[Avodah] Ha'azinu

[Jay F. Shachter]

> 
> Rabbi Simeon said: "Moses in his Song first said The rock, perfect
> is His work, referring to the occasion when water issued from the
> rock..." (Zohar S'hmot 64b)
> 

I am utterly puzzled by this Zohar, because tzur and sela` are two
totally different words that mean different things.  Their meanings
don't even overlap.  I don't believe that the author of the Zohar was
a Tanna (bring it on) but I am certain that he or she studied the
Torah in the original Hebrew, not in a translation that erased the
distinction between those two words.

On the other hand -- now that I have had time to think about it -- the
person who posted the above to this mailing list thought that he was
posting something that made sense.  So, perhaps it is the case that
even when people are reading the Torah in Hebrew, if they are mentally
translating into their native language as they read, they are thinking
in the mental categories that are imposed on them by their native
language.  Another argument, I suppose, for the late authorship of the
Zohar, and for teaching your children, when they are young, not only
to read and write Hebrew but also to speak and think in it.


                Jay F. ("Yaakov") Shachter
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                "The umbrella of the gardener's aunt is in the house"