Sara was thoroughly enjoying herself. She and her family were visiting Eretz Israel, and today they were going to Kever Rachel, the tomb of Jacob's wife in Beit Lechem. The guide was explaining why Rachel was buried by the roadside and not in Mearat HaMajpelah, where the other patriarchs and matriarchs were buried. Sara wasn't really listening; she had already learned it at school.
At the site, some Chinese tourists who had been taking photos stopped to listen. Sara noticed they were nodding their heads as the guide spoke. "They seem to know what he's talking about," Sara thought. She was even more surprised when she saw one of the tourists take a book out of his travel bag and quickly skim the pages, as if looking for something. Before long, he was reading to himself.
Sara was very intrigued. She approached and looked at the book. The Chinese tourist smiled and held it up to Sara so she could see it. "It's a Bible in Chinese," he said with an accent, "I was following the story your guide was telling.".
Sara was surprised to learn that the Torah had been translated into Chinese. But she really shouldn't have been. In this week's parashah (section), Devarim, we read, "Moses explained the entire Torah very clearly." Rashi (the father of the commentators) tells us that this means Moses translated the Torah into 70 languages.
Why? Because he knew that a time would come when the Jewish people would live in other lands of the world, and not everyone would understand Hebrew. Having the Torah in many languages also allows non-Jews to read it and learn about the seven mitzvot they must observe.
However, why was it Moses who translated the Torah? In his time, all Jews lived together and understood Hebrew. Only hundreds of years later would the Jewish people be dispersed throughout the world and speak other languages.
The reason is that Moses was the only person who "spoke face to face with God," and that the "Shekhinah (Divine Presence) spoke through his mouth." Although translations of the Torah would only be necessary much later, the only one who could put God's holy words into other languages was Moses.
Excerpted from Please tell me what the Rebbe said.