More Discussions for this daf
1. Re: Last two Parshios of Tefillin, Foreign words in the Torah 2. Did the Amoraim have a different Torah than today? 3. Revi'is Dam
4. Derashah on Karnot Karnot Karnot 5. How Many Judges? 6. Rules Unique to Kodshim
DAF DISCUSSIONS - SANHEDRIN 4

Mordechai Dixler writes:

I wanted to add to your Insights to Sanhedrin 004b regarding the issue of how Bnei Yisroel could have put on tefillin if two of the parshios were not yet given. The Netziv says in HaEmek Davar on the possuk of Shema Yisrael in Vaeschanon (Dev. 6:4) that Yakov Avinu said this possuk, as we see in Pesachim [56a] so the possuk was around before Moshe put it in the Torah. He says this is the case with many pesukim - they were known earlier, and a Navi later put them in. This must be the case,he says, because Klal Yisrael were metzuva in the mitzva of tefillin before Vihaya and Shema were given, so they must have had these parshios before they were recorded in the Torah.

Regarding your discussion of foreign languages in the Torah, how was it that the Torah wrote words in these languages before the nations that spoke these languages even existed (like 'hen' from the Greek 'henos')? I've heard it said that they're really Lashon kodesh words and the respective nations took the words into their languages. Have you seen such an answer? My difficulty with this approach is that these words sound very different than normal Lashon Kodesh words. They really sound foreign. 'Yigar Sahadusa' sounds more Aramaic than Lashon Kodesh.

I was thinking a possible approach would be that these words have their roots in the seventy languages that began at Migdal Bavel. The Greek 'henos' would have its root in one of those seventy. That event preceded the times they were written in the Torah.

G'mar Chasima Tova,

Mordechai Dixler

The Kollel responds:

The approach you had difficulty with is cited in Yosef Da'as here in the name of the SHELAH, the NACHAL KEDUMIM (Va'eschanan) and TALMIDEI HA'ARI.