It's a shame: Jews who can read - or recite by rote - prayers in Hebrew while having little or no concept of the words before them and coming out their mouths.
Worse are the ones who stand before the congregation as if they knew what they were saying.
Jews are not alone in this; some Greeks are equally ignorant of Greek.
In the "old days" of the Roman church, many Catholics heard, but failed to understand, Latin.
I once lived in Clearwater FL. My across-the-street neighbors were Greek, ergo my knowledge of Greek school. I grew up mostly in South Florida with its large population of Spanish speakers (Americans from Puerto Rico and Cubans who - like Israelis here today - intend to go back to their homeland "soon"); and I recall the language battles the Roman church officials encountered here. In the end, the Romans folded and allowed their services in non-Latin languages while the traditional Greeks and Jews rejected a language change.
Maybe the Roman church did the right thing.
But I don't think so.
I think knowing the language of the religion brings a pereson closer to the religion and lets the person get closer to the original intent.
It bothers me to have people who have little or no Hebrew understanding lead the prayers.
They don't know the meaning of the words; the punctuation likewise is ignored as meaningless. As with English, punctuation really is there for a purpose.
I'll admit my Hebrew is more than a little lacking; I never will be another Ben Yehuda (which probably is just as well since many Israelis would not understand Ben Yehuda's literary Hebrew - count me in that group).
I knew very few words of Hebrew when I went to Israel. "Gledah"1 I knew, and I learned the word "Savlanute"2 on the El Al taking me to the ulpan (Netzer Serini, Spring 1975).
I tried to learn Hebrew in Harrisburg PA. I flunked the once-a-week Beginning Hebrew course, although I still can remember Rutie and her family from the accompanying audio/video. Every time I hear a "ding-dong" doorbell I remember the classes.
The teacher was OK - others in the class at the JCC did OK - but I apparently lost my ear for languages long before I confronted Hebrew. (Somehow I acquired a smattering of German and Spanish - all by osmosis, I'm sure. My best friend in junior high, Bob Liotta, was Italian, but I never heard Italian in his home although he recalls his parents spoke Italian between themselves.)
The impetus for learning Hebrew was curiosity.
This was "pre-Internet-as-we-know-it" - a fast modem in 1975 would have been 300 bps, but aside from big corporations and research facilities, there were no computers to connect to the modems … or even acoustic couplers.
Since I lacked a computer and in any case had neither "Google" or "Dogpile" available to look up a word, I happily depended on BOOKS! - ink on paper.
Problem was, I couldn't READ books in Hebrew.
Bottom line: I was a poor student of Hebrew but I had to learn the language.
About this time a former Israel Foreign Office guy named Elizer Kroll came visiting my area looking for people to go to Israel to learn Hebrew and, maybe, make aliyah. Two weeks after we met I was on the flight to Israel.
MY POINT is that there are very few Jews who are unable to learn basic Hebrew; sufficient at least to get them started learning on their own. (Be careful of dictionaries; some of the definitions are "unusual" going either way : Hebrew to English and English to Hebrew.)
Young people - especially young people sent to Jewish (Hebrew) Day schools - should be able to grasp the meaning of the prayers. Young adults can try to learn on-line or via local Jewish organization or, if they can, go to Israel and live in an ulpan for half-a-year.
Ulpans are about the only place in Israel where not everyone wants to learn English. (All my ulpan friends were from what was then the USSR - many from the Ukraine. They didn't speak English; I didn't speak Russian so we had to use what rudimentary Hebrew we learned.)
If young Jews - male and female - today are unable to comprehend even basic Hebrew, blame the rabbis who allow boys to bar mitzvah by rote. Girls, more than boys, need a command of Hebrew to teach their children since the mother is a child's primary educator and influence.
I'm proud to report that my three-year-old grand-daughter is "three-year-old-proficient" in Hebrew and English. Her Hebrew already is better than mine, but I think I still have the upper hand in English; that may not be the case when she is four.
1. Gledah = ice cream
2. Savlanute = patience
