[Avodah] Did the Patriarchs Speak Hebrew?

Micha Berger micha at aishdas.org
Tue Dec 19 09:05:08 PST 2017


On Tue, Dec 19, 2017 at 07:37:41AM +0000, Professor L. Levine via Avodah wrote:
:  From the article at 
: https://goo.gl/Z3QWs2
: 
: Ramban says:
: 
:     It is possible that he said this to them simply as a means of
:     pacifying them, for there was no proof [that he was Joseph] in
:     the fact that someone in Egypt should speak in the Holy Tongue. In
:     my opinion, Hebrew was a Canaanite language...

... and yet also lashon haqodesh.

And to the Ramban (on "sheqel haqodesh" in parashas Sheqalim), this is
because it's the language in which Hashem created the world and in which
the Torah and Nakh were written. And leshitaso, the letters of the Torah,
if not their breakup into words, preceded creation.

The notion that the avos spoke Aramaic is in Vayiqra Rabba on 32:5. The
Medrash Peliyah (#166) concludes that even Adam did! This is a comment
about Sarah's death in "Qiryas Araba". The Niv Sefasayim explains that the
medrash is getting this from the use of the Aramaic term "qirya". But I
don't see how we know this was the name of the cite from back when Adam
and Chava were buried there; or how else this moved the line to any time
before Efron.

R Yonasan Eibschitz (Tif'eres Yehonasan on Bereishis 11:1) that Adam
spoke LhQ before the cheit, and Aramaic after.

Fore that matter, Medrash Tanchuma (beginning of Devarim in Buber) and
Medrash Seikhel Tov (Shemos 4:11) say Adam spoke all 70 languages.
Requires a new peshat in what happened at Migdal Bavel, no?

I am not to clear on the whole thing. Languages evolve, so that if
one were to trace them out over time, one would draw a tree or a
bush. Adam's proto-Semitic, or proto-proto-proto... everything is an
ancestor of all language. I could call it early Hebrew if I wanted,
and claim that Hebrew is the trunk from which other languages branched
off. But that's just a decision about how to draw the tree. I could pick
another run from root to twig and pull it straight, and say that Adam
spoke proto-...proto-Mandarin, and all the other languages branched off.
For languages as similar as Hebrew and Aramaic, where neither could have
drifted from the original significanly more than the other, doesn't
the whole discussion of whether Adam's language was a predecessar to
the language of the chumash, Nakh, Chazal, etc... or of Aramaic in
its evolutions all kind of arbitrary?


I wonder if the Ramban understands the name of Kesav Ashuris to mean
"Assyrian Script", rather than "Enriched Script" (from "osher". YMMV
on the definition of osher.)

After all, he seems to have no problem saying that Hashem left holy
things in the hands of other peoples for us to find and use.

For that matter, Eretz Yisrael was also given to the Kenaanim to hold
until we got there...

It might also be leshitaso -- but this may be a stretch -- with the
Ramban's take on rainbows. The Ramban says that rainbows existed since
Maaseh Bereishis. Nature didn't change in this regard with the Mabul.
Rather, the already existing phenomenon was made a symbol when HQBH
made the beris with Noach.

Again, something put in place naturally so that when the time came it
would be available take on its full significance.

:     Canaan, and many people in Egypt knew it for the countries were close
:     together--particularly the ruler, for it is customary for kings and
:     rulers to know several languages.
: 
: For his assertion that Hebrew is "a Canannite language" Ramban makes
: reference to Isaiah, who does thus refer to Hebrew: "On that day there
: will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of
: Canaan and swear by the Lord of hosts" (Isa. 19:18). That the original
: language of the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) was Aramaic is
: proved to Ramban's mind by virtue of the fact that Laban gave the name
: "Yegar-sahaduta" to what Jacob called "Gal-ed" (Gen. 31:47), The former
: had remained in Mesopotamia and continued to speak Aramaic (which Ramban
: thinks was spoken in Ur and in Haran), while Jacob, who had grown up in
: Canaan, had learnt the local language.
: 
: Please see the above URL for much more on this topic.

Have a Great Month,
and a enlightening and enjoyable Chanukah!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             The greatest discovery of all time is that
micha at aishdas.org        a person can change their future
http://www.aishdas.org   by merely changing their attitude.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                   - Oprah Winfrey


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