There are two parts of the founding of Israel that have amazed me since I was a kid in the '60's when I learned this and those are the shekel returning as a unit of money and Hebrew became the language of the Jewish state despite being founded originally by Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jewish folks with their variety of languages. Those two events have given Israel a very distinctive identity. Shalom and Hey! from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia to my Jewish friends on this site.
I rarely read this newsletter (because I mostly agree with its politics), but I didn't expect to find what looks like an entirely AI-generated article here.
Wow, the part about Hebrew being the key that unlocks the soul of a people really made me think, and I'd be fascinated to hear more about how those centuries of interpetation in every letter truly influence modern Israeli culture and thought beyond its sacred uses.
During the founding of the Technion, now Israel's top engineering school, in the 1929s there was debate on whether the language of instruction should be Hebrew or German. Whew!
Learning Hebrew in the Diaspora is also an act of defiance: that Jewish people and culture will not be erased.
There are many online resources to self learn but I've found an Ulpan works best for me.
I should mention the very short Modern Hebrew, An Essential Grammar by Lewis Glinert, which in 160 pages clarifies the structure of Hebrew. Earlier editions are online and the new 5th edition is coming very soon.
Yamma Ensemble performs Jewish, Yemeni and Sephardic traditional music in Hebrew. Arabic and Ladino.
enjoyed this paean to Hebrew. It's detractors like to say it's not a complex as Arabic. Or that modern pronunication isn't "mid eastern" but influenced by Yiddish, German and other non semitic languages. at one time Hebrew was taught in HS in NYC as an elective choice......today I wonder if any school offers it still.....then I studied at an Ulpan along with Soviet refugees....young people like myself at the time. It's quick revival in pre State Israel is miraculous.
Hebrew is a fascinating language and this essay brings it into focus. There is so much depth that disappears in translation. Gematria, for example, creates this extraordinary architecture where words sharing a numerical value become intentionally connected in a way that can reveal something, rather than accidentally similar. And the idea that the letters function as foundational creative elements makes it like a linguistic equivalent of the periodic table in chemistry, where the permutations generate different aspects of reality. A word like Chesed seems to carry both ethical meaning and a kind of creative or energetic quality. So much of the meaning sits in the alphabet itself, tying language and ontology together.
There are two parts of the founding of Israel that have amazed me since I was a kid in the '60's when I learned this and those are the shekel returning as a unit of money and Hebrew became the language of the Jewish state despite being founded originally by Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jewish folks with their variety of languages. Those two events have given Israel a very distinctive identity. Shalom and Hey! from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia to my Jewish friends on this site.
very nice article
True! I'm learning this language now, and it's the coolest language ever.
Thank you. I value history and how it lives on in our lives today in language.
100%!
I rarely read this newsletter (because I mostly agree with its politics), but I didn't expect to find what looks like an entirely AI-generated article here.
I enjoyed reading this post, but why is there no author listed? I'm curious to know whether JH or someone else wrote this.
Hello there friend, I hope your Christmas holidays are going well, filled with joy in abundance.
I’ve been enjoying your notes for a while, wanted to say thank you friend.
You may enjoy my latest article, looking at the Book of Enoch!:
https://open.substack.com/pub/jordannuttall/p/what-was-removed-from-the-bible?r=4f55i2&utm_medium=ios
Wow, the part about Hebrew being the key that unlocks the soul of a people really made me think, and I'd be fascinated to hear more about how those centuries of interpetation in every letter truly influence modern Israeli culture and thought beyond its sacred uses.
Fully adopting vowels would help me a lot, personally. I’ll talk to the English Department about working out our spelling.
Wonderful article!
During the founding of the Technion, now Israel's top engineering school, in the 1929s there was debate on whether the language of instruction should be Hebrew or German. Whew!
Learning Hebrew in the Diaspora is also an act of defiance: that Jewish people and culture will not be erased.
There are many online resources to self learn but I've found an Ulpan works best for me.
I should mention the very short Modern Hebrew, An Essential Grammar by Lewis Glinert, which in 160 pages clarifies the structure of Hebrew. Earlier editions are online and the new 5th edition is coming very soon.
Yamma Ensemble performs Jewish, Yemeni and Sephardic traditional music in Hebrew. Arabic and Ladino.
https://yammaensemble.com/
https://www.teachmehebrew.com/
So, does the author here prefer to remain anonymous?
enjoyed this paean to Hebrew. It's detractors like to say it's not a complex as Arabic. Or that modern pronunication isn't "mid eastern" but influenced by Yiddish, German and other non semitic languages. at one time Hebrew was taught in HS in NYC as an elective choice......today I wonder if any school offers it still.....then I studied at an Ulpan along with Soviet refugees....young people like myself at the time. It's quick revival in pre State Israel is miraculous.
Hebrew is a fascinating language and this essay brings it into focus. There is so much depth that disappears in translation. Gematria, for example, creates this extraordinary architecture where words sharing a numerical value become intentionally connected in a way that can reveal something, rather than accidentally similar. And the idea that the letters function as foundational creative elements makes it like a linguistic equivalent of the periodic table in chemistry, where the permutations generate different aspects of reality. A word like Chesed seems to carry both ethical meaning and a kind of creative or energetic quality. So much of the meaning sits in the alphabet itself, tying language and ontology together.