"Now on Jewish.TV: Sinai Scheduling Conflict Alert!: The Talmud on the Date of the Giving of the Torah - Mendel Kaplan" Jewish.TV - Chabad Video in New York, New York, United States "Why Is Hebrew Called the Holy Tongue (Lashon Hakodesh)? for Thursday, Sivan 10, 5776 · June 16, 2016 by Yehuda Shurpin

"Now on Jewish.TV: Sinai Scheduling Conflict Alert!: The Talmud on the Date of the Giving of the Torah - Mendel Kaplan" Jewish.TV - Chabad Video in New York, New York, United States "Why Is Hebrew Called the Holy Tongue (Lashon Hakodesh)? for Thursday, Sivan 10, 5776 · June 16, 2016 by Yehuda Shurpin
The Hebrew language is extremely potent. The Torah tells us that until the incident of the Tower of Babel, all of mankind spoke the same language: Biblical Hebrew.1 In fact, the power of the Holy Tongue was what fueled the initial success of the tower-builders.2 To deter them, G‑d “confused” their languages, and the many diverse languages were born.3
What makes this language holy?
The Language of Creation
In the book of Genesis we read how G‑d created the world: “G‑d said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”4 This was not simply rhetoric; these words contained the G‑dly energy that created light. The Torah describes ten such phrases—Ten Utterances through which the world was created.5 Everything that exists was created through the energy within those Hebrew words.6
The Kabbalists explain that unlike human speech—which once spoken is gone—G‑dly “speech” is everlasting, as it says in Psalms, “Forever, O G‑d, Your word stands in the heavens.”7 So the Ten Utterances are still in the heavens, constantly re-creating and energizing the world.8 (For more on this, see The Baal Shem Tov on Perpetual Creation.)
Since everything is created through words, the Hebrew name of an object expresses the very energy that gives it existence. This is why it was Adam who named the animals, for it took great wisdom to be able to grasp the character of each animal and give it its true name.
Clean Language
Maimonides, in his Guide for the Perplexed, submits that Hebrew is holy because it doesn’t explicitly name private body parts and acts: “The Hebrew language has no special name for the reproductive organs in females or in males, nor for the act of procreation, nor for semen, nor for excreta. The Hebrew lexicon has no original terms for these things, and describes them only through figurative allusion and hints . . .”9
The Language of Prophecy
Nachmanides takes issue with Maimonides’ opinion, stating that a language cannot be defined as holy simply because it omits seemingly vulgar words—words, he argues, that are not vulgar at all, because sexuality is indeed holy if one’s intentions are pure. Nachmanides is of the opinion that Hebrew is inherently holy because it is the language through which G‑d communicated the Ten Commandments and the Torah on Mount Sinai, it’s the medium for His communication with prophets, and it’s the language of the names of G‑d and His angels.10
The Dilemma
We now come to a paradoxical dilemma. On the one hand, as Maimonides points out, sexual acts and organs do not have Hebrew names because they are seemingly vulgar. On the other hand, since everything in this world exists only because of the energy within its Hebrew name, they must have Hebrew names—which means they must be holy, as Nachmanides believes.
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FOOTNOTES
1. Genesis 11:1.
2. See Zohar I:75b.
3. Genesis 11:6–7.
4. Genesis 1:3.
5. Ethics of the Fathers 5:1. The Ten Utterances consist of the nine times in the creation story that the verses state “G‑d said . . . ,” as well as the first verse in Genesis, “In the beginning, G‑d created the heavens and the earth.”
6. Creations that are not explicitly mentioned in the creation story were created through the transmutation and gematria (numerical value) of the words of the Ten Utterances.
7. Psalms 119:89.
8. See Tanya, Shaar ha-Yichud veha-Emunah, ch. 1.
9. Guide for the Perplexed 3:8.
10. Nachmanides, commentary to Exodus 30:13. by Yehuda Shurpin

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Rabbi Yehuda Shurpin responds to questions for Chabad.org's Ask the Rabbi service.
Artwork by Sefira Ross, a freelance designer and illustrator whose original creations grace many Chabad.org pages. Residing in Seattle, Washington, her days are spent between multitasking illustrations and being a mom.

Sinai Scheduling Conflict Alert!
The Talmud on the date of the giving of the Torah by Mendel Kaplan

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This class analyses the dispute between Rebbi Yose and the Sages regarding the actual date for the Revelation at Sinai. In seeking greater clarity we delve into the Scripture’s detailed description of the necessary preparations that seem to suggest conflicting dates for the actual giving of the Torah. It’s filled with robust cross-examination, analysis, and rebuttal, and that ultimately leads to relative resolution!
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