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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>From: Zev Sero <zev@sero.name><BR>> I would like further
clarification on this point, too, but this is<BR>> what I think it
means: not that the actual Aramaic words used by<BR>> Onkelos were
given on Sinai together with the Torah [who even spoke<BR>> Aramaic back
then? [--TK]<BR><BR>Everybody. At least, everybody who was educated, or
who engaged in<BR>international trade. It was the English of its
day.<BR><BR><BR>> Why would Hebrew-speaking Israelites need a
translation in a <BR>> language they did not even speak?]<BR><BR>Rashi
Devarim 1:5<BR><BR>-- <BR>Zev
Sero
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<DIV>>>>>></DIV>
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<DIV>Rashi there says Moshe explained the Torah in 70 languages, but does that
mean that Aramaic rather than Hebrew was the spoken language of B'Y? That
is a stretch. They were redeemed from Egypt because they didn't change
their distinctive clothing, their names or their language -- shelo shinu es
leshonam. Now you want to tell me that the language they clung to in Egypt
and never changed was actually Aramaic, the lingua franca of the ancient Middle
East? I'm not buying that.</DIV>
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<DIV>And if he translated the Torah into 70 languages how come we have the
Targum in only one of those 70?</DIV>
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<DIV>Anyway that Rashi is just a medrash, which has no bearing on the literal
truth of any other medrash. It has no bearing on the question of whether
the Aramaic Targum is word for word what Moshe said when he translated the Torah
into Aramaic (even if you take that Rashi about the 70 languages
literally). BTW when Moshe translated the Torah into English, did he
prophetically utter the future words of the ArtScroll Chumash or did
he foreshadow the Soncino?</DIV>
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<DIV>--Toby Katz</DIV>
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<DIV>_______________________</DIV></DIV>
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