New on the site: Michi-bot. An intelligent assistant based on the writings of Rabbi Michael Avraham.

What is the end?

שו”תWhat is the end?
asked 1 year ago

To Mikhi, hello, I’m interested in your opinion on the style of laws that today seem completely unnecessary (and even when they were made, they seemed unnecessary). I’ll take for example the matter of reading two verses and one translation, for what?!, Who is it good for?! Two verses, I understand that reading a text twice is beneficial for long-term memory, but translation?! Why break my teeth over words that I don’t even understand when the initial goal was the complete opposite? (To understand the Torah through translation) Let’s say during the Talmud, but who exactly spoke Aramaic during the Shulchan Arash? Why did he write that “He who fears heaven will read the translation”?
I would appreciate your response.

Leave a Reply

0 Answers
מיכי Staff answered 3 weeks ago

I feel the same way. The essence of the matter is the perception that this is a formal halakhah and therefore it is binding even when its reason is invalid until the Sanhedrin comes and changes it. After that come the justifications in retrospect, such as that it is a good tool for learning Aramaic (for the Talmudists. At least before Steinsaltz and Schottenstein).
I really don’t understand the poskim who made this a formal halacha. It doesn’t appear that way in the Gemara.

יהונתן ששון replied 1 year ago

In general, solutions can be found for this type of law, such as two readings and one translation. Rashi's commentary can be read as a translation.

Moshe Sellam replied 1 year ago

In my personal opinion, Onculus' commentary is dozens of times better than Rashi's, if only for the simple reason that he tries to distance himself from the concept of fulfillment in a fundamental way (and this educates for healthier thinking in my opinion). Rashi's commentary that is based on Midrash (not a simple commentary at all) does not try to do this, and introduces concepts of understanding the Midrash literally. And Maimonides has already written about this.

לומד replied 1 year ago

I must say that it did help me learn Aramaic 🙂
Of course, it requires more effort to match the words in the translation to the words in the verse, so you can't just shred.
What's more, there are quite a few verses where the translation sheds light, or changes the understanding of the verse quite a bit.

לומד replied 1 year ago

*Aramaic

Leave a Reply

Back to top button