Hebrew Isn’t Lashon Hakodesh? But Then, Neither Is Lashon Chazal!
Hebrew or לשון הקודש?
Parshas Hashavua Noach
‘שפה אחת בראשית י”א א
וחד אמר שהיו מדברים בלשון יחידו של עולם -בלשון הקודש—-
ירשלמי מגילה פ”א ה”ט
The חתם סופר writes that לשון הקדש is limited to only those words appearing in תנ”ך. All other words even those used by חז”ל in the Mishna etc. is not considered לשון הקדש.
Unlike other languages, new words that were added years later are still considered as the original language.
The Frankfurt Oder* Shas has on the last page of מס’ נדה printed the following,
נעשה סדור אותיות ע”י המסדר ישראל
וע”י אחותו הבתולה געלא בת כהר”ר משה שליט”א
בשנת נקבה סובב זכר לפ”ק תנ”ד **
In one of the early printed Seforim the following declaration is printed “I, Estellina, the wife of my worthy husband Abraham Conat wrote this Sefer בחינת עולם”
This Sefer was actually written by ידעיה הבדרשי, not by Estellina. What she actually meant was she printed it.
When printing was still in its infancy there was no uniform word in לשון הקודש (Hebrew) for the words “print, printed, printer etc.”
Many used the term כתיבה (writing)***. Others termed it מחוקק (engraving). Some termed it העתק (copy). Some used the word סידור אותיות (organizing the letters.
Eventually, the word דפוס (form) became the standard translation for print.
