The Torah says, about the commandment on tefillin:
וּקְשַׁרְתָּ֥ם לְא֖וֹת עַל־יָדֶ֑ךָ וְהָי֥וּ לְטֹטָפֹ֖ת בֵּ֥ין עֵינֶֽיךָ׃ -- And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. [Deuteronomy 6:8]
In the Talmud, Rabbi Akiva explains that the word טֹטָפֹ֖ת -- totafot is extracted from two other languages and means that the tefillin must have four compartments:
The word tat in the Kapti language means two, and the word pat in the Afriki language also means two, [so totafot is a compound word meaning “four”]. [Sanhedrin 4b, Menachot 34b]
Why would the Torah contain non-Hebrew words? If some Hebrew words originate from other languages, then they are still considered Hebrew words. Why would Rabbi Akiva remind us of their etymology?
I know "the Torah speaks the language of men", that the Book of Daniel was written in Aramaic, and that the Talmud includes many Greek words (“Sanhedrin” is a Greek word meaning “assembly”). But this is the Torah -- it's supposed to be only in lashon hakodesh. The only other place where the Torah uses a foreign word, it quickly translates it:
וַיִּקְרָא־ל֣וֹ לָבָ֔ן יְגַ֖ר שָׂהֲדוּתָ֑א וְיַֽעֲקֹ֔ב קָ֥רָא ל֖וֹ גַּלְעֵֽד -- Laban named it Yegar-sahadutha [Aramaic], but Jacob named it Gal-ed [Hebrew]. [Genesis 31:47]
