishkan.")
 
When the Taz says that the Targum was given on Sinai, does he necessarily  
mean that it was given /in Aramaic/?  Onkelos wrote the correct  
interpretation and understanding of the Hebrew words using the language current  among 
the Jews of his day, but the interpretation and understanding were the  same 
as what had been transmitted through the doros down from Sinai.   That's 
just what seems reasonable to me.
 
--Toby Katz
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