All You Ever Wanted to Know About the Hebrew Language --- But Were too Shy to Ask!

8/7/2019 All You Ever Wanted to Know About the Hebrew Language --- But Were too Shy to Ask!

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All You Ever Wanted to Know About the Hebrew Language ---

But Were too Shy to Ask!

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By

Dina Ripsman Eylon

Hebrew – An Ancient Semitic Language

Judaism without Hebrew is like a Canadian winter without snow. Hebrew, a 3,500

years old Semitic language, is the blood that runs through the veins of Jewish religion,

history, and literature. A language, presumed dead for seventeen centuries, was

resurrected at the end of the 19th

century, experiencing an unparallel linguistic

awakening. Who would have imagined that a language that ceased to be publicly spoken

during Jesus’ lifetime, as the Romans conquered Jerusalem, would re-emerge and

become the official national language of the State of Israel?

Judaism, a religion based solely on scriptures, has kept the language of its first

scriptures, the Hebrew bible also known as the Old Testament, alive for three

millenniums. Although the Hebrew bible has been translated into every language

imaginable, Jews have continued to use Hebrew in their religious studies and rituals.

Today, even in congregations where daily prayers are recited in the local language, many

are still chanted in their original Hebrew.

Hebrew belongs to one of the oldest families of languages, the North Central

group of the Semitic languages, which includes the ancient Ugaritic, Phoenician, Aramaic

and the still existing Syriac, or Christian Aramaic. Grammatically alike, the Semitic

languages comprise roots of three or occasionally four consonants – each having a

specific meaning or connotation – a concept similar to what English speakers describe as

family words.

Written from right to left, the Hebrew alphabet, a consonantal alphabet, consists

of 22 square letters, of which five serve also as vowel auxiliaries. A comprehensive

vowel system and punctuation were introduced only at the beginning of the Middle Ages.

Presently, vocalized texts include the bible, Hebrew prayer books, poetry books, and









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children’s books. For all other purposes, an unvocalized alphabet is the norm. Similar to

the English language, Hebrew is written in two formats: The print read-only script

appears in books and other print media, and the cursive handwriting, reserved for private

correspondence.

Like its sister languages, Hebrew is a phonetic language. Along the lines of “what

you see is what you say,” phonetic pronunciation is a little easier than in English, French,

or German. For instance, there is no equivalence to the “gh” or “ough” of English. Even

new students, when given the opportunity, can adapt to this phonetic system quite

rapidly.

The Evolution of Hebrew Through History

The average Hebrew dictionaries, available in any large bookstore in North

America, reflect the evolution that Hebrew went through during the various historical

periods. This evolution is usually divided into four chronological periods:

1. Biblical Hebrew - the language of the Hebrew bible, spoken by the Israelites

from the 12th

century BCE to the 2nd

century BCE. The vocabulary of the Hebrew

bible is quite limited and estimated at 8,000 words, of which 2,000 appear only

once. The vocabulary is relatively small due to the restricted subject-matter.

Linguists estimate the actual vocabulary of the ancient Israelites at 30,000 words.

The grammatical structure of Biblical Hebrew, unique to this period, is considered

now almost obsolete. However, a recent study found that at the beginner’s level

800 words out of the new 1,000 words are biblical. The Dead Sea Scrolls, one of

the most important discoveries of the 20th century, are written in a beautiful, rich

Biblical Hebrew.

2. Mishnaic or rabbinic Hebrew – the language of the Mishnah and the Talmud, a

large body of literature written during and after the Second Temple period [The

Second Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE, but these

scriptures represent a considerable longer period. The Talmudic literature is

written in both Aramaic and Hebrew.] Mishnaic Hebrew differs grammatically

from Biblical Hebrew, and echoes an everyday spoken dialect.









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3. Medieval Hebrew – the language used for about a millennium in various Jewish

communities around the world. This period represents a highly prolific literary

activity, featuring for the first time secular works in philosophy, pure sciences,

linguistics, prose and poetry. A unified cohesive development cannot be assumed;

every community had its unique characteristics and utilized the language

differently. However, one major phenomenon cannot be ignored – the effect

Arabic had on the Hebrew. Arabic influence is detected in syntax, vocabulary and

most importantly in the development of the vocalization system. While Mishnaic

Hebrew predominated in prose and non-fiction genres, Biblical Hebrew remained

the main creative force within the many works of religious and secular poetry.

4. Modern Hebrew - the next four sections tell the story of this historical period.

Unlike their English companions, Hebrew dictionaries are not standardized. For

example, some list verbs by root and some by the third person masculine singular

pronoun in the Past tense. Some follow the traditional vocalized spelling, some

follow the more recent unvocalized spelling and some use both. When buying a

Hebrew-English dictionary, read the introduction carefully to find out its

particular setup. It is not recommended to purchase a dictionary before

completing the beginner’s level of the language. As a general rule, any dictionary

should challenge your present competence in the language.

Was Hebrew “Dead”?

On August 29, 1897, the First Zionist Congress took place in Basel, Switzerland,

marking the beginning of political Zionism and the initiation of a new era in Jewish

history – an era when Zionism and Hebrew formed an intriguing symbiosis. Moreover,

from that point, developments in the history of Zionism and the revival of the Hebrew

language moved rapidly. It is worth noting that the official language of the early Zionist

congresses was German. Eventually, two camps formed within the Zionist movement:

one followed Ahad Ha’am’s (1856-1927) viewpoint which advocated Hebrew as the

national language of the future Jewish state, and the other supported the Orthodox-Zionist

party which believed that Yiddish should predominate. Following heated debates during









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the Zionist Congress of 1909, Hebrew was officially declared as the “Language of Zion,”

but controversy between Hebraists and their opponents lasted until the establishment of

the State of Israel in 1948.

In the first part of this article, we introduced a widely maintained theory that

Hebrew ceased to function as an everyday spoken language at the time of the last Jewish

revolt against the Romans in 135 CE. However, it would be a misconception to assume

that Hebrew became a “dead language,” confined merely to the synagogue walls. Never

actually abandoned, Hebrew survived as a “living language,” and was used as the

primary language for prayers, halachic and midrashic literature, philosophical works,

fiction, poetry, plays and history books. The immense corpus of Hebrew writings was

comparable to the Greek and Latin literatures, composed during the same period.

Furthermore, Hebrew as a spoken language continued to be used in religious schools and

yeshivas throughout the Jewish Diaspora, and served as a communication tool, in

commerce, for instance, between Jews of different origins and backgrounds.

The renowned Jewish thinker, Maimonides (1135-1204), who lived during the

Golden Age of Spain when a surge in religious and secular writings in Hebrew occurred,

was in fact the first to rule that the study of Hebrew was a major religious duty (mitzvah).

He himself wrote his philosophical and halachic works in both Arabic and Hebrew.

Interestingly, figures like the false messiahs Eldad Ha-Danni (9th

century), David

Ha-Reuveni (16th

century) and Shabtai Tzevi (17th

century) insisted on speaking only

Hebrew. The Kabbalists in Safed (16th

century) conversed and studied in Hebrew.

Hebrew has prevailed as a spoken language in the different Jewish communities of the

Land of Israel and North Africa since the third century CE. During the later days of the

19th century, following the growth of modern Zionism, Hebrew began to be taught in

secular Jewish Schools in pre-state Israel even though it could not then be classified

linguistically as a purely spoken language.









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later, Herzl changed his view and realized that only Hebrew could be the national

language of Eretz Israel.

Erroneously considered an assimilated Jew, Herzl intermittently tried to learn

Hebrew. Furthermore, he hired Hebrew tutors for his children, and one of them, Trudy,

was reported to converse in Hebrew quite fluently. Through the Zionist congress Herzl

arranged financial assistance for Eliezer Ben-Yehuda’s historical dictionary. On his last

visit to Jerusalem, Herzl expressed regrets for his inability to speak Hebrew, but

promised to master the language by his next visit. Sadly, he died prematurely at the age

of forty-four, leaving behind a myth, perpetuated by historians, that he had no

appreciation for the Hebrew language.

Eliezer Ben Yehuda – A Visionary

Herzl’s contemporary, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, was a socialist revolutionary turned

Zionist. For a while he swayed between the ideas of the Russian Revolution and his love

for the Hebrew language. Ben-Yehuda understood that Hebrew should be the connecting

link between Jews of different origins. He also believed that due to the increased

assimilation of European Jews, Hebrew could not survive in the Diaspora. In 1881, upon

arriving in Eretz Israel, he acknowledged the importance of reviving Hebrew as a spoken

language and not just as a literary or official tongue. Ben-Yehuda’s predictions proved

him a great visionary who followed his heart’s desire with an unequivocal determination.

The following anecdote related by his oldest son Itamar Ben-Avi (1882-1943) illustrates

the point.

Ben-Avi who has been called “the first Hebrew speaking child since Hebrew

ceased to be a spoken language,” recalled: “…[Ben-Yehuda] was called to the Russian

post office…and notified that a sum of a hundred shekels had arrived which would be

turned over to him only upon signing his old name [Perlman] on the envelope. [By then,]

my father has of course adopted the Hebrew name “Ben-Yehuda.” On your life! How he

needed those one hundred shekels at that moment! All his salary at that time, as an

associate editor of the Havatzelet , was four shekels a month - laugh if you want - and

with these four shekels he had to support himself, his wife and his “uneducated” son









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[Itamar, who was ridiculed for speaking only Hebrew]… Can you imagine the kind of

greatness and heroism displayed by his decision to return from the post office empty-

handed, without signing his Russian name, without getting this money! But as he entered

his gloomy apartment, exhausted and shaken, he could look his small family straight in

the eye and utter proudly: I chose to return to you as poor as I was yesterday, but loyal

and dedicated to my people - a new Jew, one of a kind.”

Was Ben Yehuda the Only Visionary?

Scholars argue whether Ben-Yehuda was the first to suggest the revival of the

Hebrew language. But as the late Professor Shlomo Morag, a noted linguist, concluded –

Ben-Yehuda was “a steersman and man of action, wedded to his objective and

unceasingly preoccupied with reconditioning a vocabulary to meet the needs of the

moment…”

Apparently, Ben-Yehuda’s great linguistic skills were far more significant than

his social activism. Definitely, many other teachers, thinkers, writers, and politicians

dedicated their lives to the revival of Modern Hebrew in other ways. Some of these

activists were Chaim Nachman. Bialik, Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Yosef Chaim Brener,

Michah Yosef Berditshevski, Aaron David Gordon, Yechiel Michal Pines, Avraham

Moshe Luncz, and the lesser known David Yellin, Nissim Behar, Yoseph Meyuchas,

Eliyahu Sappir, Itzhak Epstein, David Yudelevitch, Simcha Wilkomitz and Yehuda

Grazovski (Gur). The contribution of the many thousands of immigrants who flocked to

pre-state Israel during the first half of the 20th

century was not always acknowledged.

They were the ones who sent their children to Hebrew schools; they were the ones who

discarded their mother tongue in favor of the holy language, Hebrew.

In his weekly publication, Ha-Tzevi, Ben-Yehuda listed his newly coined words

and authored an array of articles and essays concerning Zionism and the implementation

of Modern Hebrew. He was instrumental in choosing the Sephardic pronunciation over

the Ashkenazi, and was the founding member and the leading voice of various

associations, such as the “Pure Language Society” (1890), and the Language Council

[also known as the Hebrew Language Committee], which in 1953 became the Academy









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of the Hebrew Language. All were devoted to the advancement of Modern Hebrew and to

seeing it encompass all facets of Jewish life, particularly in the Land of Israel.

The spirit of Herzl and Ben-Yehuda, whose visions and dreams were fulfilled

almost to the letter, was eloquently described by Daniel Perski (1887-1962), an

acquaintance of Ben-Yehuda: “I know of only two Jews in the last generation who

imprinted their spiritual zeal and their strong will on the course of the life of our people

in the present and for the future — Theodore Herzl and Eliezer Ben-Yehuda. What one

had done for the political revival of Israel, the other had done for its cultural revival. The

common element between them is the fact that both ‘made’ history, both brought about

our national resurrection.”

All You Ever Wanted to Know About the Hebrew Language --- But Were too Shy to Ask!

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