[Avodah] Transition From Aramaic To Hebrew

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Yaakov Shachter wrote:

> I just finished reciting the standard text of the `Eruv
> Tavshilin, which, like the Qaddish, like the Ha Laxma `Aniya,
> begins in Aramaic, and ends in Hebrew.
>
> What makes it interesting is that, precisely in the region where
> the text switches from Aramaic to Hebrew, there are two words of
> indeterminate language, words that could be either Aramaic or
> Hebrew. Specifically: either the last 3 words, or the last 4
> words, or the last 5 words, are Hebrew, while the rest of the
> words are Aramaic.

Could you be more specific about these words? You seem to be using a very different text than me.

I am looking at three different siddurim (Otzar Hatefilos, ArtScroll, and Sacks/Koren/OU) and they are virtually identical, except for some vowelling changes. In all three of them, the "vadai Aramaic" stops six words from the end, not five, and in all three siddurim, those words are: "lanu ul'chol yisrael hadarim ba'ir hazos".

There is one (possibly significant) difference between these three siddurim, and that is the ArtScroll puts all six words in parentheses. This *might* suggest that these six words are a later addition which is not said by some nuschaos; if so, that could be strong evidence to them six being the same language.

Looking to widen my data sample, I found two other siddurim (Birnbaum and Hirsch/Feldheim) which have a slightly different wording. Again, the beginning of the text differs only in vowelling, but the word "yisrael" is missing in both of these. I suspect that this is the version RYS is using, and the five words he is asking about are "lanu ul'chol hadarim ba'ir hazos".

> Specifically: either the last 3 words, or the last 4 words, or
> the last 5 words, are Hebrew, while the rest of the words are
> Aramaic.

If you're using the text I think you are, then the 3rd word from the end is "hadarim", which you think is definitely Hebrew. This surprises me. In my Mandelkern, I was unable to find any Hebrew uses of "dalet resh" as a verb. In contrast, Mandelkern does show a few places in Daniel 2-4 where this shows up as an Aramaic word. (My guess is that this word is not from Biblical Hebrew, but entered Rabbinic Hebrew from the Aramaic, and is found in Rabbinic phrases such as mezuza being a "chovas hadar", an obligation of the resident.)

I'm also surprised that you are unsure about the word "lanu". If the author had wanted to use an Aramaic word, wouldn't he have chosen "lana" or "lan", each of which appear in Brich Sh'meh?

Akiva Miller

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