[Avodah] Did the Patriarchs Speak Hebrew?

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Dec 19, 2017 at 05:46:51PM +0000, Mandel, Seth via Avodah wrote:
: There is no proof that anyone spoke Hebrew. Chazal say that dibb'ra Torah
: bilshon b'nei odom...

Well.... R' Yishmael says it. And it appears to be an argument for his
rules of derashah, which do not include looking for magic words like
"akh" (mi'ut), "raq" (mi'ut), "kol" (ribui) or even "es", but darshens
the meaning of terms, whether ribui or mi'ut.

The Rambam really sloganeers (like the CS's "chadash assur min haTorah")
when he uses it to explain that anthropomorphic descriptions of HQBH
are idioms, not to be taken overly literally. The point may be true, but
it has nothing to do with the quote.

The maqor is nothing remotely like:
:                         the Torah was written in Hebrew because that is
: what the Jews understood at the time of Moshe Rabbeinu and the N'vi'im.

And besides, R' Aqiva disagrees!

Chodesh tov,
un a lichtikn un freilechn Chanukah!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             One doesn't learn mussar to be a tzaddik,
micha at aishdas.org        but to become a tzaddik.
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