Question:
Why was the translation of the Torah into 70 languages considered a such a calamity, if Moshe explained the Torah to the yidden in 70 languages, before they entered Eretz Yisrael?
Answer:
You are asking a very nice question, in fact let me add to it. The gemora ( Shabbos 88b) says that each of the Aseres Hadibros were heard in seventy languages? A number of commentaries say that the calamity of the translating the torah into sevety languages was because they had to switch ten different things, in order that Talmai should not make mistakes in understanding the torah. Since they made changes to H-shem’s torah that was considered a calamity, because it wasn’t the pure torah the way it was given.
Best wishes
It should be noted that the title, “Septuagint”, is misleading, as it has become synonymous with the Greek Old Testament, a Christian canon of writings which incorporated all the books of the Hebrew canon, along with additional texts, known as the Apocrypha.
We know that the original Septuagint, translated by rabbis more than 22 centuries ago, was of the Chumash/Pentateuch alone, and not even the Books of the Prophets. This is explicitly stated in the Talmud (Megillah 9a). Josephus, as well, in his preface to “Antiquities of the Jews”, affirms that the Septuagint was a translation ONLY of the Law of Moses. This is also indicated in the “Letter of Aristeas”, which is the earliest attestation to the existence of the Septuagint.
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