The Holy and Other Holy Languages - Fraenkelufer 5778

What did he do? He arose and assembled 250 men, fitted to be heads of the Sanhedrin, most of them of the tribe of Reuben who were his neighbours, viz., Elizur the son of Shedeur, (the prince of the tribe of Reuben; cf. Numbers 1:5), and his colleagues, and others of a similar standing, ... and he attired them in robes of pure purple wool. They then came and stood before Moses and said to him, “Is a garment that is entirely of purple subject to the law of Zizith or is it exempt”? He replied to them: “It is subject to that law”. Whereupon they began to jeer at him: “Is this possible? A robe of any different coloured material, one thread of purple attached to it exempts it, and this that is entirely of purple should it not exempt itself (i.e. ipso facto be exempt) from the law of “Zizith”? (Midrash Tanchuma, Korach 2).

(1) The following are said in any language: the paragraph of Sotah (Numbers 5:19-22), declaration of tithes (Deuteronomy 26:13), the recitation of Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-9), prayer, the blessing after a meal, the oath of testimony, and the oath of a deposit. (2) And the following are said in the holy tongue: The recitation for first fruits (Deuteronomy 26:5-10), chalitsah [the ceremony performed to release a widow of a childless man from a marriage to her brother-in-law] (Deuteronomy 25:7-8), the blessings and curses (Deuteronomy 27-28), the blessing of the priests (Numbers 6:24-26), the blessing of the high priest, the paragraph of the king, the paragraph of Eglah Arufah (Deuteronomy 21:7-8), and the priest anointed for war when he would speak to the nation (Deuteronomy 20:3-4).

(1) (Devarim 11:19) "And you shall teach them to your sons to speak in them": and not to your daughters — whence they ruled: When a child begins to speak, his father should speak to him in the holy tongue and teach him Torah; and if he does not do so, it is as if he had buried him, it being written "And you shall teach them (words of Torah) to your sons to speak in them … (21) so that your days will be multiplied and the days of your sons." And if not, your days will be shortened. For thus are words of Torah expounded: From the negative, you infer the positive; and from the positive, the negative.

Rav Yitzḥak bar Avdimi said: One time I followed Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi into the bathhouse on Shabbat to assist him, and I sought to place a jar of oil in the bathtub for him, to heat the oil somewhat before rubbing it on him. And he said to me: Take water from the bath in a secondary vessel and place the oil into it. ... The Gemara is astonished by this story: How did Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi do this? How did he teach his student halakha in the bathhouse? Didn’t Rabba bar bar Ḥana say that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: In all places, it is permitted to contemplate Torah matters except for the bathhouse and the bathroom? And if you say that he spoke to him in a secular language, didn’t Abaye say: Secular matters are permitted to be spoken in the sacred language, Hebrew, even in the bathhouse, and sacred matters may not be spoken in the bathhouse even in a secular language? The Gemara answers: It was permitted for Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi to conduct himself in that manner because he was preventing an individual from violating a prohibition, which is different.

(4) When the people of Israel went into exile in the days of the wicked Nebucednezzar, they mingled with the Persians, Greeks and other nations. In those foreign countries, children were born to them, whose language was confused. Everyone's speech was a mixture of many tongues. No one was able, when he spoke, to express his thoughts adequately in any one language, otherwise than incoherently, as it is said, "And their children spoke half in the speech of Ashdod and they could not speak in the Jews' language, but according to the language of each people" (Nehemiah 13:24). Consequently, when anyone of them prayed in Hebrew, he was unable adequately to express his needs or recount the praises of God, without mixing Hebrew with other languages. When Ezra and his Council realized this condition, they ordained the Eighteen Benedictions in their present order. The first three blessings consist of praises of God and the last three, of thanksgiving to Him. The intermediate benedictions are petitions for the things which may stand as categories of all the desires of the individual and the needs of the community. The object aimed at was that these prayers should be in an orderly form in everyone's mouth, that all should learn them, and thus the prayer of those who were not expert in speech would be as perfect as that of those who had command of a chaste style. For the same reason, they arranged [in a fixed form] all the blessings and prayers for all Jews so that the substance of every blessing should be familiar and current in the mouth of one who is not expert in speech.

The opinion of Maimonides is that our language is called Lashon Hakodesh, the holy tongue, because there are no specific words for sexual acts and anatomy, rather it employs euphemisms such as 'that place'. This in itself teaches us how important it is to be modest in our speech, since this alone makes the language holy. However, I don't believe this is the reason for calling it holy, because then it wouldn't be holy in itself. Rather, its holiness is can be explained this way. Language is the fruit of what people express with their lips, and each and every nation have their own language, just as every tree has its own fruit, all different from each other. But Lashon Hakodesh is the speech employed by the holy aspects of man. For each person has two languages: one is holy, and relates to the holy parts in their being; the second is popular, because people also have profane aspects of their being. [...] And speech is the way that humanity realises its potential, in that they are speaking-creatures. The world fulfils its potential through humanity, which was created last, and they are fulfilled through speech. And through Lashon Hakodesh, perfection is fulfilled, therefore the world was created in this language. Therefore, Maimonides' reasoning is backwards, and it has no sexual vocabulary because it is holy, and not the other way around.

Know this: all the world is impregnated by divinity, and nothing is empty of God. Even someone engaged in commerce with non-Jews cannot be excused, saying "I can't serve God because I'm trapped in material things, being busy with this work." For our sages already revealed to us that we can find godliness in every material thing and in every foreign language. Otherwise, their languages would have no life in them, as it says "You give life to all." Its life power is just concealed and dormant, just as God conceals God's self in this world [...] this is what the Sages hinted at in teaching us (Menachot 34b) "Tot in the language of Kafti is two, Fot in the language of Afriki is two." - this was taught for us to understand that God's presence resides in every language, giving it life. This is also hinted in the Talmud (yTaanit 81) "If you are asked, 'Where is your God?', you should reply, 'In the great city of Rome!'"

Rabbi Nachman taught that the essence of prayer is to cleave to God, and it would have been better to pray in Yiddish, which we speak, because when one prayers in their spoken language the heart is close and present in the words of prayer, and one can cleave closer to God. But since the Great Assembly already dictated the order of prayer to us (since not everyone can order their prayers alone), we have to pray in the Holy Tongue as they instructed. Still, the important thing is to focus on the simple meaning of the words, which is the essence of every prayer. And as for one who speaks the Holy Tongue always, like a Jerusalemite, doesn't even have to think about the meaning of the words, just focus their attention on what they are saying.