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DAF DISCUSSIONS - AVODAH ZARAH 9

Sam Kosofsky asked:

The Gemara says that the Romans are a debased people who don't even have their own spoken and written language. They use a borrowed language. It is well known that the Romans spoke Latin (Vulgate) and that it is a written language with a distinct alphabet. That alphabet is used in English, French, Spanish and most modern European languages. Chazal didn't even use the term Latin. Elsewhere they refer to it as Yevanis shel Roma, the Greek of the Romans. While Chazal didn't like Latin they did like Greek. Rebbe (R. Yehuda Hanasi) told people not to speak Sursi (Syriac/targum-lashon/Aramaic) which he didn't like although most people in his time spoke it. He said: "Either speak Hebrew or Greek."

If Latin came from some other nation, do we know who that other nation was? If it's a later language that wasn't part of the original 70 languages as Tosfos indicates couldn't you say that about most modern Romance languages which come from Latin? Are they all, therefore, debased? Liguists believe that most modern languages especially Western ones come from an ancient Indo-European language which predated Latin. Did that language exist right after the mabul?

Should we refrain from speaking debased languages (at least amongst ourselves) that didn't exist right after the mabul?

B'kavod, Sam Kosofsky

The Kollel replies:

Sam, as usual, you have asked another very important question.

1. Rav Yakov Emden writes in his commentary that the Romans stole their language from the Greeks and others, and invented a new script and language which is compiled from other languages.

2. The Chasam Sofer (Chidushim to Gitin 80a, DH d'Ein) writes that at the time of the Dor Haflagah, the world was split into 70 peoples dwelling in 70 countries. Each people possessed its own language according to the nature of the country or according to the constellation or "guiding angel" in Shamayim, or both. However the language and the writings of the Romans was not determined by the nature of their land or by a "Sar" in Shamayim, but instead a man named Latinus invented in the year 2345 after the Creation of the World (1325 BCE) a language based on 19 characters. The entire language was invented according to Latinus' wishes.

3. In his Teshuvos (EH 2:118, DH v'Ye'ayen), the Chasam Sofer writes that Latin was created from Greek. He also cites "Tzemach David" who writes that Latin is not an ancient language, and in the Addendum at the end of Chasam Sofer (CM 193) he writes a similar thing in the name of Sefer ha'Yuchasin by Rav Moseh Zachuta (who lived in Spain shortly before the Expulsion).

4. We learn, therefore, that Latin is an artificial sort of language. In contrast, Greek -- which was one of the real origins of Latin -- is considered by Chazal to be a beautiful language. The verse (Bereshis 9:27) states that as a reward to Yefes for honoring his father, Noach, Hash-m gave beauty to Yefes, the father of Yavan, and promised that he would "dwell in the tents of Shem." See the Mishnah in Megilah (8b), where Raban Shimon ben Gamliel maintains that the only language other than Hebrew in which one may write scrolls ("to dwell in the tents (the synagogues) of Shem (Klal Yisrael)") is Greek. Rashi on the Gemara there (9b, DH Yafyuso) explains that Greek is the most beautiful language of all of those of the sons of Yefes.

5. Accordingly, most modern languauges indeed would be considered debased by Chazal, because they are no more genuine than Latin. There is no Halachic prohibition against speaking these languages, but if possible it certainly is preferable to speak Hebrew, which is the language in which the world was created. See Devarim 11:19: "You should teach your sons the words of the Torah to speak in them." Rashi explains that this teaches us that when a young child starts to speak, his father should converse with him in the holy tongue and teach him Torah in Lashon ha'Kodesh.

G'mar Chasimah Tovah,

Dovid Bloom