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The Politics, Ethics, Theology, and Hermeneutics of Translations

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

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The Politics, Ethics, Theology, and Hermeneutics of Translations

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  1. 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

  2. Thoughts on translation “The Art of the Translator” (Walter Benjamim) Learning a translation is like kissing the kalah through a veil (Bialik)ללמד תרגום זה כמו לנשק את הכלה דרך צעיף (3) Anyone who translates is a liar but anyone who doesn’t translate is a thief (Agnon) כל מי שמתרגם הוא שקרן אבל כל מי שאינו מתרגם הוא גזלן (4) Learning the Zohar in translation is like eating raw animal feed.ללמד את הזהר בתרגום זה כמו לאכול מאכל חיות

  3. 6 Examples to Show Translations are Often Interpretations • I. Tafsir (Tanakh in Arabic) regarding Akedah (nisayonנסיון)(/test) • Akedah raises ? of Hashem’s yedidah (foreknowledge/ידידה ) and hashgakhah pratit (השגחה פרטית/predestination) and human being’s behira (free will/ בחירה חפשית) • HaKol Tzophuyey veReshut Nitanah ( הכל צפוי והרשות נתונה) • _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 ואמר אל תשלח ידך אל –הנער ואל-תעש לו מאומה כי עתה ידעתי כי-ירא אלקים אתה ולא חשכת את-בנך את יחידך ממני • Degel Yehudah- nisayon to educate Avraham and world that Avraham man of emunah ( אמונה)and bitakhon בטחון)) • Louis Jacobs object to Kierkegard’s Christological perush

  4. II. Septuagint: Batya with Moshe Rabbeinu at Nile • Tanakh- Batya sent out maidenותשלח את אמתה)) • Septuagint and Midrash Rabbah opinion that Batya sent out hand (amahtah/ ותשלח (את ידה

  5. III. Isaiah 7:14- Lakhen yiten adonai huh lakhem oti Hineh haalmah harah veyoledet ben vikarat shemo Immanuel לכן יתן אדני הוא לכם אות הנה העלמה הרה וילדת בן וקראת שמו עמנואל A. Almah= עלמה a) betullah בתולה = b) maidenעלמה בוגרת = B. Septuagint a) almah= parthenos= betullah C. Ibn Ezra and Radak refute Christological inferences

  6. IV. Keren and Michaelangelo via Vulgate • Keren/ קרן= beam of light • Vulgate of Jerome, Keren= horn/ שופר • 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

  7. 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) • L’Ecrit Sacre (French)

  8. Literal vs. Poetic Translations • Everet Fox- Literal • Rakiah/ רקיע= 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. Friedlander’s Guide for the Perplexed (England), Shlomo Pines University of Chicago edition the Guide

  9. Politics and Ideologies of Translation • A. Plaut Humash • B. Conservative Movement’s Etz Chaim • C. Orthodox a. Stone Humash b. Judaica Press c. Aryeh Kaplan’s _The Living Torah_ D. JPS Torah Commentary E. Rav Kasher’s Torah Shelemah/ תורה שלמה F. Baruch HaLevi Epstein’s Torah Temimah/ תורה תמימה G. Editions of Mikraot Gedolot

  10. Shir HaShirim= Mushal & Nimshal • Rav Soloveitchik: “there is no peshat/ פשט, only remez/ רמז, derash/ דרש, vesod/ סוד” • 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

  11. Perushim that see Shir Hashirim as a Mushal for the Beit HaMikdash • Walls/ חומות= walls of beit HaMikdash • Door/ דלת= 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) אם-חומה היא נבנה עליה טירת כסף ואם-דלת היא נצור עליה לוח ארז . אני חומה ושדי כמגדלות אז הייתי בעיניו כמוצאת שלום

  12. Oil factory metaphors not perfume of Shulamit but incense in Beit Hamikdash • Neraid/ נרד • Kinamon/ קנמון • Callamus • Karkom/ כרכום • Kaneh/ קנה = Keturat samim shehikteru avotaenu bebeit HaMikdash/ קטורת הסמים שהקטירו אבותינו בבית המקדש

  13. Shuvi Shuvi HaShulamit/ שובי שובי השולמית • 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)

  14. 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

  15. Mushal of Sefirot for Mikubalim • Mikubalim see Song as Mushal for unification of human intellect with sefirot determined by emanation (azilut/ עצילות) correlating to mazalot/ מזלותFor example: “ and a river went out of Eden to water the garden/ והנהר יוצא מעדן להשקות את הגן (Gen. 2:10)= emanation of material intellect on the other faculties of the soul

  16. Shir HaShirim is Holy of Holies (Rabbi Akiba) • Shekhinah dwelled in Holy of Holies • Beit HaMikdash place of Ahavah/ אהבה and Akhdut / אחדות (ahavah= 13; ekhad= 13; 13+13=26=Shem HaMiphorash/ שם המפרש= Shekhinah) • One’s house= beit hamikdash me’at/ מקדש מעת (sanctity, kedushah, and purity) • Make hallah like lekhem panim/ לחם פנים • Make dining table like mizbeakh/ מזבח • Make kelim teveled in mikvah/ מקווה like those in Beit HaMikdash • Relationship between man and wife also one of ahavah and akhdut • Mishnah: “love without cause/condition/ אהבה לשמה”; spouses happiness is one’s own happiness, her well being one’s own well being, her benefits his benefits= Shekhinah dwells

  17. “Roses” • (7:3) “Thy body is a heap of wheat, hedged with roses”/ בטנך ערמת חטים סוגה בשושנים • 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”

  18. 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). /בניכם יהיו מלאי חכמה כמו הרמון מלא בתרי"ג גרעינים • Pardes Rimonim= work by Remak (R. Moshe Cordoveros) • Work by HaRav Moshe David Tendler on family purity and bio-medical issues in halakhic context

  19. “My beloved is like a rose amongst the thorns” / אהובתי כמו השושנה בין החוחים • Comme la roza entre los espinos ainsi mi conpanera entre las duenas= Ladino translation

  20. 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)/ כוס-ישועות אשא ובשם ה' אקרא”

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