<div dir="ltr">If you choose to understand the story of Migdal Bavel in its simplest, miraculous way, then I would say the following: When the "neis" of Bilul Leshonos occured, it was a neis. There is no reason to assume that the languages that burst out of Migdal Bavel were philologically descended from Hebrew.<br>
<br>Furthermore, given what we know about language development over the course of as little as two hundred years, there is no reason to assume that the "Loshon Kodesh" there was something we would recognize as our "Hebrew".<br>
<br>RD<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 3:26 AM, Amihai & Tamara Bannett <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:atban@inter.net.il">atban@inter.net.il</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div bgcolor="#ffffff">
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">What about "Vayhi ... Safa achat" - "Lashon
HaKodesh" (before Migdal Bavel)</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div><font color="#888888">
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Amihai Bannett</font></div>
</font><blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 5px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 0px;"><div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c">
<div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">----- Original Message ----- </div>
<div style="background: rgb(228, 228, 228) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">
<b>From:</b>
<a title="raphaeldavidovich@gmail.com" href="mailto:raphaeldavidovich@gmail.com" target="_blank">R Davidovich</a> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><b>To:</b> <a title="mesorah@aishdas.org" href="mailto:mesorah@aishdas.org" target="_blank">mesorah@aishdas.org</a> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, August 26, 2008 6:29
AM</div>
<div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><b>Subject:</b> Re: [Mesorah] At/Atah</div>
<div><br></div>
<div dir="ltr">Wow. I remembered that Rashi all wrong. The correct
version supports my point more than the phantom Rashi I imagined.<br><br>I
thought the Chazal was about Adam Harishon, which could conceivably lead a
person to conclude that Hebrew is the literal first language, which led to my
counter-argument that this is no reason to think that it must also be the
origin of all post-Mabul languages. <br><br>However, Chazal say even
less than that. The claim, which is pure Medrash that has no practical
human language conclusion, is that Hashem created the world with Hebrew.
That has NOTHING to do with the development of languages in the history of
Olam Hazeh. It is entirely plausible to suggest that while from a
aggedeta point of view, Hebrew was the "language" that made Creation, Hebrew
as a human language evolved and developed in a manner similar to all other
languages. <br><br>Raphael Davidovich<br><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Aug 25, 2008 at 7:09 PM, <a href="mailto:kennethgmiller@juno.com" target="_blank">kennethgmiller@juno.com</a> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:kennethgmiller@juno.com" target="_blank">kennethgmiller@juno.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div>R' Michael Hamm wrote:<br>> That's nice from a
linguist's point of view, but I thought<br>> we hold that Hebrew was
spoken before any other language?<br>> See Rashi, B'reshis
2:23.<br><br></div>R' Raphael Davidovich responded:<br>
<div>> Just because Chazal midrashically identify the
language of<br>> the Torah as the language of Adam Harishon does not mean
it<br>> is the historical origin language of all other
languages.<br><br></div>Chazal do far more than merely "identify the
language of the Torah as the language of Adam Harishon". The Rashi which RMH
said to look at says, "Mikan shenivra haolam bilshon hakodesh", which I
would translate as, "From here we know that Lashon Hakodesh was used to
create the world."<br><br>In other words, Rashi is saying that Hebrew
existed before the world. This does not necessarily preclude the concurrent
(whatever that means in this context) existence of other languages, but it
*would* preclude the possibility of Hebrew developing from
them.<br><br>OTOH, I suppose there could be those who disagree with this
Rashi.<br><br>Akiva
Miller<br><br>____________________________________________________________<br>Click
for free info on getting an MBA, $200K/ year potential.<br><a href="http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/Ioyw6i3l7wXvBfAz06ZjLNqlg4R99IiNtfcfL8p5OCnYA36AX8rdJA/" target="_blank">http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/Ioyw6i3l7wXvBfAz06ZjLNqlg4R99IiNtfcfL8p5OCnYA36AX8rdJA/</a><br>
<div>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>RD<br></div>
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</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>RD<br>
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