FAITH IN TRANSLATION

...Something indeed is lost in translation...

...This column is for wrestling with God and His commandments...

...In the Bible, this phrase (mi kamocha ba 'elim adonai) is part of Moses' song celebrating Israel's redemption from the hands of the Egyptians, expressing gratitude to God, unique among all gods worshipped in the world...

...Because this is so, we often take liberties in prayer book translation that we would not take in translating the same text as part of a Bible translation...

...the first letters of each word spell out the Hebrew alphabet...

...This evaluation is attributed to the Hebrew poet, Chaim Nachman Bialik, who was himself a superb translator of literature into Hebrew...

...Bloch: Holy art Thou and dreaded is thy name, and there is no God beside thee...

...But when a translation actually helps lead people to understanding and involvement, then the translator can feel a sense of achievement, then his inevitable frustrations are greatly eased...

...I prefer "You" to "Thou...

...Asking, "Who is like You, O Lord, among the mighty...

...Bloch: For the sin which we have committed Ix'fore thee with confusion of mind...

...is a rhetorical question...

...Certainly that represents awesome power which commands repect and awe...

...Of course, translators today hardly run the risks encountered by William Tyndale, whose sixteenth century translation of the Bible was the foundation of subsequent English versions in that century and a basic influence on the translators of the King James version...

...This translation of the Hebrew b'nei yisrael is literally correct...

...One illustration of this is provided by a passage from Psalm 81 (verses 4 and 5...

...A transliteration is provided as well, since ashamnu usually is chanted aloud in Hebrew...

...One illustration of the veil is provided by the phrase mamme-losh-en hovering over the comparatively colorless and awkward translation "mother-tongue...

...And you wanted to be a translator...

...A translator must not be seduced into an attempt to solve problems beyond his competence...

...The liturgical framework demands that the word translated as "horn" in the first example be retained as shofar, because of the strong and direct association with Rosh Hashanah...

...We jeer, we kill, we lie...

...Occupying the throne of sovereignty, He still is eminently reachable and confrontable...

...What is the locus of power in our world...

...One could hardly say that prayer is central to the lives of most people today, even of those who do attend services of prayer...

...President...

...In our tradition, respect is not essentially a function of words, but of behavior...

...the power of life and death was in his hand...

...During his lifetime he met more with torture than with acclaim for his work, accused of perverting the meaning of Scripture through his translations...

...Its use was not confined to Rosh Hashanah...

...The search becomes frivolous, the alternatives are trifling...

...In the Talmud, Rabbi Yehudah declared that whoever translates a Biblical verse literally (word for word) is a liar, and that whoever adds to a verse in translation (thus departing from the literal meaning) is a blasphemer (Kiddushin 49a...

...M J hen passages from the Torah W W(such as the excerpt from Exodus discussed above) or from other Biblical books are included in the prayer book, they often are taken out of their original context, to be used for a specific liturgical purpose...

...One of the arguments for "Thou" is that it maintains a respectful distance...

...The Hebrew pronoun attah is the only form of the second person singular that Hebrew has...

...Rabbinical Assembly: We have sinned against You by succumbing to dismay...

...Silverman: And for the sin which we have committed before Thee with confusion of mind...

...After all, they say, we even differentiate in addressing various human beings...

...Bokser: The praise due Thee is in accordance with Thy reknown...

...You cannot even rewrite a great work in its own language with success, so how can you succeed in another language, stripped of the idioms, connotations and emotions of the original...

...Part of the involvement might flow from an understanding of the text, of the concepts and commitments reflected in the words of prayer...

...The tone, quality and emphases of a translation are the result of countless details...

...In response to those who want to have larger portions of the service in English, arguing the importance of comprehension above all, I would ask: When has anyone been moved by the recitation of the Mourner's Kaddishorof Kol Nidre, in English...

...Besides Thee there is no God...

...Another argument in favor of "You" over "Thou" derives from the Hebrew word and the liturgical concepts which we are attempting to translate...

...A nuance of another sort is found in translating the same Hebrew phrase or word differently when it appears in different contexts...

...For an example of this we turn to a verse from Lamentations which concludes each Torah service, the last words chanted after the Torah scrolls have been returned to the Ark: "Return us unto You and we shall return...

...I became aware of the problem through the comments of laymen who had agreed to react to drafts of liturgical translations...

...Jules Harlow has edited and translated several books of Jewish liturgy, including the HIGH HOLIDAY PRAYER BOOK of the Rabbinical Assembly...

...Bar or bat mitzvah (bar is Aramaic for ben) is not a son or daughter of the commandment, but a member of that group which has an obligation to fulfill the commandments...

...Thou art slow to anger and ever ready to be reconciled...

...The basic purpose of presenting a service in English is not to enable one to improve his knowledge of Hebrew by comparing the original with the translation...

...The words "feast day" bring to mind a celebration not necessarily in the mood that we have come to associate with Rosh Hashanah...

...Even in terms of literal translation, "member" is as accurate as "child" for the Hebrew ben (plural construct: b'nei...

...We steal, we transgress, we are unkind...

...But while it is indeed true that we are all children of God, it is long past time that we outgrew the phrase "children of Israel," especially since it does appear so often in the Bible and in the prayer book...

...But the problem of prayer is the problem of faith, the problem of God...

...1 should state that I do not expect to convince anyone who has a strong preference for "Thou...

...These verses are included in the evening service for Rosh Hashanah...

...The ALEINU, the title of this column, is taken from the prayer which begins with that word, and means, "it is incumbent upon us...

...Ben brit is a member, not a child, of the covenant...

...That would help convert what should be a devotional book into a textbook...

...Italians have a word for it, too, in a phrase implying that to translate is to betray...

...We wanted a phrase encompassing the various idolatries to which people succumb in our time, thus pointing by contrast to the uniqueness of God...

...Israel in Rabbinic literature and in the prayer book is a synonym for the Jewish people (except, of course, when a specific reference to the Jewish State is intended in modern liturgical additions...

...We destroy, we embitter, we falsify...

...This passage, then, becomes a kavanah, a preparation for and a leading into the section proclaiming God's sovereignty in the Musaf service of Rosh Hashanah...

...Who is like You (Thee), O Lord, among the gods...

...Using Thou and its partners (such as wouldst and shouldst) helps to remove the words and the act of prayer from the context of the realities of our lives...

...Glossing over the fact that we do say Your (not Thy) Honor and Majesty, we may note that the forms Thou and Thine are not used by anyone, save for Quakers and some few others, as a conversational address today...

...Chairman of the Board...

...they are pestered, and worse, by local guerrillas, and paraded before throngs as mere figureheads...

...The editors of the Yom Kippur service incorporated a limited convention (the Hebrew alphabet, which has a beginning and an end) as a form through which we articulate a confession for our unlimited sins...

...It is the people Israel's eternal ritual: the God of Jacob calls us to judgment...

...After all, the Hebrew word for king has also lost the power it once had...

...In a prayer book, any answer to the question should not appear in a learned (or unlearned) footnote...

...Secretary General...

...God is incomparable...

...Is there a possible substitute for "king" today...

...Silverman: This day the world was called into being...

...We mock, we neglect, we oppress...

...The compiler of this confessional apparently chose this particular form as a way of expressing the inexpressible, since our sins are unlimited in number...

...They were misguided and fanatic in their actions, but they were Adler: For according to thy Name so is thy praise...

...A translation of a key phrase in the wedding ceremony reads: "By this ring yoij are consecrated to me as my wife in accordance with the law of Moses and Israel...

...An ancient Aramaic translation of the verse praises God not as one above many but as the only one: "There is none other than you...

...Kings in our time are evicted from their countries...

...To translate gazalnu and the other sins literally is not to convey the underlying intent of the compiler of this confessional...

...While addressed to God, it delivers a message to worshippers as well and articulates our commitment, placed as it is in a section of the service which celebrates God as Redeemer of the people of Israel...

...Unfortunately, prayer is too far removed as it is...

...He was burned at the stake in 1536...

...Perhaps MC2...

...Sometimes, translating the words is not enough...

...If I were to list all of my sins on Yom Kippur, the service would take even longer than it does...

...remembers the covenant, who hears the sound of the shofar with compassion...

...Thou are slow to anger and ready to forgive...

...Bloch: This day the world was called into being...

...It is more difficult, if not impossible, for the English language to sustain the weight of such literary cuteness...

...ognition of God as unique...

...Divine and human involvement are and must be continuous...

...We address judges "Your Honor," and such royalty as we encounter, "Your Majesty...

...One is by repeated recthiy jr>n t>vn Adler: This day the world was called into being...

...When the sacred text is a book of prayer, a translator's life is complicated in yet another way...

...In a section of the Yom Kippur service preceding the confessionals the verse appears again in a different setting, before the words "Cast us not away from Your Presence . .. Cast us not away when we are old, when our strength is gone do not abandon us...

...The day and its liturgy call for action, this year...

...And if the king's decision was for life, he could also determine what kind of life...

...Thus, ben bay it is not "a child of the house," but a member of the household or, in modern usage, a member of the family...

...Rabbinical Assembly: Today the world is born...

...It has also been translated as "among the mighty," found in a great many prayer books, supported by the understanding of medieval commentators, and as "among the celestials...

...Active involvement in a service is a more crucial goal than a proper translation, though we may hope that choice between the two will not be needed...

...People of Israel" was not much better, since that phrase can be taken as referring to the citizens of that country...

...Bokser: Today is the Birthday of the world...

...The translation must involve the non-Hebrew reader (hopefully, worshipper) more deeply than would have been possible otherwise...

...Since the evening service is a prelude to each day of Rosh Hashanah, we add the word "announcing," and since Rosh Hashanah is the Day of Judgment, we select the word "judgment" rather than "ruling" to render the Hebrew word mishpat...

...There is only one form of direct address in Hebrew, regardless of whether you are addressing a spouse, a casual acquaintance or, I'havdil, God...

...correct in their realization that a good translation necessarily interprets and comments on the translated text...

...Jews are often referred to as "the children of Israel...

...For it is a law for Israel, a ruling of the God of Jacob...

...One of the many decisions which helps determine the tone of a translation involves use of the second person pronoun in referring to God...

...Yet prayer is central to its translator, who is therefore powerfully tempted to believe that his translation will transform the lives of those who use it...

...The normal problems of translation are magnified when the text to be translated is considered sacred...

...These benedictions speak of God who sanctifies the people Israel and the Day of Remembrance, who Adler—Yom Kippur: For the sin wherein we have sinned before thee by terror of the heart...

...Thus we choose the phrase "solemn festival" to reflect the more serious nature of the day, adding "announcing" as a prologue to each day of Rosh Hashanah...

...Referring to God as King once evoked an image of much greater power than it does today...

...Raising and attempting to find an answer to this question is more crucial in prayer book translation than finding a suitable substitute for the word king...

...In English translation today, that directness is stated more adequately with "You" than with "Thou...

...But Rosh Hashanah is not only a recollection of things past, the celebration of an anniversary...

...But . . . avinu malkeinu, our Father, our MC2...

...These translations are not really wrong...

...According to Jewish law, the basic prayers central to the service (K'riat Sh'ma and the Amidah) may be recited in any language that one understands...

...For those who cannot daven or read Hebrew, reading aloud meaningfully with others is a basic way of beginning the conversion from passive spectator to involved congregant...

...Here is a new translation of the verses as published by the Jewish Publication Society: "Blow the horn of the New Moon, on the full moon for our feast day...

...Poets have defined poetry as that which remains after a poem has been translated (just as a Chassidic rebbe stated that God loves best what's left in the heart after the words—of prayer — have gone out...

...We yield to evil, we are zealots for bad causes...

...Therefore, in the Rabbinical Assembly edition of the Machzor, we have chosen to present an English version of thisconfessional (known in Hebrew as ashamnu, its first Hebrew word) in the form of an acrostic spelling out the English alphabet, thus translating the concept rather than the specific words...

...People unable to read Hebrew are guided by the transliteration...

...In the text, Kaufmann translates the German Du as You, pointing out in his prologue to the volume that "the choice of 'Thou' did its share to make God remote and to lessen, if not destroy, the sense of intimacy that pervades Buber's book...

...This is not to say that it is unimportant to transmit the values of Jewish tradition which speak through the prayer book and which are reaffirmed by a congregation at prayer...

...It is interesting to note, in this regard, Walter Kaufmann's recent translation of Martin Buber's work, generally known in English as / and Thou...

...Yet, almost without exception, Jewish prayer books in various countries and eras have retained the above passages in Hebrew...

...Consider translating James Joyce into another language...

...These take the form of meditative or reflective introductions, and include some words by Will Herberg...

...But they do miss an essential emphasis of the service by focusing on the past...

...A translation which can easily be read aloud with understanding is another aid to involvement...

...Let us consider a number of specific problems encountered in prayer book translation...

...The mighty" or "the gods" have connotations of powers on earth or of ancient gods...

...We are violent, we are wicked, we are xenophobic...

...This being the case, the literal meaning of each sin is incidental to the compiler's scheme, for the main object is to present a catalogue of sin through the vehicle of the alphabet...

...It is also a way of introducing those who use the prayer book to thinking about the commitment made whenever we refer to God as King throughout Jewish liturgy, from the simplest benediction to the more complex High Holy Day liturgy...

...In the Rabbinical Assembly edition of the High Holy Day Machzor, we have attempted to translate the meaning of God as King through selections which precede that section of the Rosh Hashanah liturgy which celebrates God as King...

...In the prayer book, God is both Father and King...

...Usage is often embedded in emotion, and preferences, especially when they involve addressing God, are most often not rationally arguable...

...If God is King, so what...

...Bokser: Holy art Thou, and awesome is Thy name...

...Our vocation as members of the people Israel is to stand witness to our King, and the King of all mankind, amidst this universal rebellion and disobedience, to say no to every idolatrous pretension, to reject every claim to absolute devotion made by any earthly power — whether person, institution or idea — and to call men to knowledge and service of the living God...

...Perhaps the words accompanied the music in the Temple festiAdler: //o/v arf //low, «u;/i</ /.v f/iy Name, and there is no God beside thee...

...We pervert, we quarrel, we rebel...

...Presenting the verses in a rendition appropriate to their liturgical setting, we have in the Machzor: "Sound the shofar on the New Moon, announcing our solemn festival...

...Speaking of God as King, consider the Hebrew word melech...

...After declaring that the kind of life we lead is defined by whether we are loyal to a god or to God, he concludes: The world is idolatry-ridden, and in rebellion against God...

...During the cantor's chanting of Musaf, the shofar is sounded three times, once after each of three major sections...

...Silverman: Holy art Thou, and awe-inspiring is Thy name and there is no God besides Thee...

...Thus we prefer to translate the phrase under discussion as "Today the world is born...

...But the proper translation of a text and its total effect are dependent upon such details...

...Clearly, the need to translate the prayer book was not discovered in America...

...At a minimum, translation should not interfere with the service or with the worshipper...

...They will become more involved as members of a congregation only if they are helped to chant the words together in Hebrew, regardless of which inadequate translation has finally been chosen...

...Translation is an exercise in frustration, a study in failure...

...Here we translate the end of the verse from Lamentations as "Renew our lives as when we were young...

...That important theme is emphasized elsewhere...

...You can begin anew...

...Rabbinical Assembly: Holy, awesome, there is no God but You...

...The answer will not come through translation of words...

...The fact that translation is often second best in a service of prayer is reflected in our prayer books by the inclusion of a transliteration of the entire passage along with the translation...

...The problem of faith is one of those problems...

...It is in the form of an acrostic...

...We translate melech as King, but where does that leave us...

...Our version follows: We abuse, we betray, we are cruel...

...At one time, a king had the power of God on earth...

...We settled upon "Who is like You, O Lord, among all that is worshipped...

...Then a passage is read beginning with words usually translated as ' 'This day the world was called into being," or "Today is the birthday of the world...

...The problem will not be solved by a new translation, however eloquent...

...Another type of translation problem is presented by the Yom Kippur minor confessional (so called because it is shorter than the other, longer confessional...

...The Hebrew does demand respect, but the purpose of prayer and of the prayer book is not to keep God at a distance, or to keep our distance from God...

...Native tongue" is better English, but completely loses a dimension of the original...

...The first part of the psalm apparently was intended for use on a festival day...

...Today, the word king hardly conjures up that power and concomitant awe, respect and reverence...

...val ritual...

...is a literal translation of a phrase from Exodus 15:11, a passage incorporated into the prayer book...

...For an example, we turn to the Rosh Hashanah service...

...Greater involvement in Hebrew is a goal, an ideal, for the language of Jewish prayer is essentially Hebrew (and Aramaic...

...It is not inconceivable that many people consider such concern for detail as superfluous...

...We decided upon "the people Israel" as coming closest to specifying the community of the Jewish people throughout the world and throughout time...

...Thus, for example, the third sin confessed (gazalnu, we have stolen) is not there out of a specific necessity to articulate the sin of theft but rather because the compiler at that point needed a word starting with the third letter of the alphabet, gimmel...

...This focus on the present tense also reinforces the emphasis which is found in the closing benedictions of the three sections recited just before each sounding of the shofar...

...Silverman: For according to Thy name so is Thy praise...

...70 MOMENT SEPTEMBER 1975 We gossip, we hate, we insult...

...Rabbinical Assembly: Your glory is Your nature: slow to anger, ready to forgive...

...To introduce a verbal differentiation in English translation is to introduce a foreign element, a concept contrary to what the ancient Rabbis intended in their creative formulation of the Hebrew liturgy which still sustains us.Through their use of attah in the formal benediction, as elsewhere, the Rabbis force a bold confrontation between creature and Creator, making it possible and even mandatory for the Jew in prayer at least to attempt that confrontation directly, uttering attah...

...glViW...

...We must retain the word melech, and the translation "king," and at the same time attempt to answer a basic question: If God is King, what does that mean for my life, and for my children's lives...

...Thou are slow to anger and ready to forgive...

...Bokser: For the sin we committed before Thee by confusion of mind...

...Translators are too easily forgotten, or treated unkindly in other ways...

...According to the Mishnah, a silver trumpet was sounded at the beginning of each month (the new moon), with one exception: the first of the seventh month, Rosh Hashanah, when a ram's horn (shofar) was sounded...

...Bloch: For according to thy Name, so is thy praise, being slow to anger and ever ready to be reconciled...

...The tormentors of Tyndale were ruthless, taking his life for having (in their judgment) perverted the meaning of Scripture...

...Many of those who prefer "Thou" claim that "Thou" is more respectful...

...It, too, refers in Hebrew to the members of the Jewish community, the people Israel...

...Rosh Hashanah thus becomes a day commemorating a past event: Creation...

...Jewish liturgy articulates a commitment against idolatry in various ways...

...Renew our days as of old...

...Our lay readers wondered why the laws of the State of Israel had to be mentioned in the wedding ceremony...

...We did not follow this scheme with the longer confessional (al diet) or with many other acrostics...

...We know that this psalm was sung by the Levites in the Temple on the fifth day of the week...

...The word Yisrael (Israel) presents a special problem in translation, since people today usually identify that word with a specific country...