[Avodah] Loazim and Shmitchiks

[T613K at aol.com]

From: dbmin9 at aol.com


>First of all, I would like to say  that I appreciate (and am amazed by!) 
>the astounding scholarship and  research that had to have gone into this 
>endeavor. I wonder how on earth  R' Yisrael Isser Zvi Herczeg (the?main 
>translator) and his collaborators  went about doing this?! [--old TK]

Not to take away from their  responsible decision not to neglect the 
lo'azim, very little astounding  scholarship and research needed to take place, 
since the astounding research and  scholarship has already taken place a 
century ago or more. R' Yisrael Isser Zvi  Herczeg did not need to become experts 
in Medieval French. They needed to read  books by experts in Medieval 
French. ....
 
So "has been thoroughly researched" most probably means "I sat  in the 
[NYPL, JTS Library, JNUL, borrowed volumes and learned what the words  mean,"  
as opposed to original research in the languages and medieval  French texts. 
Not to take anything away from the Artscroll Rashi edition, which  is one of 
their best products, for  sure.


KT,
S.W.

 
>>>>
When I said I was astounded by the research done  by R' Herczeg (and his 
collaborators), I was not imagining that he had done  original research into 
old languages and medieval French texts!  I meant to  express my admiration 
exactly for what you deride as "sitting in libraries"  and combing through 
the many books and dictionaries that have already been  compiled, in order to 
find the best or likeliest version of what old word Rashi  was using in his 
Hebrew spelling of French words (ArtScroll and Silbermann do  not always 
agree on the French, for example), as well as exactly what nuance of  meaning 
in the pasuk Rashi was trying to convey.  Maybe it looks like easy  work to 
you, it sure doesn't look that way to me!



--Toby  Katz
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