Why does Hebrew go from right to left and English from left to right?
Ask the rabbi.
Rabbi Raymond Apple
RIGHT TO LEFT
Q. Why does Hebrew go from right to left and English from left to right?
A. One view is that a scribe would hold his papyrus in his left hand and use his right hand, which with most people, is the stronger hand, to write each line. Since Semitic tongues antedated Greek, Latin and the European languages, this meant that the original style of writing went from right to left.
However, we are still left with the problem of why the left-to-right method developed. The answer may be that there was no fixed custom, and people wrote both ways, starting, say, from right to left and continuing with the next line from left to right, until eventually, two styles settled down, with some languages going one way and others going the other.
WAS PAUL JEWISH?
Q. How Jewish was the Christian saint, Paul?
A. Before answering this question, we have to say something about Jesus. It is erroneous to believe that Jesus was a Christian and intended to start a new religion. Jesus was a Jew, and it was as a Jew that he lived and died.
The religion of Jesus was Judaism though he felt that the God of Judaism had revealed a secret to him concerning the way to understand Jewishness. Jesus had his secret and his interpretation of Judaism and believed that he was working in and for Judaism. The religion of Jesus was not Christianity though Christianity developed into the religion about Jesus.
Our question is the extent to which Paul, whose original name was Saul, was responsible for constructing the religion about Jesus.
Did Paul, like Jesus, regard himself as a Jew within Judaism? The answer is yes – and no. Paul was inconsistent. He said he was a Jew “of the stock of Israel”, “of the seed of Abraham”, had been circumcised, observed Jewish practices was a Pharisee and had persecuted the Jesus movement. But he came to believe that the Jews and Judaism were in error and the law of Moses was a source of bondage.
Paul seems to vary his message depending on the audience. The definitive picture he presents is hostile to rabbinic Judaism. He encourages gentiles to follow Jesus and is ambivalent as to whether they should come to the Jesus religion through Judaism or without it.
He turned from persecuting Christians to becoming their champion. He appears more of a Christian than Jesus was.
Rabbi Raymond Apple served for 32 years as the chief minister of the Great Synagogue, Sydney, Australia’s oldest and most prestigious congregation. He is now retired and lives in Jerusalem where he answers interesting questions.
