How the Words of the Holy Language Were Distorted

The Hebrew language – the language of the Torah, the Mishnah, and the Talmud – was common among the majority of our people since the days of the sages. In this language, Jewish scholars also wrote extensive and rich Torah literature in various holy domains such as Halacha, ethics, and more, using a diverse vocabulary available to them from these sources.

However, about 150 years ago, members of the "Enlightenment" movement began to "renew" the Hebrew language, as they claimed it did not meet the needs of the modern age. By taking existing Hebrew words and assigning them different, sometimes opposite, meanings, their actions led to a distortion of the original meanings and misunderstandings of the words of the Torah and the sages. Here are some examples:

It would be beneficial for someone to create a dictionary that compiles all these new words and presents their true, original meanings.

The Beginning of Language Diversification

As mentioned, after humans began building the Tower of Babel as a symbol of rebellion against Hashem, the Torah says: "And Hashem said: 'Behold, they are one people with one language, and this is what they have begun to do'." Therefore, He instructed the spiritual overseers appointed over the nations: "Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that no one understands the language of the other."

The Nature of the Sin of the Tower of Babel and the Reason for Their Punishment by Language Confusion

In the Targum of Yonatan Ben Uziel, it is explained that the builders of the Tower of Babel intended to create a tall tower with a statue on top holding a sword upwards, symbolizing their rebellion. In the mystical texts of the Zohar, it is stated that during this time, which was close to creation, people were knowledgeable in heavenly spiritual systems and knew them thoroughly. The people of Babel wanted, after the flood, to use supernatural actions by forcibly binding the angels responsible for those realms to act according to human will, by commanding them in the holy tongue (since the angels do not have free will, they can be motivated through commands in the code of each one's incantation without resistance. This is possible only in the holy tongue, as it is the essence and nature of creation. However, those who do so improperly are ultimately harmed). Their ultimate aim was to perform wonders until they led humanity to worship the forces of the evil side. Since they knew all suffering and harsh decrees descending to the world come from the Samael and his troops (who are appointed by Hashem to punish people to purify them from their transgressions' stains and to cleanse them), they thought that by serving these forces, harsh decrees would not befall them. Since they chose to use the holy tongue and its secrets to sin by summoning the celestial angels to fulfill their negative desires and eventually serve the Samael's forces, Hashem confused and distorted their languages so they could not misuse the holy tongue. The meaning of "navaala" – they were confused. As Rashi comments in his explanation of the Torah there. The source is from the Torah, concerning the place's name "Babel": "There, Hashem confused the language of the whole earth".

However, how was this linguistic confusion executed in this world?

Simply put, "He who teaches man knowledge made them forget the knowledge of their language," as Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra writes in his Torah commentary. This means their original language was forgotten, and a new and unique language was born for each nation. He further wrote there are those who say "their hearts turned to hate one another, and each innovated a language." According to this view, hatred led each group to deliberately create a language unique to them, despite knowing the original language. However, over generations, the original was forgotten, and the new one remained. Only Eber (son of Shelah, son of Arpachshad, son of Shem, son of Noah), a renowned righteous person of his generation who did not partake in building the rebellious tower, retained the original holy tongue unchanged. This language, which became unique to Eber, was preserved to be taught and passed only to those who followed Hashem's ways. Thus, it was transmitted by him to Abraham, his descendant (Eber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, Terah, Abraham). Abraham was called Abraham the Hebrew because after leaving his father Terah's idolatry, and returning to the righteous path of his great-grandfather Eber, he learned the preserved original holy tongue from him and became fluent in it. As stated by the sages in the Midrash, he was named Abraham the Hebrew because "he converses in the Hebrew tongue". This language was passed by Abraham to future generations and became unique to Abraham's descendants, so much so that even Pharaoh, the King of Egypt who was wise and well-versed in all seventy languages, found himself baffled when Joseph successfully passed the seventy languages test and began speaking with him in the holy tongue. Thus, this language became the language of the people of Israel and is named after Eber, as the Hebrew language.

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A deeper layer to this matter is added by Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, who writes in his Torah commentary that the new and different languages created among the people of the dispersion era were not entirely new languages, but rather confused languages resulting from the "withering" of the original language, which is the holy tongue, that was corrupted among them. This was due either to "He who teaches man knowledge made them forget the knowledge of their language," or from an initiative they wrought out of hatred for one another. In other words, every word in the holy tongue withered and deteriorated in various forms, thus creating the different languages. This is the explanation of "and there confound their language," in the sense of "wilting." Like a flower that wilts, shrinks, and its form becomes distorted.

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