parsha of the week

Learning Torah in Hebrew: Nuance in every letter

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Please note: In this week's print edition, Rabbi Billet's column (this one) appeared under Rabbi Etengoff's name (and vice-versa). We're sorry for the confusion.

One of the fascinating aspects of actual Torah study comes in the subtlety of language. How a specific word (and sometimes even a single letter) is used opens the door to interpretation that is lost when Torah is studied through a translation.

Here is a wonderful example of this. Someone reading a translation of verses 41:15-16 in this week’s parsha, Miketz, would miss the oddity of an additional word which need not be in the text. As Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan translates it in his “Living Torah”: Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. I heard that when you hear a dream, you can explain it.” Joseph answered Pharaoh, “It is not by my own power. But G-d may provide an answer concerning Pharaoh’s fortune.”

Nothing seems amiss or afoul here. And then, Rabbi Kaplan is not famous for a literal translation. His translation is a commentary as well in an attempt to give form and structure to the Torah’s narrative. And so, when we look at the Hebrew, we find something that need not be said. Pharaoh said, “I have heard about you ‘laymor’ (saying) that you will hear a dream and interpret it.” And Yosef answered ‘laymor’ (saying), “Not me. G-d will give the answer for Pharaoh’s peace (of mind).”

The word laymor is used most often in the Torah to describe either that which G-d told Moshe, or that which Moshe will tell the people based on G-d’s instruction. Here, however, the word laymor is superfluous in both contexts in which it appears. Pharaoh need only say, “I have heard that you hear dreams and interpret them,” and Yosef’s response should simply be, “And Yosef answered, “It’s not me. G-d will provide the answer.”

The Talmud tells us in Sanhedrin 56b that the word laymor actually has another meaning. If one looks back to Bereshit 2:16, one finds the verse that describes how G-d commanded the original human — and from this verse the Talmud derives the seven Noachide laws. The verse itself translates to “G-d gave the man a commandment, saying, ‘You may definitely eat from every tree of the garden’,” and from the word in the middle – laymor (saying) — the Talmud implies the command against immorality and promiscuity.

From the extra word Pharaoh throws at Yosef — and from the same word that Yosef throws back at Pharaoh — an implication can be derived that the accusation that sent Yosef to prison is still hovering over his head.

Pharaoh is therefore hinting at this when he says, “I’ve heard about your laymor (business with the wife of Potiphar) AND that you interpret dreams.” Yosef’s response is, “The laymor (business) is not me! (In other words, it was and remains a false accusation!) AND G-d will provide the answer.”

If we think about Yosef’s ordeal, we may come to think about any person who is sent to prison for a crime they did not commit —especially when the sentence is long and they profess their innocence to the point that no one believes them, to the point that it becomes a joke. “Yeah yeah, Yosef. Of course you’re innocent. Like everyone else.”

But let’s recall what Yosef said to the chief wine pourer in last week’s parsha: “When you are freed, mention me to Pharaoh, for I was kidnapped from the land of Ivrim, and here I have done nothing wrong.”

It could very well be that when the wine pourer did tell his boss about Yosef, that he remembered to mention all these things as well. And since Pharaoh had taken Yosef out to interpret dreams, he needed to find out if Yosef’s criminality was a real issue, or if what he had been told in Yosef’s name from his wine pourer had truth to it.

Throwing the subtle hint to Yosef through the word laymor may have been his way of saying to Yosef, “Now that you are here, you have the hearing you’ve always wanted. You’ll get one chance to clear your name. Use it well.”

And Yosef does do well. He catches Pharaoh’s softball, denies all connection to what he was accused of, and moves on to the business at hand. It is not so farfetched to see the behind-the-scenes narrative taking this turn, because anyone who reads the chapter in which Yosef is accused could easily note how when Potiphar gets angry (39:19) it was at his wife, and not at Yosef who he trusted with his whole household. He had to throw Yosef in prison because of course his wife is believed over the word of a mere slave/servant. But the jail was in his own house (see 40:3 when the chief wine pourer and baker were placed in the same prison).

The lesson here is this: Learn Torah in the original Hebrew. It opens the door for so many more questions and for incredible answers, but also opens a pandoras box of interpretation gleaned from the subtle addition of an unnecessary phrase, word, or even letter.