How the invention of the Computer Influenced a Haggadah Translation
Post date: Feb 23, 2018 12:20:50 PM
After the ten plagues which the Holy One, blessed is He, brought upon the Egyptians in Egypt, we find a lengthy midrash in which three rabbis (R’ Yossi haGlili, R’ Eliezer and R’ Akiva) argue over the number of plagues God brought over the Egyptians, be it 60 (Rabbi Yossi), 240 (R’Eliezer) or 300 (R’Akiva)!
Rabbi Yosi the Gallilean said: How do you know that the Egyptians were stricken by ten plagues in Egypt, and then were struck by fifty plagues at the sea? In Egypt it says of them, "The magicians said to Pharaoh `This is the finger of G-d.' At the sea it says, "Israel saw the great hand that the L-rd laid against Egypt; and the people feared the L-rd, and they believed in the L-rd and in His servant Moses." Now, how often were they smitten by `the finger'? Ten plagues! Thus you must conclude that in Egypt they were smitten by ten plagues, at the sea they were smitten by fifty plagues!
Rabbi Eliezer said: How do we know that each individual plague which the Holy One, blessed be He, brought upon the Egyptians in Egypt consisted of four plagues? For it is said: "He sent against them His fierce anger, fury, and indignation, and trouble, a discharge of messengers of evil": `Fury,' is one; `Indignation,' makes two; `Trouble,' makes three; `Discharge of messengers of evil,' makes four. Thus you must now say that in Egypt they were struck by forty plagues, and at the sea they were stricken by two hundred plagues.
Rabbi Akiva said: How do we know that each individual plague which the Holy One, blessed be He, brought upon the Egyptians in Egypt consisted of five plagues? For it is said: "He sent against them his fierce anger, fury, and indignation, and trouble, a discharge of messengers of evil": "His fierce anger," is one; "fury," makes two; "indignation," makes three; "trouble," makes four; "discharge of messengers of evil," makes five. Thus you must now say that in Egypt they were struck by fifty plagues, and at the sea they were stricken by two hundred and fifty plagues.
(Haggadah of Pesach - Translation taken from Chabad Haggadah, 2010)
The expressions "How do you know that" has been translated over the years in many different ways. Here a few examples:
[The first English Haggadah translator, Alexander (London, 1770), made many hilarious mistakes in his translation. One of these was to have Rabbi Jose come from Gallicia instead of from the Galilee]
Rabbi Jose of Gallicia, saith, from whence dost thou learn that the Egyptians were smitten in Egypt with ten plagues (Alexander, 1770)
Rabbi Jose the Gallilean saith, From whence art thou authorized to assert that... (D. Levi, 1794)
Rabbi Jose, the Galilean, asks, Whence canst thou deduce that the Egyptians were smitten... (Mendes, 1862)
Rabbi Jose of Galilee said: "Whence do we know that... (Green, 1898)
Rabbi Jose, the Galilean, said: Where from art thou to infer that.... (Lillie Cowen, 1905 )
The Galilean Rabbi Jose, speaking of Egypt's punishment, asked the question: "How do we know that...(Rosenau, 1905)
Rabbi Jose, the Galilean, said: On what grounds canst thou say... (Maurice Meyer, 1920)
Rabbi Jose, the Galilean, said: from whence can you infer that... (Stern, 1926 )
Rabbi Jose the Galilean observed: “How would you prove from a Bible text that ...(Maurice Samuel, 1942)
Rabbi Jose the Galilean asked how can one try to show that ...(de Sola Pool, 1943)
In 1941 the American poet/ translator Abraham Regelson translated the Haggadah and rendered it as:
Rabbi Josei the Galilean saith: Whence learnest thou that....
Regelson re-tranlated the Haggadah in 1944 modernizing the English. His 1944 translation reads:
Rabbi Josei the Galilian says: How does one figure out that....
Four years later, in 1948, one year before he left the USA and moved to Israel, Regelson created a third translation, based on the 1944 edition but with some significant changes. In 1948 Regelson wrote:
Rabbi Josei the Galilean says: How does one calculate that...
The word choice of "calculate" is an interesting one here. Calculate comes from the Late Latin calculātus which means "reckoned" origination from calcalus, which is a pebble. The Ancient Romans used pebbles to do their calculations. As the following n-gram shows, the word "calculate" became more popular in the English language towards the mid-20th century.
Calculate has two related meanings:
- intend an action to have a particular effect
- determine (the amount or number of something) mathematically.
Now, although the word had been used in earlier English Haggadah translations, it had, until Regelson's 1948 translation, always been used in its first meaning. For example:
For families in which the Hebrew word is more calculated to create solemn and devotional meaning... (Preface Jastrow, 1891)
[the unleavened bread] is also calculated to bring to our minds....( Jastrow, 1891)
"An act of recognition calculated to win the allegiance of that powerful caste to the reigning house of his royal master..." (Preface to Green, 1898)
What brought about the incline in use of the word in the late 1940s and might have caused Regelson to use it during that time? It is especially the second meaning of the word that became prominent during those years with the invention of the computer. Envisioned and described in 1936 by Turing, the first fully functional digital computer, ENIAC, was completed in 1946. It was called an "electronic calculator" by the Scientific American.
"Electronic calculator uses 18,000 tubes to solve complex problems "
["Scientific American" headline, June 1946]
The computer brought with it a wider use of the second meaning of the word calculate as determining the amount or number of something mathematically which explains the increase in its use and would explain Regelson's use of the word at this time in history and within this context.
https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000984.htm
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/calculate
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=calculate&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Ccalculate%3B%2Cc0