Boid on Yamin

In Deuteronomy XXXIII: 2, the LXX renders אשדת למו as “angels being with him”. In that case מימינו must have been taken as meaning “on his right” or “to his right”, which would be normal usage. This probably has something to do with what Paul says about the giving of the first Torah by angels. The Septuagint has a different explanatory translation, which I will look at when I have time. The word Rabbinic interpretation of אשדת is אש דת “a fire of religion” or better “the fire of revelation”. [The word dat in Hebrew is borrowed from Persian. It is a past participle meaning given. In Daniel it means religion. Compare the Latin datum, plural data. Note also that the name of Baghdad is Persian and means God-given]. I take this as not being intended as expressing the real etymology of the word, but a way of expressing a concept.

One overall concept of these verses is that the Torah having been brought down to Sinai radiates out from Sinai without any limit by space or time. The second Torah only seems to be second from our viewpoint within time. The blessing can thus speak of both the first and second Torah at once, though the focus is most definitely on the second. The second Moses is said to be sent from Sinai because he bears the Torah radiating from Sinai in a timeless present. The traditional Rabbinic interpretation preserves the concept of timeless radiation while deliberately obscuring the implications.

Muhammad understood all this, but the Islamic way of expressing it is to say that all revealed Scripture is a manifestation of the Heavenly Book. Jesus said “I come not to destroy the Torah, but to make it complete”.