…And Another Reason I Rhyme in Aramaic December 3, 2007

One love to A Simple Jew for telling me this beautiful piece of Zohar I never knew before, praising the Aramaic language — shedding more of a light onto the reasoning behind why G-d chose it as the language for the first vernacular translation of the Torah:

“The Aramaic language is certain to subjugate the Sitra Achra and break its strength, elevating the glory of the Blessed Holy One. It breaks powerful locks, fetters, chains, and all klippos. Hashem then remembers His Name and His children.”

The Sitra Achra literally means the “Other Side” where all evil forces are said to “originate from”. More loosely, it’s the sum total of all the evil forces in the universe at any point in time.

Hashem’s “remembering His Name” means that the G-d’s Attribute of Mercy (which corresponds to the Tetragrammaton/”L-rd”, as opposed to Elokim/”G-d”, the Attribute of Judgment) comes to the forefront — to the “front of His Mind” so to speak — and this, in turn, causes G-d to deal with us in mercy and kindness and not strict judgment. And all the “chains and locks” that separate us from our Creator, all of these are broken down — by using the first language of the streets, the first language of exile.

The concluding words of the Zohar which follow the above quote are no less beautiful:

.זכאין אינון עמא קדישא, דקב”ה יהב לון אורייתא קדישא, למזכי בי’ לעלמא דאתי
Praiseworthy are the Holy Nation, that the Holy One, Blessed is He gave them the Torah, in order to hook them up in the Next World.