[Avodah] Leshon haKodesh

[Zev Sero]

Micha Berger wrote:

> Abe is agreeing with the Rambam, who gives this phenomenon as the reason
> why Hebrew is Leshon haQodesh. So, how does the Rambam translate the
> kesiv in the pasuq Amitai sites. I must say it sure looks to me too like
> the q'ri is replacing scatalogical terms with more euphamistic ones.

Perhaps those are Assyrian words that Ravshakeh (or his interpreter) used
because he couldn't find equivalent Hebrew words, much as modern Hebrew
uses Arabic swear words.

But why go to Melachim, when we have the tochacha of Ki Tavo?  Perhaps,
though, those words are meta-euphemisms, a phenomenon we find in English
with regard to the euphemisms used for the place of elimination: as soon
as a euphemism catches on it becomes "dirty" and people re-euphemise it.
So perhaps "yishgalenah" doesn't really mean "will f--- her", but rather
something more genteel, that is still more direct than "yishkavenah";
perhaps it should be rendered "will mate with her".  At the time the
Torah was written, perhaps "yishgalenah" was still thought of as clean,
but at some later stage it became dirty so the sofrim instituted a
kri that was even more indirect and thus cleaner.


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Zev Sero                      The trouble with socialism is that you
zev at sero.name                 eventually run out of other people’s money
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