The other evening, at סעודת שלישית I was asked a question and I answered in Hebrew. (It was a simple question and an equally simple answer.)
The gentleman who asked was dressed in rabbinical black-and-white, had a nice white beard, and two children - his or his grand-kids - with payot and flying tzit-tzit. He read his prayers from a Hebrew-Hebrew sedur.
He told me "I don't speak Hebrew."
Not "I don't KNOW (comprehend) Hebrew," but I don't SPEAK Hebrew.
I didn't challenge him WHY he didn't speak Hebrew; it was, after all, still Shabat. But I started to wonder.
I know there are people who won't use Hebrew as a living language because they feel it is "lashon haKodesh" (לשון הקודש) - the holy language reserved strictly for prayers and study.
In Northern Europe Yiddish was spoken, with Hebrew reserved for prayers. In other parts of Europe it was Ladino. Women were almost never allowed even to learn Hebrew.
In ancient Israel, Aramaic was the linga franca; it is the language of the talmuds and was the language of the amay haaretz - the "common folk" as defined by the rabbinical authorities. Aramaic was, I'm told, a "bridge" language between Hebrew and Arabic.
Was Hebrew never used? That would be hard to believe given that so much was written - beyond the Torah - in Hebrew. All of the Tanak - Torah, Prophets, Writings - is in Hebrew so it seems obvious to my simple mind that Hebrew was, at least at one time, indeed a viable, in-use-by-the-masses, language.
Granted, Hebrew language development took a several century hiatus.
But with the aliyot to Israel, and the likes of Eliezer Ben Yehuda (see end note) Hebrew was brought into the "modern" age.
Ben Yehuda developed new words based on words found in Tanak. Hebrew developed from Hebrew that could be used in every day conversation. Ben Yehuda's Hebrew became, like Arabic, an official Israeli language.
Since Hebrew's revival it has been - as are most languages - inundated with foreign words such as "telephone" and "check" and "special" albeit with an Israeli twist.
The bottom line, since 1948, there has been NO reason for Yiddish or Ladino or any other "Jewish" language; Hebrew is, as it once was, the language of ALL Jews no matter where they lived in the world. Hebrew IS the (Jewish) people's language.
It seems to me that if a person can read and even generally comprehend Hebrew that person should be able to speak the language. I wonder if the gentleman who "didn't speak Hebrew" simply didn't WANT to speak the language.
I made an effort to learn Hebrew so I could read books on Jewish law written by contemporary authorities, authorities who write - and one presumes speak - Hebrew.
Ovadia Yosef most assuredly speaks Hebrew (as well, I suppose, as Arabic or Farsi).
The Rabbis Messas wrote in and spoke Hebrew as well as Moroccan Arabic.
My favorite Ashkenazi Big O rabbi speaks Hebrew, albeit not "Israeli" Hebrew.
I always thought that as a Jew with at least survival level Hebrew I could go anyplace in the world and find someone with whom I could talk. Just like the old fashioned Catholics could survive on church Latin.
Most Jews who read and comprehend Tanak can understand spoken Hebrew. Granted sometimes it is difficult to "see" a Hebrew word's root in the spoken word, but written or spoken o-kel אוכל (vs. o-hel אוהל) means "food" - o-hel means "tent." Both words are found - often - in Tanak.
It is fine by me if someone wants to study Yiddish or Ladino or any other "Jewish" language for its literary value, but to fly in the face of reality and avoid SPEAKING Hebrew seems a denial of the State of Israel and the millions of Jews who live there, never mind the millions more who have Hebrew as a living, functional, day-to-day language, THE language all Jews universally can use to communicate with their fellow Jews.
I suspect - I hope - more and more families are like the rabbi's where I make minyan: Hebrew is the family's first language, with English a very close second. I don't think Hebrew needs to be the "first" language anywhere but Israel, but it should not be relegated to a language reserved for Tanak.
Hebrew is a living language, and while I don't like to hear "telephone" in Hebrew, that's the price we pay for an integrated world. By the way, there IS a Hebrew term for "telephone"; it is שח רחוק. The reason Hebrew uses "telephone" is, I was informed, because Hebrew is a VERB-BASED language and how could I make a verb out of שח רחוק? A verb family can be, and was, created from "telephone."
Hebrew is the universal language of Jews. Now if I could just get my favorite Ashkenazi rabbi to do as I do - follow the transliteration of Hebrew with the word in Hebrew characters - I could better understand what he's trying to convey. Matos or masos when written in Hebrew מטוס is still an airplaneץ
ABOUT ELIEZER BEN YEHUDA, see
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/ben_yehuda.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliezer_Ben-Yehuda
http://www.zionism-israel.com/bio/E_Ben_Yehuda_biography.htm
