Parshas Balak (5779)
“Bigly†is a word popularly believed to have been made up and used by U.S. President Donald Trump, meaning "to a large amount" or "with great intensity." It is most often used in mockery of Donald Trump's speech, mannerisms, and behavior. On September 26, 2016, the first 2016 presidential election debate took place between candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. During this debate, candidate Trump addressed Clinton and said what many viewers heard as: “I’m going to cut taxes bigly, and you’re going to raise taxes bigly, end of storyâ€. For many, this was the first time they had heard Trump say this strange bigly, deeming it an idiosyncrasy or grammatical error, but Trump had apparently been saying bigly throughout his campaign. In transcripts of the September debate, the Associated Press and other major media outlets wrote that Trump had said big league, meaning “big-time†or “in a major wayâ€â€”not bigly. Most attributed the confusion to Trump’s New York accent, which accounts for other “Trumpisms†such as yuge. In an October 2016 interview, Trump himself looked to settle the debate that he had always said big league. The evidence seems to support Trump’s side, as he has never once used bigly in any of his (many, many) tweets whereas, he has been using big league since at least 2012. “Housing prices will be going up big league–a great time to buy–good luck!†— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 26, 2012. The final wrinkle of the story, though, is it turns out that bigly actually is a real word, albeit an obscure and archaic one meaning “greatly.†[quoted from https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/bigly/ ]
Truth be told, it is not very common these days to hear people using archaic and obsolete words like bigly or goodly or thee or thine or sayeth or cometh or betwixt in casual conversation….“How art thou feeling today?“…“I’m feeling goodly!â€
There is one place, though, where one can still find these ridiculously outdated words being used even today… and that would be in your typical Bible translation.
So, for example, in this week’s Torah portion, Parshas Balak, the wicked Bilaam views the Jewish people’s beautiful tents of learning and prayer as well as their modest homes and is forced to bless them, saying: “How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob …†(see Numbers 24:5).
Goodly? See what I mean? Why do contemporary English translations of the Bible have to read like they were read in the Middle Ages? Can’t we update them a bit to make them sound a little less archaic and boring and a little more interesting and relevant?
Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan ZTâ€L writes the following in the introduction to his modern Bible translation The Living Torah (which I highly recommend):
“Most translations of the Torah can be divided into two categories. The “traditional†ones, are for the most part, based on the King James version. Although a superb scholarly work, this translation is not rooted in Jewish sources, and often goes against traditional Jewish teachings. Furthermore, the language is archaic and difficult for the modern reader. Although the modern translations may be more readable, they are often even more divorced from Jewish sources than the others… Therefore, the philosophy of this translation [The Living Torah] has been to treat the Torah as a living document. Our Sages teach that “every day the Torah should be as new†(see Deuteronomy 26:16 and Rashi ibid. citing Midrash Tanchuma). This indicates that even a translator may not treat the Torah as an archaic document. It also implies that archaic or obsolete language must not be used when translating the Torah, because this language gives the impression of the Torah being old, not new. Thus, for example, many purists still insist on translation the second person singular as ‘thee’, because Hebrew distinguishes between the second person singular and plural. It is obvious that this would, indeed, make the translation more ‘accurate’. But on the other hand, it would also give the text an archaic flavor, no matter how modern the rest of the language.â€
The fact is that the Torah that the Jewish people received at Mount Sinai well over 3300 years ago is as relevant and timely today as it was on the day it was given.
As Ben Bag Bag teaches in Ethics of the Fathers (5:26): “Delve in it [the Torah] and [continue to] delve in it, for everything is in it; look deeply into it…â€
Rabbeinu Yonah explains that the Torah is a self-contained guide to life; all of the world’s wisdom is contained in it. And Rashi adds that one should look deeply and constantly into Torah, for it yields its messages only after one penetrates below the surface.
Many of the greatest minds in Jewish history spent a good portion of their lives studying the Torah and mining its depths for the answers to all the difficulties and mysteries of life.
So don’t let those goodly but archaic English bible translations throw thee. Our Torah - the Living Torah – is alive and well, thank G-d, and has all the “ingredients†in it that we need today to survive and thrive and to lead spiritually meaningful and fulfilling lives.
MAY YE HAVE A GOODLY SABBATH!
[Ed. Note: These days it is incredibly easy to access the wisdom and depth of the Torah simply by visiting websites like Aish.com, Chabad.org and Torah.org (and there are a gazillion more!). You will be amazed at just how much there is to learn from our “ancient†Torah!]
http://www.torchweb.org/torah_detail.php?id=574