<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16705" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"
bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=role_document
face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>
<DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>From:
Yitzhak Grossman <A title=mailto:celejar@gmail.com
href="mailto:celejar@gmail.com">celejar@gmail.com</A><BR><BR>> A Hebrew
word can't have come from Arabic. It may be cognate to an<BR>>
Arabic word, both deriving from a common ancestor.... [--RZS]<BR><BR>This
past Shabbas, my father happened to mention Rashi's comment on the<BR>word
'yizah' (Shemos 28:28):<BR><BR>"lashon nituk, ve'lashon Arvi hu, ke'divrei
Dunash ben Labrat"<BR><BR><BR><BR>....I wondered: how<BR>can Rashi claim that
this is an Arabic loan word, if Arabic was not yet<BR>invented! I
checked Dunash, and sure enough, that is *not* what he<BR>actually
says:<BR><BR><BR>....So he is merely saying that it is a cognate of the
similar Arabic form....<BR><BR><BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>>>>>></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>There are many places where Rashi seems to assume that not all the words in
the Torah are Hebrew words, but that some are borrowed from other languages (or
are cognate to words in other languages).</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Three examples of Rashi assuming certain words to have come from other
languages (or to be cognate to words in other languages) come to
mind:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>1. Bereishis 41:43 re Yosef, "Vayikra'u lefanav Avrech."
Rashi on the word "Avrech" quotes Targum, making it two words, Av Rech -- Father
(or Advisor) of the King. Rashi goes on to say that in Aramaic (some texts
have "beloshon Romi" i.e., in Latin) the word "Rech" means king. Cf the
word "Rex" which is "king" in Latin.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>2. Devarim 6:8 "Vehayu letotafos bein einecha" -- Rashi says that they're
called totafos because there are four parshios, and "Tat" beKaspi shetayim,
"Pas" beAfriki shetayim -- i.e, Tat is "two" in the Caspian language and Pas is
"two" in the African language, and two plus two makes four.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>3. Devarim 3:9 (not as good an example, because here the pasuk itself
/says/ that it's not a Hebrew word): "Tzidonim yikra'u leChermon 'Sirion'
veha'Emori yikra'u lo 'Senir' " where Rashi says that the Emori called Mt.
Chermon by the name "Senir" because it has snow on it and "Senir hu
sheleg beloshon Ashkenaz" i.e., Senir is snow in German. (ArtScroll
has a note that in modern German the word for snow is "schnee" but that old
German may have had an "r" at the end of the word.)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Personally I don't find any of Rashi's etymologies convincing but what I do
find fascinating is the fact that Rashi had this linguistic interest and
curiosity, had at least a passing familiarity with a number of languages, that
he was intellectually curious enough to seek out the meanings of words in the
Torah by reference to other languages, and that he was quite comfortable with
the idea that some words in the Torah were foreign words and not Hebrew.
To add a little editorial of my own here, I will say that one of the
things that make Rashi so delightful is this intellectual
curiosity and the way he picks up facts and stories and bits of
information from here, there and everywhere and weaves them into his commentary
with this sort of fresh-eyed wonder and openness.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff><BR></FONT><B><FONT color=#0000ff>--Toby
Katz<BR>==========<BR><BR></FONT><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#000000 size=2
FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"></B>--------------------</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></DIV></DIV></FONT><DIV CLASS="aol_ad_footer" ID="c502a81aa68d5adb93f5b7a58c5a75e6"><br/><font style="color:black;font:normal 10pt arial,san-serif;"> <hr style="margin-top:10px"/><b>A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. <a href="http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1219850974x1201371016/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fwww.freecreditreport.com%2Fpm%2Fdefault.aspx%3Fsc%3D668072%26hmpgID%3D62%26bcd%3DMarchfooterNO62"> See yours in just 2 easy steps!</a></b></font></DIV></BODY></HTML>