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One of my favorite films in recent years was “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” starring Nia Vardalos and John Corbett. My favorite character was Michael Constantine, who played Ms. Vardalos’ father. A man intensely proud of his Greek heritage, he was able to “prove” that virtually every word in English had a Greek etymology. This naturally took a little creativity, as when he was able to show that even the word “kimono” had a basis in Greek. Needless to say, many of us can see ourselves in the character if we substitute “Hebrew” for “Greek”.
The attachment to the Greek language, it turns out, is very Jewish. The Talmud contains a number of Greek words which were carried over into Aramaic. The late Dr. Saul Lieberman, the greatest Talmudic scholar of the twentieth century, was additionally able to show that the Talmud’s Aramaic folk sayings (in Aramaic, “ika d’amrei enashei”) were in fact paraphrases of Greek sayings. You can find a long list of examples in his work entitled Greek in Jewish Palestine, published in 1963.
This led to Greek enjoying a certain special status in the realm of halacha. While some liturgical and religious obligations could only be carried out using Hebrew, in some cases the vernacular, particularly Greek, was also permitted. Consider the example of writing a Torah scroll. Now in point of fact a Torah scroll should be written in Hebrew, but it’s worth noting that in theory, some of the Talmudic sages considered Greek the most acceptable alternative. Consider this passage from the 8th century Devarim Rabbah, commenting on the opening words of this morning’s Torah portion:
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“These are the words" (Deuteronomy 1:1) - Halakhah: Is a Jewish person permitted to write a Torah scroll in any language? This is what the Sages taught: The only difference between Torah scrolls and tefillin or mezuzot is that Torah scrolls may be written in any language. Rabban Gamliel says: One is not permitted for scrolls to be written in another tongue unless they are written in Greek. What is Rabban Gamliel's reasoning that it is permissible to write a Torah scroll in Greek? This is how our Rabbis taught: Bar Kappara said: It is written, "May G-d extend Japhet, may he dwell in the tents of Shem," (Gen. 9:27) that the words of Shem (the Jewish people) may be spoken in the language of Yephet (that is, Greek) - therefore it is permitted that they be written in the Greek language. (opening passage of Deuteronomy Rabbah)
Just imagine if Michael Constantin’s character in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” knew about the sages’ love of the Greek language.
- Rabbi Scott Hoffman
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