ON TOPIC | SARAH WEINER
Father of Modern Hebrew
The
—Eliezer Ben-Yehudah “There are times in the
history of a nation when it is not the clever ones who are important, but those who have vision to see through the dark curtain of actuality.”
B
iblically speaking, Jerusalem is the center of the world, and to this core, the
dispersed of Judah have been re-gathering from the four corners of the earth, with their unique dialects and cultural expressions, since 1948 when Israel declared statehood.
Not far from Jerusalem’s Old City walls is a popular gathering place for locals, named aſter one of the streets that border the small triangle of shops and restau- rants—Ben Yehudah. To most, it’s just a name, but it’s because of Eliezer Ben-Yehudah’s contribution to mod- ern Israel that Jews from around the world are able to gather in work, leisure, and worship, and communicate in a common language—just as the prophet Zephaniah prophesied thousands of years ago.
Prior to the restoration of Israel in 1948, Hebrew was only used in religious services; it was the language of the Torah and the Tanakh, and many sacred Jewish books, but it was not used in common speech.
However, thanks to visionary Eliezer Ben-Yehudah, who dedicated his life to reviving the language of an- cient Israel, Hebrew is the unifying force of the restored Jewish State, with media, jurisprudence, medicine, and every scholarly discipline, as well as common dialogue, depending on this revitalized language.
Bereshit: In the Beginning In the Jewish Quarter of the village of Luzhky of Belarus, in Czarist Russia, Eliezer Elyanof was born on January 7, 1858. From the age of 3, he studied the Hebrew Bible. By his 12th birthday, he was well-read in the Torah, Mishna, and Talmud. He went on to study at
14
JewishVoiceToday.org | May/June 2011
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28