The Politics, Ethics, Theology, and Hermeneutics of Translations

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The Politics, Ethics, Theology, and Hermeneutics
of Translations

• Is The Library a Migdal Babel?
• Are All Translations Interpretations?
• The Cases of Akedat Yitzak, Kelei Zemer in
  Tehillim, Almah vs. Parthenos in Isaiah, and Shir
  HaShirim
• Examples Refracted Across History in the Targumim
  (Aramaic), Septuagint (Greek), Vulgate (Latin),
  Peshita (Syriac), Beur (German by Mendelssohn),
  Die Heilige Schrift und Ihren Verdeutschung
  (Rosenzweig Buber), Ladino, Yiddish

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Thoughts on translation

• The Art of the Translator (Walter Benjamim)
• Learning a translation is like kissing the kalah
  through a veil (Bialik)???? ????? ?? ??? ???? ??
  ???? ??? ????
• (3) Anyone who translates is a liar but anyone
  who doesnt translate is a thief (Agnon) ?? ??
  ?????? ??? ???? ??? ?? ?? ????? ????? ??? ????
• (4) Learning the Zohar in translation is like
  eating raw animal feed.???? ?? ???? ?????? ?? ???
  ????? ???? ????

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6 Examples to Show Translations are Often
Interpretations

• I. Tafsir (Tanakh in Arabic) regarding Akedah
  (nisayon?????)(/test)
• Akedah raises ? of Hashems yedidah
  (foreknowledge/????? ) and hashgakhah pratit
  (????? ?????/predestination) and human beings
  behira (free will/ ????? ?????)
• HaKol Tzophuyey veReshut Nitanah ( ??? ????
  ?????? ?????)
• _ARAFTU_ (past tense- I knew) for Vayomer al
  tishlach yadikhah el hanaar veal taas lo miumah
  ki atah yadati ki yirei elokim atah velo
  hasakhtah et binkhah et yihidikhah memeni ???? ??
  ???? ??? ?? ???? ???-??? ?? ????? ?? ??? ?????
  ??-??? ????? ??? ??? ???? ??-??? ?? ????? ????
• Degel Yehudah- nisayon to educate Avraham and
  world that Avraham man of emunah ( ?????)and
  bitakhon ?????))
• Louis Jacobs object to Kierkegards
  Christological perush

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II. Septuagint Batya with Moshe Rabbeinu at Nile

• Tanakh- Batya sent out maiden????? ?? ????))
• Septuagint and Midrash Rabbah opinion that Batya
  sent out hand (amahtah/ ????? (?? ???

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III. Isaiah 714- Lakhen yiten adonai huh lakhem
oti Hineh haalmah harah veyoledet ben vikarat
shemo Immanuel

• ??? ??? ???? ??? ??? ??? ??? ????? ??? ????? ??
  ????? ??? ??????
• A. Almah ????
• a) betullah ?????
• b) maiden???? ?????
• B. Septuagint
• a) almah parthenos betullah
• C. Ibn Ezra and Radak refute Christological
  inferences

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IV. Keren and Michaelangelo via Vulgate

• Keren / ??? beam of light
• Vulgate of Jerome, Keren horn/ ????
• Tradition of demmonization of Jews
• Nazis willed onto Jews image from iconographic
  art of Jews with pitchforks turning bodies (burn
  bodies overflow crematoria in pits and turn them
  with pitchforks)
• See Joshua Trachtenberg, _The Devil and the Jews_
• Gospel of John
• Ioudaios diabolica spawn of the devil

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Bible Translations

• Tanakh (Hebrew)
• Targumim (Aramaic)
• Septuagint (Greek)
• Vulgate (Latin)
• Tafsir (Arabic)
• Peshita (Syriac)
• Beur (German of Mendelssohn)
• Die Helige Schrift und Ihren Verdeutschung
  (Rosenzweig and Buber)
• LEcrit Sacre (French)

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Literal vs. Poetic Translations

• Everet Fox- Literal
• Rakiah/ ???? Copper Beaten Dome from Cognate
  Akkadian vs. firmament
• Moreh Nevukhim by Yehudah ibn Tibbon vs. Bedarsi
  (poetic) vs. R. Yehudah Alharizi vs. Dalalat
  al-hairin in Arabic vs. Les Guides Des Egares (by
  Shlomo Munk) vs. Friedlanders Guide for the
  Perplexed (England), Shlomo Pines University of
  Chicago edition the Guide

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Politics and Ideologies of Translation

• A. Plaut Humash
• B. Conservative Movements Etz Chaim
• C. Orthodox
• a. Stone Humash
• b. Judaica Press
• c. Aryeh Kaplans _The Living Torah_
• D. JPS Torah Commentary
• E. Rav Kashers Torah Shelemah/ ???? ????
• F. Baruch HaLevi Epsteins Torah Temimah/ ????
  ?????
• G. Editions of Mikraot Gedolot

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Shir HaShirim Mushal Nimshal

• Rav Soloveitchik there is no peshat/ ???, only
  remez/ ???, derash/ ???, vesod/ ???
• Targumim, Rashi, ibn Caspi, ibn Ezra, Saftei
  Hakhamim, Seforno, Metzudath Dovid, Metzudath
  Zion, Likutei Anshei Shem, Ramban, Ashkenazi,
  Alamano, Alshek, etc. see Song as mushal which is
  a vehicle for hinting at something beyond erotic
  love poetry between Shlomo and Shulamit

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Perushim that see Shir Hashirim as a Mushal for
the Beit HaMikdash

• Walls/ ????? walls of beit HaMikdash
• Door/ ??? doors of synagogues
• I. If her faith and belief are as a wall
  withstanding incursions from within, we shall
  become her fortress and beauty, building her city
  and holy temple, but if she waivers like a door,
  then succumbing to every alien knock, with
  fragile cedar panels, shall we then enclose her.
  My faith is firm as a wall, and my nourishing
  synagogues and Beit Midrashim are strong as
  towers (Artscroll translation) ??-???? ??? ????
  ???? ???? ??? ???-??? ??? ???? ???? ??? ??? . ???
  ???? ???? ??????? ?? ????? ?????? ?????? ????

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Oil factory metaphors not perfume of Shulamit but
incense in Beit Hamikdash

• Neraid/ ???
• Kinamon/ ?????
• Callamus
• Karkom/ ?????
• Kaneh/ ???
• Keturat samim shehikteru avotaenu bebeit
  HaMikdash/ ????? ????? ??????? ??????? ???? ?????

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Shuvi Shuvi HaShulamit/ ???? ???? ???????

• Not that Shulamit the woman should return
  physically to Shlomo after wandering in
  Yerushalayim BUT that the Jewish people should
  return in Teshuvah to HaShem if they would only
  observe 2 Shabbatot then mashiakh return.
• No more war, no more famine, knowledge of Hashem
  as wide as H2O in sea, lamb dwell with wolf,
  Shabbos 24/7, one preocupation of world to know
  HaShem, build Beit HaMikdash, ingather galut (See
  Rambam Sefer Shoftim)

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Song as Rationalist philosophic Mushal

• Rationalist philosophic perushim (Rambam,
  Gersonides, Joseph ben Judah ben Jacob ibn Aknin,
  Samuel ibn Tibbon, Jacob Anatoli, Immauel ben
  Solomon of Rome, Joseph ibn Kaspi, R. Alamono)
  see Song as a mushal for the unification of human
  intellect with Sekel HaPoel of Hashem
• Hakesher bein Adam veHashem zeh hasekel hapoel
• To be Tzelem Elokim active intellect

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Mushal of Sefirot for Mikubalim

• Mikubalim see Song as Mushal for unification of
  human intellect with sefirot determined by
  emanation (azilut/ ??????) correlating to
  mazalot/ ?????For example and a river went
  out of Eden to water the garden/ ????? ???? ????
  ?????? ?? ??? (Gen. 210) emanation of material
  intellect on the other faculties of the soul

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Shir HaShirim is Holy of Holies (Rabbi Akiba)

• Shekhinah dwelled in Holy of Holies
• Beit HaMikdash place of Ahavah/ ???? and Akhdut /
  ????? (ahavah 13 ekhad 13 131326Shem
  HaMiphorash/ ?? ????? Shekhinah)
• Ones house beit hamikdash meat/ ???? ???
  (sanctity, kedushah, and purity)
• Make hallah like lekhem panim/ ??? ????
• Make dining table like mizbeakh / ????
• Make kelim teveled in mikvah/ ????? like those in
  Beit HaMikdash
• Relationship between man and wife also one of
  ahavah and akhdut
• Mishnah love without cause/condition/ ????
  ???? spouses happiness is ones own happiness,
  her well being ones own well being, her benefits
  his benefits Shekhinah dwells

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Roses

• (73) Thy body is a heap of wheat, hedged with
  roses/ ???? ???? ???? ???? ???????
• Midrash Tehillim A man marries a woman. She says
  to him I have seen what looks like a red rose
  and he separates from her. What kind of wall is
  there between them? What sort of serpent has
  stung him? What is it that restrains him?- the
  words of Torah

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Pardes Rimonim

• Perush of Metzudas Dovid on Your progeny shall
  be like a Rimon orchard your children shall be
  full of wisdom as a pomegranate is full of 613
  seeds (mitzvoth). /????? ???? ???? ???? ??? ?????
  ??? ????"? ???????
• Pardes Rimonim work by Remak (R. Moshe
  Cordoveros)
• Work by HaRav Moshe David Tendler on family
  purity and bio-medical issues in halakhic context

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My beloved is like a rose amongst the thorns /
?????? ??? ?????? ??? ??????

• Comme la roza entre los espinos ainsi mi
  conpanera entre las duenas Ladino translation

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Essotericism informing practical halakhah ( see
Yakov Katz)

• The rose symbolizes Kenesset Yisrael, as the rose
  among thorns is tinged with red and white, so the
  community of Israel is visited now with justice
  and now with mercy, as the rose possesses 13
  leaves, so Kenesset Israel is vouchsafed with 13
  categories of mercy which surround it on every
  side. The 5 fingers in which the Kiddush cup as
  rose bud is surrounded not only represent 5
  petals but 5 sefirot of atzilut or 5 ways of
  salvation which are 5 gates. This alluded to in
  the pasuk, I will raise up my cup of salvation
  (Tehillim cxvi, 13)/ ???-?????? ??? ???? ?' ????