[Avodah] Did the Patriarchs Speak Hebrew?

[H Lampel]

> Tue, 19 Dec 2017 "Mandel, Seth"<mandels at ou.org>  wrote:
>
> There is no proof that anyone spoke Hebrew. ... the Torah was written in Hebrew because that is
> what the Jews understood at the time of Moshe Rabbeinu and the N'vi'im.
> ... What did Yaakov speak to Rochel and
> Leah, who had never been in EY? ...
>   one cannot know from the T'NaKh who spoke what when and where.
Well, at least when the matriarchs and patriarchs stated the reasons for 
the names they gave their children, they were obviously speaking the 
same Hebrew spoken in the times of Moshe Rabbeinu.

The only way to question this would be to suggest that originally 
Yitzchak, for instance was called "HeShallLaugh" in some other language, 
and over the next 5 centuries the bnei Yisrael (or the descendants of 
HeWillStriveWithG-d, or whatever), knowing the meaning of the name, 
changed it to Yitzchak.And did the same with each one of all the other 
names given in the chronologies, which are also clearly contractions of 
Mattan Torah time Hebrew words.

And a similar convoluted explanation would have to be made when an 
allegedly unHebrew-speaking Eisav cracked ''Ha-chi kara shmo 
Yaakov--Vayak-veini zeh pa'amayyim...?!"

I think all that is extremely unlikely, even without invoking the 
masorah (of no less import than the Masorah that HQBH dictated the Torah 
to Moshe Rabbeinu in the eponymous Biblical Hebrew) that the shevatim in 
Moshe Rabbeinu's time retained the names given to their ancestors (cited 
in many places including BeMidbar Rabbah 13:20 s.v. Bayom HaShishi and 
Midrash Tehillim 114:4).

Zvi Lampel

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