The Torah Speaks in Human Language (article preview)

Bava Metzia 31-32

The Torah sometimes employs repetitive language, for instance הֹוכֵ֤חַ תֹּוכִ֨יחַ֙ (you shall surely rebuke) and אִם־שָׁמ֨וֹעַ תִּשְׁמַ֜ע (if you diligently hearken to Hashem’s voice). This doubled language seems unnecessary and calls out for midrash, hermeneutical interpretation. What about on a peshat level? We won’t diligently hearken to Ted Striker, that these Divine commands were directed to Shirley. Rather, that’s just the way people speak, repeating words in alternate forms as flowery speech. Famously, דִּבְּרָה תּוֹרָה כִּלְשׁוֹן בְּנֵי אָדָם, “the Torah employs human speech patterns.”

Now, repetition is used in many languages for specific purposes. Latin poetry employs geminated vocatives¹ (nouns used to address someone). For instance, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses 6:640: “et ‘mater, mater’ clamantem et colla petentem”, “and ‘mother, mother’ crying out and pleading”. Compare “Moshe, Moshe”, which fifth-generation Rabbi Shimon (ben Yochai) in the late Shemot Rabba 2:6 says is expression of endearment and encouragement. Similarly, there are geminated imperatives (verbs instructing someone), in Plautus’ Curculio, “Retine, retine me, obsecro”, “hold me, hold me, I beg you!” 

If geminated vocatives / imperatives serve such purposes, maybe that’s what they mean in Biblical verses as well, on a peshat level. Indeed,