Concerning ראש חודש שבט, it says in the beginning of חומש דברים: ויהי בארבעים שנה בעשתי עשר חודש באחד לחודש דיבר משה אל בני ישראל. It was the 40th year that the יידן were in the desert after they left מצרים, the 11th month, the first day of the month, which is ראש חודש שבט. So משה spoke to the בני ישראל, and the פסוק continues there and says what משה did on that day. So it says: בעבר הירדן בארץ מואב הואיל משה באר את התורה הזאת לאמר. That on the other side of the ירדן, in ארץ מואב, משה began to explain this תורה. And רש\"י says, what does it mean that משה began on that day to explain the תורה? So רש\"י says: באר את התורה, בשבעים לשון פירשה להם. He explained it to them in 70 languages. And in תנחומא we find a similar thing, where it says that התחיל מפרש התורה בשבעים לשון. And the same is in אגדת בראשית, פרשה ט\"ז, and בראשית רבה, פרשה מ\"ט, and also in the פסיקתא זוטרתא, etc. So we see here that משה רבינו translated the תורה into 70 languages. So obviously, it was a good thing to do that. If משה רבינו did it, obviously this was the right thing to do. We even find another place where a similar thing happened. Before they crossed the ירדן, it says in פרשת כי תבוא, קאפיטל כ\"ז, פסוק ד', and then פסוק ח', it says: והיה בעברכם את הירדן, when you will cross the ירדן, so the פסוק says: וכתבת על האבנים את כל דברי התורה הזאת באר היטב. That you should write on the stones all the words of this תורה באר היטב. Now what does באר היטב mean? So רש\"י says, it means that they should write it in 70 languages. And this is really what the גמרא says in סוטה, דף ל\"ב, סוף עמוד א' in the משנה. So there we see even more that it was good to translate the תורה into 70 languages, because this was a commandment for the יידן to do.

On the other hand, we find in מסכת סופרים, פרק א' הלכה ז', it says מעשה בה' זקנים, there was a story with the five זקנים, שכתבו לתלמי המלך את התורה יוונית, that they wrote for תלמי המלך the תורה in יוונית, in Greek. והיה היום קשה לישראל כיום שנעשה בו העגל. And this day was so terrible for the יידן as the day the עגל, the calf, the golden calf was made. And the reason given is: שלא היתה התורה יכולה להיתרגם כל צרכה, because the תורה could not be translated completely properly in יוונית. And therefore that day was so terrible, as bad as the day the עגל was made. And the same thing is in מסכת ספר תורה, פרק א' הלכה ח', there it also says the same idea, but there it's not concerning this story, but it's concerning another story, the story that's mentioned in גמרא with תלמי המלך when he gathered ע\"ב זקנים, 72 זקנים, and he put them into separate rooms, and he told them to translate the תורה into יוונית. And the reason he put them into separate rooms, because he didn't want them to change anything, so if they would be together, maybe they would get together and change certain things. So he put them into separate rooms, and he made them translate each one the תורה. And as the גמרא says there, השם put into their minds that there were 13 things that they changed, and the same things were changed by them all. So this story is also brought in מסכת סופרים, but there it's brought as a second story after the מעשה with the five זקנים that wrote the תורה in יוונית for תלמי המלך. And on the first story, it says in מסכת סופרים the לשון that it was קשה לישראל כיום שנעשה בו העגל, it was terrible to the יידן as the day the עגל was made, but not on the second story. But in מסכת ספר תורה, the expression that it was קשה לישראל כיום שנעשה בו העגל is written on that story, the story with the 72 זקנים. But whichever way it's going to be, we do see clearly that it was a terrible thing to translate the תורה into יוונית. So how does that fit to what it says in חומש, that on ראש חודש שבט משה רבינו translated the תורה into 70 languages, which includes יוונית? And later on, there was even the commandment that when they cross the ירדן, they should write the תורה on stones in שבעים לשון, in 70 languages.

Now concerning the ציווי of writing the תורה on the stones, we could have answered that maybe it doesn't mean that they actually wrote it in 70 languages. It could mean, as the רמב\"ם says in פירוש המשניות in סוטה: בכתיבת כל אומה מאלו האומות. It could mean that it was only in their writing, their language, but not the words, which means that it was a transliteration of the תורה. The words were actually the לשון קודשדיקה words, the Hebrew words, but they were written in letters of the other languages. And maybe that would be the difference. In מסכת סופרים where it says it was a terrible thing, there it is concerning the translation actually of the תורה, and that we say cannot be done in יוונית? And when they told him to write the תורה in all languages on the stones, maybe that was only writing it in their writing, but not in their words, meaning not in their language. But first of all, this could only be said concerning the ציווי of writing the תורה on the stones, but concerning what משה רבינו did on ראש חודש שבט we can't say that, because the לשון in רש״י is, ובשבעים לשון פירשה להם. Doesn't say he wrote it in שבעים לשון, it says פירשה להם, he explained it. So obviously he was saying it. The words were the words of the languages of all other nations, which includes יוונית. And even concerning the ציווי of writing it on the stones, since the purpose was in order for the other nations to understand it, as it comes out from the גמרא there in דף ל״ה עמוד ב׳ in תוספות, and as it says in the פנים יפות on the פסוק in פרשת כי תבוא, so certainly it must have been in their language, not only in their writing. And the truth is, this is clearly in the תוספות יום טוב on the משנה in סוטה פרק ז׳ משנה ה׳. There he quotes what the רב says, that it was בכתב של שבעים אומות, in the writing of the 70 languages, and he explains, כלומר, what does it mean, בכתב ולשון של ע׳ אומות, in the writing and the language of the 70 nations. So it comes out that this was done in their language too. So it comes out that the תורה was already explained in 70 languages by משה רבינו, and later on it was translated into 70 languages when they wrote it on the stones when they crossed the ירדן. So obviously it was a good thing. And another thing, obviously, it is a possibility, you're able to translate the תורה properly, because if it wouldn't be able to be done, then משה wouldn't do it, and it wouldn't be the commandment to do it later on. So it could be translated properly. And here it says, that שלא היתה התורה יכולה להיתרגם כל צרכה. It says the reason why the day they translated it for תלמי המלך in יוונית was such a terrible day as the day they made the עגל, was because the תורה cannot be translated properly. And there we see the תורה could be translated properly. And we cannot say that the מסכת סופרים means דווקא יוונית, that only in יוונית you cannot translate it properly, but in other languages you could, because first of all, when משה רבינו translated into 70 languages, and later when they wrote it on the stones in 70 languages, this includes יוונית also. So obviously even in יוונית it could be translated properly. And the truth is even more than that, we find that יוונית has a מעלה, is better than other languages. Because according to רבן שמעון בן גמליאל, and that's how the הלכה is, in מגילה דף ח׳ עמוד ב׳ in the משנה, you are not allowed to write the תורה in any other language but יוונית. And the truth is even more than that, it says in the ירושלמי in מגילה פרק א׳ הלכה ט׳, בדקו ומצאו, they checked into it, and they found שאין התורה יכולה להיתרגם כל צרכה אלא יוונית, that you can't translate the תורה properly in any other language but יוונית. So obviously יוונית is better than other languages. So we're back to the question, since we cannot say that when it says that the reason the day was a terrible day was because you can't translate the תורה כל צרכה, we cannot say it is בדווקא יוונית, so obviously it means בכלל the תורה cannot be translated in another language. But how can we say that, when משה רבינו translated the תורה already into all other languages, and later on, on the stones when they crossed the ירדן they translated the תורה into other languages? So in order to understand that, to understand the difference between what happened on ראש חודש שבט where משה רבינו translated the תורה into all languages, and later on when they translated the תורה in all languages when they crossed the ירדן, לגבי what happened in the case of תלמי המלך, in order to understand that, we have to look into what the מסכת סופרים says. There the לשון is that the day they did this was קשה לישראל כיום שנעשה בו העגל, was bad, was terrible for the אידן as the day the עגל was made. Now, why do we compare it to the עגל? Even if it was a bad thing, and the reason is because as it says there, that the תורה cannot be translated properly in other languages, but is it as terrible as the עגל? The עגל is עבודה זרה. The עגל symbolizes the חטא of עבודה זרה. So can we say that translating the תורה into other languages is as terrible as worshipping עבודה זרה, חס ושלום? Even if it's not a good thing, but why compare it to the יום שנעשה בו העגל?

In order to understand that, we have to first understand, what was the עבירה of the עגל? The עגל is עבודה זרה. When we understand what the meaning of עבודה זרה is, we'll come to understand why this was similar to the ענין of the עגל. The רמב״ם says in the beginning of הלכות That how did the mistake of עבודה זרה come? It wasn't because the people did not believe in השם and believed in an עבודה זרה. They believed in השם. And they believed that everything that they have comes from השם. And therefore, you have to ask השם to give you all the things that you need, and also you have to thank השם for the things that He gave you. But they thought that the sun, for instance, that gives them the heat and the light, etc., and the other stars and the other constellations that give the people what they need, they thought that these were given the power by השם to give the ענינים that they give. They believed that the sun, for instance, has its own כח that was given to it by השם to give the light, to give the heat, etc. Since the sun, according to their understanding, for instance, had its own כח to give the light, so when you דאוון and you ask for light, you have to דאוון to the sun. When you want to thank for the light, you thank the sun, being that the sun has its own power. The sun was given the בחירה, its own choice, to give the light or the heat or not to give. And the same is with the moon, and the same is with everything else. And as a result of that, it continued that some people, instead of worshipping the sun itself, started worshipping an image of the sun. But the whole idea was because they believed that all the כוחות הטבע, all the powers that are in nature, they all have their own בחירה, have their own free choice, and they are in control of whether to give or not to give. They did believe that it was all created by השם, and they did believe that the power originally is from השם, but they believed that השם gave over the power to these things, and therefore now they are in their own control. And later on, it went further, that some people even forgot about השם בכלל, that didn't worship the עבודה זרה thinking that השם made it and השם gave it the power. Later on, they even forgot בכלל about השם, and to them, this became the god. But the source of עבודה זרה was when they started believing that the sun, etc., have their own powers. What is the mistake there? The truth is, the sun does give us heat, the sun does give us light, and the stars do give us different things, but we know that they are only, as the לשון in many ספרים, כגרזן ביד החוצב, which means they are only like an axe in the hand of the chopper. They are only כלים through which השם gives us the light or the heat and the other things. Even though it comes through them, but they don't have their own power. The power is only in the hands of השם, and they have no בחירה. השם just uses them as the tool how to bring us all the different things that He wants to bring us. And therefore, when a person wants to ask for light, there is no use in asking the sun because the sun doesn't have בחירה. You have to ask the One that gives us the light through the sun, so you have to דאוון to השם. You want to thank for the light, you have to thank השם. Just like it would make no sense for a person to ask the axe to chop off the tree, or after the axe chopped off the tree, to tell the axe, \"Thank you for chopping off the tree,\" because the axe is only a tool in the hands of the chopper. So if you want the tree chopped, you have to ask the person to take the axe and chop off the tree. You thank the person for taking the axe and chopping off the tree. The same is that we ask השם to give us the light through the sun. We thank השם for giving us the light through the sun. And the same is with everything else. So it comes out that the whole concept of עבודה זרה, essentially, is to believe in another power other than השם. Even if the belief is that the power came from השם, but when you believe that now it has its own power, this is the essence of עבודה זרה. In other words, the true אמונה has to be that אין עוד מלבדו, there is nothing but השם, and all the different things we have in the world and the things that give us different ענינים, they are all בטל to השם, they are all מיוחד with השם, which means their whole existence is only because of השם, and they are no מציאות בפני עצמם, they are no being by themselves. If you believe that there is a being by itself, which is separated, so to speak, from השם, that is עבודה זרה. And it's understood if a person has this in mind, then whatever he will do will only be for the sake of השם. And therefore, it never will happen that he will do something that might, so to speak, bring a ספק, a doubt, into his mind. Because even though sometimes certain things happen and certain things are done which make it hard for a person to understand how it came from השם, but nevertheless, if you understand לכתחילה that everything is from השם and there is nothing in the world but השם, so then whatever you do will be absorbed with the truth that no mistake will come out of it, that not the person himself or even anybody else who sees what the person does will ever lead to a mistake that people should think that there is a being other than השם.

And really this is the difference between what משה רבינו did when he translated the תורה on ראש חודש שבט to the 70 languages, and later on when they translated the תורה to the 70 languages when they crossed the ירדן, לגבי when it was done for תלמי המלך. משה רבינו, and later on, it was all done with the ציווי of השם. It was all done because השם commanded them to do it. It was all done for the sake of השם. So then, translating the תורה could never have led to make any mistakes, even though certain words that you translate, if you translate them literally as the תורה writes it, could bring a person to make a mistake and think that שתי רשויות הן, that there are two רשויות, two domains, so to speak, as if חס ושלום there is another power in the world. For instance, the תורה says נעשה אדם when השם said, \"Let us make a human being.\" So those words could make a person think that there is another being that together with השם created the person. Or the first words of the תורה where it says בראשית ברא אלקים את השמים ואת הארץ. If you translate it literally, בראשית ברא אלקים: בראשית, in the beginning; ברא, created; אלקים, השם; it could mean that there is something that is called בראשית which created אלקים. So it could bring a person to make a mistake, to think that there is something other than השם. But if the translation of the תורה came because השם wanted them to do it, and they did it לשם שמים for the sake of השם, meaning with the feeling that all this is only for השם because there's nothing but השם, so then this cannot lead to any mistakes. And therefore, if a person later on would learn the same words, being it when it was translated it was translated with such כוונות and in such a way, then this will not lead a person to make a mistake and think that there is a being other than השם. But if the תורה is translated for תלמי המלך, not because השם wants him to do it, and not because of an ענין של קדושה, because of the רצון, the will of השם, and not for the sake of השם, but because תלמי המלך or anybody else would want, so then, if you translate the תורה literally, it is possible that this should lead a person to make the mistake. And as the גמרא טאקע says, that most of the things that they had to change was because if they wouldn't change it, it could make a person think that there is another being but השם. And that's why it says in מסכת סופרים that when they translated the תורה for תלמי המלך, היה היום קשה לישראל כיום שנעשה העגל שלא היתה התורה יכולה להיתרגם כל צרכה, that it was as bad as the day the עגל was made, because you can't translate the תורה properly. It means that if it was טובת תלמי המלך, then you cannot translate it properly, because if you will translate it properly, it could lead you to think that there is another being other than השם, like the עגל. But what משה רבינו did on ראש חודש שבט, since it was done of ציווי השם, that could not lead a person to make a mistake.