HeAruch * (The Index)

by Rabbi Nathan son of Yechiel, from the city of Rome *

The Oldest Hebrew/Aramaic Dictionary

Rabbi Nathan son of Yechiel (1050?-1100),* dean of the Torah academy in Rome toward the end of the 11th century ce, authored a comprehensive dictionary of words which Torah scholars would find in the Talmud and Midrash.  Yet his work is more than a dictionary.  It serves as an index to the Talmudic literature by citing critical occurrences of simple words.  In fact, it is not unlikely that the Hebrew title was chosen to reflect the Greek word that comes down to us as "archive."  In modern terms, Rabbi Nathan's work is a "virtual Talmud."

The single volume edition is smaller than an abridged, desktop dictionary of the English language.  It seems as if Rabbi Nathan found ink as precious as blood, and paper as valuable as gold!

More recent scholars have expanded the text by writing abbreviations in full.  They have added citations to the page numbers of printed editions of the Talmud.  Scholars have also translated word entries into Yiddish and, when warranted, into Greek and Latin.

The entry which mentions the Seven Noahide Commandments appears under the Hebrew word for "seven."  This citation seems to belong to a group that could be called "rules of seven."  In fact, a later scholar inserted a reference to the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin, page 56 – the foremost discussion of the Seven Noahide Commandments.

However, Rabbi Nathan's citation is from the verse in Genesis, "The L-rd G-d commanded about the man, saying . . ." (a very literal rendering of Genesis 2:16).  While it is true that this verse is discussed in the Talmud, we cannot be sure that Rabbi Nathan was only quoting the Talmud.  In contrast, the other "rules of seven" are clearly legal statements that originated in the Oral Tradition and not words of Scripture.

It seems to me that Rabbi Nathan is answering a nagging question that no one seems to specifically ask until Rabbi Abraham Antibi in the 1820's.  Every word of Scripture has immense value.  No word is extra.  It frequently occurs that a Scriptual statement could have been worded with fewer words and nevertheless the statement has a seemingly extra word.  For such a case, one rule is that there is an additional lesson in the additional word.

The question is: why did G-d command about the man?  Did he direct the command to the trees in the garden?  No!  He commanded the man himself, directly.  It seems to me that this is a question that bothers Rabbi Nathan.

And so Rabbi Nathan writes (after the partial quote from Genesis 2:16), "He [G-d] commanded him [the man] about the topic of Seven Commandments."  Adam received instructions at this time to be careful of seven different commandments.  Later commandments that appear in the Torah are not like this.  Usually G-d commands the Israelites to do something or to not do something.  Then G-d speaks again issuing another command to the Israelites.

In the case of Adam, when G-d commanded him to obey seven specific laws, Scripture measures its words.  Since the Seven Commandments are sensible and Adam himself was able to arrive at them through reasoning, the single word 'about' in the Scriptural record is enough to acquaint us with the subject of morality and ethics.  The rest of verse 16 and verse 17 come to teach us additional dimensions which I plan to place on the page of Scriptural sources.

This interpretation is based on Rabbi Nathan's entry in his dictionary and answers a greater question.  Rabbi Nathan cites verse 16 in Genesis Chapter 2 – “The L-rd G-d commanded about the man, saying, ‘You will certainly eat from every tree in the garden.’”  But this is not a command according to any translation.

"Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat;"  (JPS old)

"Of every tree of the garden you are free to eat;"  (JPS new)

"You may definitely eat from every tree of the garden."  (Living Torah)

"You may freely eat of every tree of the garden;"  (Revised Standard Version)

"You will continually be eating from every tree of the garden."  (my literal translation)

Regardless of the translation, the content of these words is not a commandment.  To give permission to eat is not a command.  To announce that life depends on eating is not a commandment.  Surely Adam and Eve had to start eating in order to live, and they would have learned quickly enough how to eat to stay healthy.

The way of Scripture is to cut straight to the essence:

G-d commanded the man, saying: "Do not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil" (fusing the essence of verses 16 and 17 in Genesis 2).

In Hebrew, this would amount to twelve words, and this reduces two verses to one single verse.  Instead, Scripture uses eighteen words spread out over two verses for the commandment when this one shorter verse would have said it all.

Beyond this, verse 16 itself has several seemingly superfluous words:

• Two words for the Almighty are written in this verse when one would have been enough.
• The word 'about' seems unnecessary.  By writing this word, it sounds as though G-d is delivering this command to someone or something else other than Adam and Eve.

The unusual structure of verses 16 and 17 calls out to us that we have a proof-text for a command that is not obvious at all.  As a matter of fact, six of the Seven Noahide Commandments are contained in the one verse -- verse 16.  So, Rabbi Nathan's entry in his dictionary is simply "He commanded concerning the man."  In Hebrew, this translation amounts to three words:

In the original Hebrew, every word or phrase suggests a commandment.  So, Rabbi Nathan writes that the words of verse 16 in Genesis, Chapter 2, ". . . are the seven commandments which Adam and Eve [and their descendants] were commanded [by G-d]."

About Rabbi Abraham Antibi

Rabbi Antibi, the son of Rabbi Isaac, was born in 1765 in Aleppo, Syria.  The book of his to which I am referring is called Yoshev Oholim,* dedicated to the memory of his father who passed away in 1804.  The book was completed in 1824 in Aleppo and printed in Livorno, Italy in 1825.  Rabbi Antibi passed away in 1858.

Pronunciation and Notes:

HeAruch - heh AW rookh

Nathan - NAH tahn in Hebrew;  Rabbi Nathan was a disciple of Rabbeinu Hananel and Rabbi Moshe HaDarshan.

Yechiel - yuh KHEE uhl

city of Rome - where he was Rosh Yeshivah:  dean of the Torah academy.

1100 - Rabbi Mattis Kantor writes that Rabbi Nathan died in 1105 ce, several months after Rashi died.  Rashi died on 29 Tammuz 1105 (late summer 4865).  Accordingly, "several months" later is in the next Jewish year, 4866.  Only two months remained between Rashi's death and Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year – Av and Elul.

Antibi - ahn TEE bee

Yoshev Oholim - yoh SHEHV aw hah LEEM