Page 14 - Ebook hey-vav part 2 140118 HTML

14

Hebrew is not to Be Spoken

A new and very long period began in the life of the People. The

People had gone [out] on exile and along with it so did Hebrew.

As of around the year 200 A.D. they stopped speaking the

language of the Sages, and along with it they stopped speaking

Hebrew in the world. As part of a natural process, of people who
want to be absorbed in a foreign country, the Jews adopted the

local language(s) and spoke it.

Hebrew remained the language of prayer and the language of
Torah study: Jews prayed in it three times a day, and on Shabbat

they studied Torah – in Hebrew. But Hebrew stopped being a

spoken language. Children didn’t speak Hebrew with their

parents, friends didn’t chat in Hebrew, and merchants didn’t
bargain in Hebrew.

There were few Jews who were in the habit of speaking Hebrew

only on Shabbats, and from here came the expression “Shabbat
Hebrew”, which means very formal Hebrew. In any case,

Hebrew ceased to be the language of daily affairs.

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