WHY HEBREW IS FUNDAMENTAL TO JEWISH EDUCATION Linguistics and Longevity: The Interdependence of Language, Heritage, and Nationalism ALVIN I. SCHIFF, PH.D. Irving I. Stone Distinguished Professor of Education, Azrieli Graduate School, Yeshiva University The Hebrew language sen'es both a.i a unique expres.sion of the .Jewish heritage and a key instrument ofthe sun'ival of the Jewish people. The mystique of Hebrew lies in its uniformity and constancy despite being .spoken by Jews throughout the world and its multifaceted character—its use in the synagogue, the home, the arts, business, and in everyday life. ccordingto Douglas H. Whalen, Senior of mankind's oldest languages andthe oldest Ascientist at Haskens Laboratories, Yale continuous language (Aron & Zeldin, 1996) University, there are some 6,000 languages raises the question: In the face of 2,000 spoken today. Half of them are expected to years of dispersion, how did Hebrew in vanish within the next century because of the modern times emerge as an altneusprache influence of more common languages such as (an old-new language) that is currently the English, Chinese, and Spanish. In Australia, vernacular of some 5,000,000 Jews and only ten people can speak Jingulu, an aborigi­ 1,000,000 non-Jews in Israel, the spoken nal language. In Alaska, there are only three language of another million Jews in the households in which the native tongue Diaspora, and the language of prayer and Kuskokwim still prevails. World-wide, learning of another 4,000,000 Jews world­ Whalen noted, some 100 languages have just wide? one nadve speaker (Whalen, 1988). The miracle of the continuity and revival In addition, some modern languages bear of Hebrew as a living language has little resemblance to the ancient languages impressed people speaking endangered "mi­ from which they developed. For example, nor" languages such as Basque, Irish, and modern Greek speakers cannot understand Welsh. Linguistic delegations from Spain, Homer's Iliad or Odys.sey unless they have Ireland, and Scotland have visited Israel to special training in classical Greek. Hindustani learn about the various methods of language is hardly similar to Sanskrit, its progenitor. instruction, particularly the Ulpan, the study And modern Chinese speakers cannot read institute for adults that stresses oral compre­ Confiicius with understanding unless they hension, conversation, and daily terminol­ have special schooling in the subject. ogy, and the ivrit b 'ivrit approach—the Therefore, the continuity of Hebrew, one method of teaching other subjects in the He­ brew language. Both of these instrucdonal techniques helped bring about the renais­ In dedicating this essay to Bemard Reisman, I recall the sance of Hebrew. numerous meetings of the Homstein Professional Advisory Committee under my chairmanship when the Hebrew was never a dead language in the matter of Hebrew language was discussed. Bemie was accepted sense of the term. Yet, it was always enthusiastically supportive of efforts to enhance revived. It never ceased to be a medium of the Hebrew-language background of the Homstein religious expression for the Jewish people. students, particularly of those in the education Yet, it was reborn. This is its mysdque, the concentration. In our discussions we underscored the importance of the knowledge of Hebrew for Jewish text bipolar power of the Hebrew language. It is study, for synagogue mvolvement, and for a stronger the vehicle of a sacred past, of eternal Jewish relationship with Uie State of Israel. 160 Whv Hebrew is Fundamental to Jewish Fducation 161 values. At the same time, it is a major lingua, the prime or first language of the expression of contemporary Jewish vitality. human race (Goldman, 1993; Simpson, 1979). Even though it was not used or was rarely Hebrew continued to be the language of used as a vernacular in the lands of Jewish Abraham's descendants, the Israelites, when dispersion since the destruction ofthe Second they were enslaved in Egypt for 210 years. Temple in Jerusalem almost 2,000 years ago, The Midrasit observes that the Israelites were it was employed regularly during the last two redeemed from Egypt as a Hebrew nation millennia by the vast majority of Jews wher­ because, among other things, "they did not ever they resided as a language of prayer, change their language" {Midrasii Leviticus study, and ritual observance. And although it 32:5). They stubbornly retained their lin­ did not die, it was revived during the last guistic identity. Hebrew was the common century as a common, everyday spoken lan­ everyday language of the Israelite masses guage. This revival in Palestine/Israel bor­ from the time they conquered the Land of dered on the miraculous, since the immi­ Canaan until the end of the First Common­ grants who came to Israel from dozens of wealth with the destruction of theFirst Temple countries throughout the world and com­ in Jerusalem in 586 BCE. prised the vast majority of the Jewish popula­ When the Jews returned to their homeland tion brought with them such a large variety of from Babylonia some 100 years later, Hebrew linguistic baggage. was revived, but not without difficulty. Hebrew, as an ancient language, is well Nehemiah, the leader of the returnees, had to over 3,500 years old. Although there are employ strong measures to guarantee the Canaanite, Akkadian, Amorite, and Egyp­ continued use of Hebrew for Bible study, for tian linguistic antecedents that are consid­ public reading of the Bible, and for daily ered by some as pre-biblical forms of the conversation. He notes, "Half of the children language we now know as Hebrew, the Bible [of the returning exiles] spoke A.shdodit (the is the first corpus of texts written in this language of/Ishdod) and did not know how to medium. It was a fully fashioned literary speak Yeltudit (Hebrew)" (Nechemiah 13:24). vehicle. Nehemiah "waged the first war in Jewish In biblical times, Hebrew was the common history against the detractors of the Hebrew language of the various peoples living in the language" (Federbursh, 1967) because he Mideast area called Canaan, such as the realized that Hebrew was a conditione sine Moabites, the Amorites, andtheEdomites. It qua non for the survival of the Jewish people, is for this reason that Hebrew was known in for its spiritual continuity, and for the re- the Bible as Sefat Carta 'an, the language of establishment of the Jewish nation in the Cana 'an (Isaiah 19:18; Nachmanides" com­ Land of Israel. mentary on Genesis 45:12). Similar challenges regarding the use of Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, Hebrew by the Jewish people were faced in according to Jewish rabbinic tradition, spoke subsequent periods of Jewish history. During in the language of the Bible. This notion is the days of Yehudah Ha-nasi, Judah the Prince, reinforced in the Midrash (a collection of patriarch of Judea and redactor of the commentaries and interpretations on the Misitnalt—the first part of the Talmud, the Bible) that notes that Abraham was descended body of early Jewish civil and religious law— from Ever, the great-grandson of Noah, who in 200 CE Hebrew was in danger of disap­ spoke Ivrit or Hebrew, the language of Ever pearing as a national language and being {Midrasii Rabbahi Genesis 18:14). To be replaced by Aramaic, both as a vernacular sure, the root letters of Ivrit and Ever are the and as a means of literary expression. Rabbi same. In medieval and contemporary times, Judah warned the Jewish people about the Hebrew was regarded by some scholars, in­ neglect of Hebrew. He meticulously spoke cluding leading Christian scholars in Eu­ Hebrew at home. The Talmud relates that rope, to be Adam's original tongue, the prima even his maidservant had such a command of WINTER/SPRING 1999 r Journal of Jewish Communal Service / 162 Hebrew that his students learned from her people, a sustaining feature of a landless Hebrew words and terms that they had either nation. forgotten or had never known (Rosh Hashanah For the disappearance of the Jewish com­ 26; Megillah 18). munity of Alexandria, a vibrant center of Rabbi Meir, a leading scholar of the sec­ Jewish life several hundred thousand strong ond century who made major contributions to at the turn of the first century, was ever in the development of the Oral Law, also tried to their minds. The basis for Alexandrian Jew­ stem the tide of the Aramaic language. He ish culture was the Septuagint, the Greek rules, "When a child begins to speak, his translation ofthe Bible. The Jews of Alexan­ father should speak Hebrew to him and teach dria became fiilly Hellenized as they studied him Torah (in the original Hebrew text); and the Bible and other Judaic sources in Greek if the father fails to speak to him in the Holy translation. Philo, the leading Jewish phi­ Tongue and does not teach him Torah, it is as losopher of the first century CE in Alexan­ ifhe buries him" (S'i^ei, Deuteronomy II: 19). dria, studied, wrote, and taught in Greek. It During the eleventh and twelfth centuries is doubtful whether he had a working knowl­ in North Africa and in the Spanish peninsula, edge of Hebrew. Arabic took root in a large segment of the And what happened to this formidable Jewish population as the language of literary Jewish community? Its decline began with and philosophical writing while Aramaic, the process of Hellenization and de- used in Babylonia for almost a millennium, Hebraization. Several centuries later, after continued to serve as the language of Talmu­ other unfortunate events, the Jewish rem­ dic study and discourse. Twelfth-century nants of Alexandria were absorbed into Is­ Maimonides, the most illustrious figure in lamic culture.