Torat Yeshivat Frisch The Parshanut of Targum Yonatan Rabbi Yaakov Blau Targum Yonatan is an invaluable resource for understanding Navi. The Rishonim quote him extensively and held him in high esteem1. I would like to touch on first his relationship to Targum Onkelos on Chumash and then on how his translation can also serve as a form of commentary. For how Targum Yonatan and Onkelos are similar, clearly many words are translated in the same way in both translations, because that is how to say the word in Aramaic. The chidush is when they have the same nonliteral
translation.
It
is
well
known
that
they
both
avoid
anthropomorphism.2 In a similar fashion, both translate hester panim (Hashem “covering His face”) as removing the shechinah (Devarim 31:18, Yishayahu 53:3, Yechezkiel 39:23, and Micha 3:43). As well, Levanon is translated as the Beit Hamikdash (Radak Yirmiyahu 22:20) and V’chay Baham means Olam Haba (Radak Yechezkiel 20:11).
1
See Medieval Commentary in the Modern Era pp.75-83. See Radak Yirmiyahu 14:8. In a similar vein, Yonatan at times translates “Hashem’s place” as “place of His shechina”, such as in Yishayahu 26:21, Yechezkiel 3:12 and 36:20, Micha 1:3 and Chabakuk 2:20, among others. 2
3
One could argue that this is the same as the previous category, but there are many ways to translate that phrase non-literally.
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