Brachos 13a: The Language Of Shma And What Is Language

There is a machlokes between Rebbi and the Chachomim. Rebbi holds that shma must be said as written in Hebrew. The Chachomim argue and say that ANY LANGUAGE is fine for shma.

The Chofetz Chaim in his Biur Halacha [62/2] is mechadesh that according to Chachomim "any language" doesn't mean any language! It means a language spoken by the locals. So English is great for shma in the US [or possibly in England - I heard that they speak Engish there as well....]  and French in France but not English in France [unless most Frenchman speak English] or French in the US. The difference is that Hebrew is inherently a language while other languages are not. This means that the SPIRITUAL ESSENCE of a chair is expressed by the word כסא and the spiritual essence of a table by the word שלחן. In other languages the words are just sounds that were agreed upon to represent any given object. If I want you to know that I am referring to a spherical object used in games I will say the word "ball" but there is no inherent connection between the word "ball" and the ball itself. In contrast, the word כדור expresses [to those who understand hidden wisdom] what a ball really is. [This is where the lines between halacha, kaballa and philosophy become blurred]. So if the locals don't speak the language then it cannot be called "language".

This is a huge chiddush [which is a yeshivishe way of saying that it is problematic to say such a thing]. A simple reading of the text indicates that shma can be read in any language and changing that to mean the local language would require strong proof which is not offered by the Biur Halacha.

Rav Hutner asked a couple of strong questions on the Chofetz Chaim. One was that if he is correct that means that the Kohens declaration to the Sotah woman and Vidui Maaser which can be done in any language [Rambam third perek of Sotah and eleventh perek of maaser sheni] in the Beis Hamikdash can really only be done in the local language. It seems that the gemara is telling us the exact opposite: Despite the fact that people come from all over the place to the Beis Hamikdash, ANY LANGUAGE is sufficient to properly say the declarations.

Rav Hutner asked his questions on the Biur Halacha to Rav Chaim Ozer who instructed him to ask the Chofetz Chaim himself when he passed through Radin. He followed Rav Chaim Ozer's instructions and the Chofetz Chaim replied "I wrote that halacha after I learned the sugya well."


See the Sefer Zikkaron in memory of Rav Hutner רח - רט and the Sefer Toras Hanazir [1/8] and where I delved deeply into this topic Bs"d here.