[Avodah] Leshon haKodesh

[Zev Sero]

T613K at aol.com wrote:

> BTW a long-running thread on Areivim has been discussing the meaning of 
> the phrase "lesaken olam" in Aleinu.  I wonder how RZS would now 
> translate that phrase in view of the fact that "tikun sofrim" 
> surely refers to "fixing, correcting, improving, emending"?

And therefore?  The root TKN has the same double meaning as the English
word "fix".  Whether it means "to set in place" or "to repair" must be
determined from context.  In Aleinu, the most straightforward translation,
indeed ISTM the only translation that doesn't require any stretching, is
"to establish the world under Hashem's sovereignty".  I don't even know
what "to repair the world under Hashem's sovereignty" is supposed to mean;
to my ear it's gibberish, word salad, whereas "to establish..." makes
perfect sense.


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