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203-461: Beersheba ( / b ɪər ˈ ʃ iː b ə / beer- SHEE -bə ), officially Be'er-Sheva (usually spelled Beer Sheva ; Hebrew : באר שבע ‎ , romanized :  Bəʾēr Ševaʿ , IPA: [ˈbe(ʔ)eʁ ˈʃeva(ʕ)] ; Arabic : بئر السبع ‎ , romanized :  Biʾr as-Sabʿ , IPA: [biʔr‿as.sabʕ] ; lit.   ' Well of the Oath' or 'Well of

406-738: A military railroad from the Hejaz line to Beersheba, inaugurating the station on October 30, 1915. The celebration was attended by the Ottoman army commander Jamal Pasha and other senior government officials. The train line was captured by Allied forces in 1917, towards the end of the war. Today, it forms part of the Israeli railway network . Beersheba played an important role in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign in World War I. The Battle of Beersheba

609-837: A son as God had predicted, and Abraham named him Isaac. Abraham circumcised Isaac when he was eight days old. The fourth reading ends here. In the fifth reading, Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born, and Sarah remarked that God had brought her laughter and everyone would laugh with her about her bearing Abraham a child in his old age . Abraham held a great feast on the day that Sarah weaned Isaac. Sarah saw Hagar's son Ishmael playing, and Sarah told Abraham to cast Hagar and Ishmael out, saying that Ishmael would not share in Abraham's inheritance with Isaac. Sarah's words greatly distressed Abraham, but God told Abraham not to be distressed but to do whatever Sarah told him, for Isaac would carry on Abraham's line, and God would make

812-474: A 115,000-square-metre (1,240,000-square-foot) ecologically planned mall with pools for collecting rainwater and lighting generated by solar panels on the roof. It will be situated next to an 8,000-meter park with bicycle paths. In addition, the first ever farmer's market in Israel was established as an enclosed, circular complex with 400 spaces for vendors surrounded by parks and greenery. A new central bus station

1015-685: A Hebrew form. Medieval Hebrew added 6421 words to (Modern) Hebrew. The approximate number of new lexical items in Israeli is 17,000 (cf. 14,762 in Even-Shoshan 1970 [...]). With the inclusion of foreign and technical terms [...], the total number of Israeli words, including words of biblical, rabbinic and medieval descent, is more than 60,000. In Israel, Modern Hebrew is currently taught in institutions called Ulpanim (singular: Ulpan). There are government-owned, as well as private, Ulpanim offering online courses and face-to-face programs. Modern Hebrew

1218-565: A burnt offering in place of his son. Abraham named the site Adonai-yireh. The angel called to Abraham a second time, saying that because Abraham had not withheld his son, God would bless him and make his descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sands on the seashore , and victorious over their foes. All the nations of the earth would bless themselves by Abraham's descendants, because he obeyed God's command. Abraham returned to his servants, and they departed for Beersheba, where Abraham stayed. The third open portion ends here. As

1421-595: A century ago, was fluent enough in this idiom to be able to follow the Mishna Berurah without any trouble." Hebrew has been revived several times as a literary language, most significantly by the Haskalah (Enlightenment) movement of early and mid-19th-century Germany. In the early 19th century, a form of spoken Hebrew had emerged in the markets of Jerusalem between Jews of different linguistic backgrounds to communicate for commercial purposes. This Hebrew dialect

1624-454: A child at her age, noting that nothing was too wondrous for God. The first reading ends here. In the second reading, frightened, Sarah denied laughing, but God insisted that she had. The men set out toward Sodom, and Abraham walked with them to see them off. God considered whether to confide in Abraham what God was about to do, since God had singled out Abraham to become a great nation and instruct his posterity to keep God's way by doing what

1827-661: A corollary Hebrew ceased to function as a spoken language around the same time. Moshe Zvi Segal , Joseph Klausner and Ben Yehuda are notable exceptions to this view. During the latter half of the 20th century, accumulating archaeological evidence and especially linguistic analysis of the Dead Sea Scrolls has disproven that view. The Dead Sea Scrolls, uncovered in 1946–1948 near Qumran revealed ancient Jewish texts overwhelmingly in Hebrew, not Aramaic. The Qumran scrolls indicate that Hebrew texts were readily understandable to

2030-480: A curtain. Whenever the king desired to speak to his friend, he folded up the curtain and spoke to him. But God speaks to the prophets of other nations without folding back the curtain. The Rabbis compared it to a king who has a wife and a concubine; to his wife he goes openly, but to his concubine he repairs with stealth. Similarly, God appears to non-Jews only at night, as Numbers 22:20 says, "And God came to Balaam at night," and Genesis 31:24 says, "And God came to Laban

2233-460: A distance, as Isaiah 39:3 says, "They came from a far country to me." But in connection with the prophets of Israel, Genesis 18:1 says, "And the Lord appeared," and Leviticus 1:1 says, "And the Lord called," implying from the immediate vicinity. Rabbi Ḥaninah compared the difference between the prophets of Israel and the prophets of other nations to a king who was with his friend in a chamber separated by

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2436-579: A distinct style of philosophical Hebrew. This is used in the translations made by the Ibn Tibbon family. (Original Jewish philosophical works were usually written in Arabic. ) Another important influence was Maimonides , who developed a simple style based on Mishnaic Hebrew for use in his law code, the Mishneh Torah . Subsequent rabbinic literature is written in a blend between this style and

2639-469: A dumping site and filled with untreated wastewater. After the renovation, the river was transformed and now flows with high-quality purified wastewater. At the official entrance to the river park is the Beit Eshel Park, which consists of a park built around a courtyard with historic remains from the settlement of Beit Eshel . Four new shopping malls were also built. Among them is Kanyon Beersheba,

2842-594: A gradually accepted movement. It was not, however, until the 1904–1914 Second Aliyah that Hebrew had caught real momentum in Ottoman Palestine with the more highly organized enterprises set forth by the new group of immigrants. When the British Mandate of Palestine recognized Hebrew as one of the country's three official languages (English, Arabic, and Hebrew, in 1922), its new formal status contributed to its diffusion. A constructed modern language with

3045-522: A guilt upon Abimelech and his kingdom. Abraham replied that he had thought that Gerar had no fear of God and would kill him because of his wife, and that she was in fact his father's daughter though not his mother's, so he had asked of her the kindness of identifying him as her brother. Abimelech restored Sarah to Abraham, gave him sheep , oxen , and slaves , and invited him to settle wherever he pleased in Abimelech's lands. Abimelech told Sarah that he

3248-468: A literary language down through the Byzantine period from the 4th century CE. The exact roles of Aramaic and Hebrew remain hotly debated. A trilingual scenario has been proposed for the land of Israel. Hebrew functioned as the local mother tongue with powerful ties to Israel's history, origins and golden age and as the language of Israel's religion; Aramaic functioned as the international language with

3451-536: A literary language, especially in Spain, as the language of commerce between Jews of different native languages, and as the liturgical language of Judaism, evolving various dialects of literary Medieval Hebrew , until its revival as a spoken language in the late 19th century. In May 2023, Scott Stripling published the finding of what he claims to be the oldest known Hebrew inscription, a curse tablet found at Mount Ebal , dated from around 3200 years ago. The presence of

3654-525: A monastery. Barsanuphius of Gaza corresponded with a certain monk of Beersheba, John, who might be identified with John the Prophet , who between 525 and 527 moved to the monastery of Seridus and together with Barsanuphius wrote over 850 letters on spiritual direction. During the early Muslim period , some of the Byzantine buildings continued to be used, but there was a slow decline of the city, which

3857-472: A nation of Ishmael, too. Early the next morning, Abraham placed some bread and water on Hagar's shoulder , together with Ishmael, and sent them away. Hagar and Ishmael wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba , and when the water ran out, she left the child under a bush , sat down about two bowshots away so as not to see the child die, and burst into tears. God heard the cry of the boy, and an angel called to Hagar, saying not to fear, for God had heeded

4060-624: A pillar of salt. The next morning, Abraham hurried to the place where he had stood before God and looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and saw the smoke rising like at a kiln. Lot was afraid to dwell in Zoar, so he settled in a cave in the hill country with his two daughters. The older daughter told the younger that their father was old, and there was not a man on earth with whom to have children, so she proposed that they get Lot drunk and have sex with him so that they might maintain life through their father. That night they made their father drink wine, and

4263-548: A set of dialects evolving out of Late Biblical Hebrew and into Mishnaic Hebrew, thus including elements from both but remaining distinct from either. By the start of the Byzantine Period in the 4th century CE, Classical Hebrew ceased as a regularly spoken language, roughly a century after the publication of the Mishnah, apparently declining since the aftermath of the catastrophic Bar Kokhba revolt around 135 CE. In

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4466-668: A spoken language, it continued to be used as a lingua franca among scholars and Jews traveling in foreign countries. After the 2nd century CE when the Roman Empire exiled most of the Jewish population of Jerusalem following the Bar Kokhba revolt , they adapted to the societies in which they found themselves, yet letters, contracts, commerce, science, philosophy, medicine, poetry and laws continued to be written mostly in Hebrew, which adapted by borrowing and inventing terms. After

4669-828: A symbol for his children, for when his children would come into their synagogues and houses of study and recite the Shema , they would be sitting down and God's Glory would stand by. To support this reading, the midrash cited Psalm 82:1, "God stands in the congregation of God." Rabbi Isaac taught that God reasoned that if God said in Exodus 20:21, "An altar of earth you shall make to Me [and then] I will come to you and bless you," thus revealing God's Self to bless him who built an altar in God's name, then how much more should God reveal God's Self to Abraham, who circumcised himself for God's sake. And thus, "the Lord appear to him." A midrash interpreted

4872-472: A truly Semitic vocabulary and written appearance, although often European in phonology , was to take its place among the current languages of the nations. While many saw his work as fanciful or even blasphemous (because Hebrew was the holy language of the Torah and therefore some thought that it should not be used to discuss everyday matters), many soon understood the need for a common language amongst Jews of

5075-558: A vernacular in Judea until it was displaced by Aramaic, probably in the 3rd century CE. Certain Sadducee , Pharisee , Scribe , Hermit, Zealot and Priest classes maintained an insistence on Hebrew, and all Jews maintained their identity with Hebrew songs and simple quotations from Hebrew texts. While there is no doubt that at a certain point, Hebrew was displaced as the everyday spoken language of most Jews, and that its chief successor in

5278-462: A vision.” A midrash interpreted the words of Job 19:26, "And when after my skin thus is destroyed ( נִקְּפוּ ‎, nikkefu ), then through my flesh shall I see God," to allude to Abraham. According to the midrash, Abraham reasoned that after he circumcised himself, many proselytes flocked ( hikkif ) to attach themselves to the covenant, and it was thus because Abraham did so that God revealed God's Self to Abraham, as Genesis 18:1 reports, "And

5481-624: A witness that I have dug this well ( bǝ'er )." Therefore the name of that place was Be'er Sheba, for there the two of them had sworn ( nishbǝ'u ). Genesis 26 relates: And Isaac redug the wells which had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, and which the Philistines had sealed after the death of Abraham, and he used the same names as had his father . . . And they arose in the morning, and they swore ( wa-yishabǝ'u ) each to his fellow, and Isaac sent them off, and they departed him in peace. On that same day, Isaac's men came to him to tell him of

5684-518: Is 8198, of which some 2000 are hapax legomena (the number of Biblical Hebrew roots, on which many of these words are based, is 2099). The number of attested Rabbinic Hebrew words is less than 20,000, of which (i) 7879 are Rabbinic par excellence, i.e. they did not appear in the Old Testament (the number of new Rabbinic Hebrew roots is 805); (ii) around 6000 are a subset of Biblical Hebrew; and (iii) several thousand are Aramaic words which can have

5887-481: Is Rambam Square 2, a 32-story apartment building. Many additional high-rise buildings are planned or are under construction, including skyscrapers. There are further plans to build luxury residential towers in the city. In December 2012, a plan to build 16,000 new housing units in the Ramot Gimel neighborhood was scrapped in favor of creating a new urban forest , which spans 1,360 acres (550 ha) and serves as

6090-644: Is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family . A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages , it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language until after 200 CE and as the liturgical language of Judaism (since the Second Temple period ) and Samaritanism . The language was revived as a spoken language in the 19th century, and

6293-430: Is comforted, is troubled, becomes hardened, grows faint, grieves, fears, can be broken, becomes proud, rebels, invents, cavils, overflows, devises, desires, goes astray, lusts, can be stolen, is humbled, is enticed, errs, trembles, is awakened, loves, hates, envies, is searched, is rent, meditates, is like a fire, is like a stone, turns in repentance, becomes hot, dies, melts, takes in words,

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6496-514: Is fighting to stop businesses from using only English signs to market their services. In 2012, a Knesset bill for the preservation of the Hebrew language was proposed, which includes the stipulation that all signage in Israel must first and foremost be in Hebrew, as with all speeches by Israeli officials abroad. The bill's author, MK Akram Hasson , stated that the bill was proposed as a response to Hebrew "losing its prestige" and children incorporating more English words into their vocabulary. Hebrew

6699-454: Is in the tent,'" to teach us that Sarah was modest (and therefore kept secluded). Rav Judah said in Rav's name that the ministering angels knew that Sarah was in the tent, but they brought out the fact that she was in the tent to make her more beloved to Abraham (by impressing him with her modesty). Rabbi Jose son of Rabbi Ḥanina said that they brought out the fact that she was in the tent to send her

6902-659: Is not like that of mortals, for among mortals, a lesser person cannot ask a greater person to wait, while in Genesis 18:3, God allowed it. The Tosefta taught that God rewarded measure for measure Abraham's good deeds of hospitality in Genesis 18:2–16 with benefits for Abraham's descendants the Israelites . The Gemara identified the "three men" in Genesis 18:2 as the angels Michael , Gabriel , and Raphael . Michael came to tell Sarah of Isaac's birth, Raphael came to heal Abraham, and Gabriel came to destroy Sodom. Noting that Genesis 19:1 reports that "the two angels came to Sodom,"

7105-519: Is one of several languages for which the constitution of South Africa calls to be respected in their use for religious purposes. Also, Hebrew is an official national minority language in Poland , since 6 January 2005. Hamas has made Hebrew a compulsory language taught in schools in the Gaza Strip. Genesis 21 The parashah has the most words (but not the most letters or verses ) of any of

7308-509: Is paralleled by God's blessing to Jacob in Genesis 28:14 that "All the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you and your descendants," and is fulfilled by Balaam 's request in Numbers 23:10 to share Israel's fate. In Genesis 22:17, God promised that Abraham's descendants would as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sands on the seashore. Similarly, in Genesis 15:5, God promised that Abraham's descendants would be as numerous as

7511-438: Is susceptible to fear, gives thanks, covets, becomes hard, makes merry, acts deceitfully, speaks from out of itself, loves bribes, writes words, plans, receives commandments, acts with pride, makes arrangements, and aggrandizes itself. The Gemara noted that in Genesis 18:6, Abraham directed Sarah to take flour, "knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth," but then Genesis 18:8 reports, "And he took butter and milk, and

7714-573: Is the only successful large-scale example of linguistic revival . It is the only Canaanite language, as well as one of only two Northwest Semitic languages, with the other being Aramaic , still spoken today. The earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date back to the 10th century BCE. Nearly all of the Hebrew Bible is written in Biblical Hebrew , with much of its present form in the dialect that scholars believe flourished around

7917-457: Is the primary official language of the State of Israel. As of 2013 , there are about 9 million Hebrew speakers worldwide, of whom 7 million speak it fluently. Currently, 90% of Israeli Jews are proficient in Hebrew, and 70% are highly proficient. Some 60% of Israeli Arabs are also proficient in Hebrew, and 30% report having a higher proficiency in Hebrew than in Arabic. In total, about 53% of

8120-512: Is thus connected to two of the three Wife–sister narratives in the Book of Genesis . According to the Hebrew Bible, Beersheba was founded when Abraham and Abimelech settled their differences over a well of water and made a covenant (see Genesis 21:22–34 ). Abimelech's men had taken the well from Abraham after he had previously dug it so Abraham brought sheep and cattle to Abimelech to get

8323-486: Is used to pronounce the Hebrew Bible; however, properly it should be distinguished from the historical Biblical Hebrew of the 6th century BCE, whose original pronunciation must be reconstructed. Tiberian Hebrew incorporates the scholarship of the Masoretes (from masoret meaning "tradition"), who added vowel points and grammar points to the Hebrew letters to preserve much earlier features of Hebrew, for use in chanting

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8526-650: The Chayei Adam in Hebrew, as opposed to Yiddish , as a guide to Halacha for the " average 17-year-old" (Ibid. Introduction 1). Similarly, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan 's purpose in writing the Mishnah Berurah was to "produce a work that could be studied daily so that Jews might know the proper procedures to follow minute by minute". The work was nevertheless written in Talmudic Hebrew and Aramaic, since, "the ordinary Jew [of Eastern Europe] of

8729-727: The Ancient Greek Ἑβραῖος ( hebraîos ) and Aramaic 'ibrāy , all ultimately derived from Biblical Hebrew Ivri ( עברי ), one of several names for the Israelite ( Jewish and Samaritan ) people ( Hebrews ). It is traditionally understood to be an adjective based on the name of Abraham 's ancestor, Eber , mentioned in Genesis 10:21 . The name is believed to be based on the Semitic root ʕ-b-r ( ע־ב־ר ‎), meaning "beyond", "other side", "across"; interpretations of

8932-460: The Aramean in a dream of the night." The Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer taught that God was revealed to all the prophets in a vision, but to Abraham God was revealed in a revelation and a vision. Genesis 18:1 tells of the revelation when it says, “And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre.” And Genesis 15:1 tells of the vision when it says, “After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in

9135-547: The Canaanite group of languages . Canaanite languages are a branch of the Northwest Semitic family of languages. Hebrew was the spoken language in the Iron Age kingdoms of Israel and Judah during the period from about 1200 to 586 BCE. Epigraphic evidence from this period confirms the widely accepted view that the earlier layers of biblical literature reflect the language used in these kingdoms. Furthermore,

9338-572: The Gospel of Matthew . (See the Hebrew Gospel hypothesis or Language of Jesus for more details on Hebrew and Aramaic in the gospels.) The term "Mishnaic Hebrew" generally refers to the Hebrew dialects found in the Talmud , excepting quotations from the Hebrew Bible. The dialects organize into Mishnaic Hebrew (also called Tannaitic Hebrew, Early Rabbinic Hebrew, or Mishnaic Hebrew I), which

9541-486: The Hebrew Bible in connection with the Patriarchs Abraham and Isaac , who both dug a well and close peace treaties with King Abimelech of Gerar at the site. Hence it receives its name twice, first after Abraham's dealings with Abimelech ( Genesis 21:22–34 ), and again from Isaac who closes his own covenant with Abimelech of Gerar and whose servants also dig a well there ( Genesis 26:23–33 ). The place

9744-649: The Jewish National Fund funded major redevelopment projects in Beersheba. One such project is the Beersheba River Walk, a 900-acre (3.6-square-kilometre) riverfront park stretching along 8 kilometers of the riverside and containing a 15-acre (6.1-hectare) manmade boating lake, a 12,000-seat amphitheater, green spaces, playgrounds, and a bridge along the route of the city's Mekorot water pipes. The Beersheba River had previously been used as

9947-624: The Judge of all the earth do justly?" God's role as Judge and God's justice are recurring themes in the Hebrew Bible ( Tanakh ). In Psalm 9:5, the Psalmist tells God, "You have maintained my right and my cause; You sat upon the throne as the righteous Judge." Psalm 58:12 (58:11 in the KJV ) affirms that "there is a God that judges in the earth." And Psalm 94:2 similarly calls God "Judge of the earth." Deuteronomy 10:18 reports that God "executes justice for

10150-495: The Latin alphabet of ancient Rome . The Gezer calendar is written without any vowels , and it does not use consonants to imply vowels even in the places in which later Hebrew spelling requires them. Numerous older tablets have been found in the region with similar scripts written in other Semitic languages, for example, Proto-Sinaitic . It is believed that the original shapes of the script go back to Egyptian hieroglyphs , though

10353-682: The Maccabean Revolt (167–160 BCE) and the emergence of the Hasmonean kingdom , the Great Jewish Revolt (66–73 CE), and the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–135 CE). The nationalist significance of Hebrew manifested in various ways throughout this period. Michael Owen Wise notes that "Beginning with the time of the Hasmonean revolt [...] Hebrew came to the fore in an expression akin to modern nationalism. A form of classical Hebrew

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10556-589: The Masoretic Text in Joshua 19:2, usually translated "Beersheba or Sheba"; however the Septuagint reads "Beersheba and Samaa (Σαμαὰ)" which fits with MT 1 Chron. 4:28. Abraham ibn Ezra and Samuel b. Meir suggest the two etymologies refer to two different cities. During the Ottoman administration, the city was referred as بلدية بئرالسبع ( Belediye Birüsseb ). Beersheba is mainly dealt with in

10759-572: The Mishmar HaNegev junction, 20 kilometres (12 mi) north of Beersheba and others from the Turkish train station and Hatzerim . By 9:45, Beersheba was in Israeli hands. Around 120 Egyptian soldiers were taken prisoner. All of the Arab inhabitants who had resisted were expelled. The remaining Arab civilians, 200 men and 150 women and children, were taken to the police fort and, on October 25,

10962-536: The Second Aliyah , it replaced a score of languages spoken by Jews at that time. Those languages were Jewish dialects of local languages, including Judaeo-Spanish (also called "Judezmo" and "Ladino"), Yiddish , Judeo-Arabic and Bukhori (Tajiki), or local languages spoken in the Jewish diaspora such as Russian , Persian and Arabic . The major result of the literary work of the Hebrew intellectuals along

11165-462: The literary and liturgical language into everyday spoken language . However, his brand of Hebrew followed norms that had been replaced in Eastern Europe by different grammar and style, in the writings of people like Ahad Ha'am and others. His organizational efforts and involvement with the establishment of schools and the writing of textbooks pushed the vernacularization activity into

11368-620: The official language of the State of Israel . Estimates of worldwide usage include five million speakers in 1998, and over nine million people in 2013. After Israel, the United States has the largest Hebrew-speaking population, with approximately 220,000 fluent speakers (see Israeli Americans and Jewish Americans ). Modern Hebrew is the official language of the State of Israel, while pre-revival forms of Hebrew are used for prayer or study in Jewish and Samaritan communities around

11571-543: The ostraca found near Lachish , which describe events preceding the final capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian captivity of 586 BCE. In its widest sense, Biblical Hebrew refers to the spoken language of ancient Israel flourishing between c.  1000 BCE and c.  400 CE . It comprises several evolving and overlapping dialects. The phases of Classical Hebrew are often named after important literary works associated with them. Sometimes

11774-430: The triennial cycle of Torah reading read the parashah according to the following schedule: The parashah has parallels or is discussed in these Biblical sources: In Genesis 6:13, God shared God's purpose with Noah , saying, "I have decided to put an end to all flesh" with the flood, and in an internal dialogue in Genesis 18:17–19, God asked, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do . . . ?" In Amos 3:7,

11977-407: The "Roundabouts Capital of Israel" and the largest number of roundabouts in the world. The Book of Genesis gives two etymologies for the name Be'er Sheba . Genesis 21:28-31 relates: Then Abraham set seven ewes apart. And Abimelech said to Abraham, "What mean these seven ewes, which you have set apart? And [Abraham] said, "That you are to take these seven ( sheba ) ewes from me, to be for me

12180-606: The "conquest of Beersheba, occupation of outposts around it, [and] demolition of most of the town." The objective was to break the Egyptian blockade of Israeli convoys to the Negev. The Egyptian army did not expect an offensive and fled en masse. Israel bombed the town on October 16. At 4:00 am on October 21, the 8th Brigade's 89th battalion and the Negev Brigade 's 7th and 9th battalions moved in. Some troops advanced from

12383-635: The "last successful cavalry charge in British military history." On the edge of Beersheba's Old City is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery containing the graves of Australian, New Zealand and British soldiers. The town also contains a memorial park dedicated to them . During the Palestine Mandate , Beersheba was a major administrative center. The British constructed a railway between Rafah and Beersheba in October 1917 which opened to

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12586-463: The "righteous" Lot, who fled from the wicked who perished when the fire came down on the five cities. The parashah is discussed in these rabbinic sources from the era of the Mishnah and the Talmud : The Mishnah taught that Abraham suffered ten trials and withstood them all, demonstrating how great was Abraham's love for God. The Avot of Rabbi Natan taught that two trials were at the time he

12789-528: The "water city" of Israel. One of the projects, "Beersheva beach", is a 7- dunam fountain opposite city hall. Other projects included fountains near the Soroka Medical Center and in front of the Shamoon College of Engineering. In the 1990s, as skyscrapers began to appear in Israel, the construction of high-rise buildings began in Beersheba. Today, downtown Beersheba has been described as a "clean, compact, and somewhat sterile-looking collection of high-rise office and residential towers." The city's tallest building

12992-441: The 10th century BCE at the beginning of the Monarchic period , the traditional time of the reign of David and Solomon . Classified as Archaic Biblical Hebrew , the calendar presents a list of seasons and related agricultural activities. The Gezer calendar (named after the city in whose proximity it was found) is written in an old Semitic script, akin to the Phoenician one that, through the Greeks and Etruscans , later became

13195-454: The 1980s in the USSR , Hebrew studies reappeared due to people struggling for permission to go to Israel ( refuseniks ). Several of the teachers were imprisoned, e.g. Yosef Begun , Ephraim Kholmyansky , Yevgeny Korostyshevsky and others responsible for a Hebrew learning network connecting many cities of the USSR. Standard Hebrew, as developed by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, was based on Mishnaic spelling and Sephardi Hebrew pronunciation. However,

13398-535: The 19th century was a lexical modernization of Hebrew. New words and expressions were adapted as neologisms from the large corpus of Hebrew writings since the Hebrew Bible, or borrowed from Arabic (mainly by Ben-Yehuda) and older Aramaic and Latin. Many new words were either borrowed from or coined after European languages, especially English, Russian, German, and French. Modern Hebrew became an official language in British-ruled Palestine in 1921 (along with English and Arabic), and then in 1948 became an official language of

13601-495: The 6th century BCE, during the time of the Babylonian captivity . For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as Lashon Hakodesh ( לְשׁוֹן הַקֹּדֶש , lit.   ' the holy tongue ' or ' the tongue [of] holiness ' ) since ancient times. The language was not referred to by the name Hebrew in the Bible , but as Yehudit ( transl.  ' Judean ' ) or Səpaṯ Kəna'an ( transl.  "the language of Canaan " ). Mishnah Gittin 9:8 refers to

13804-681: The Arab state. It was occupied by the Egyptian army from May 1948 until October 1948 when it was captured by the Israel Defense Forces and part of Arab population fled, relocated or was expelled. Today, the metropolitan area is composed of approximately equal Jewish and Arab populations, with a large portion of the Jewish population made up of the descendants of Sephardi Jews and Mizrahi Jews who fled, relocated or were expelled from Arab countries after Israel's founding in 1948, as well as smaller communities of Bene Israel and Cochin Jews from India. Second and third waves of immigration have taken place since 1990, bringing Russian-speaking immigrants from

14007-403: The Arabs in the 7th century and to the Turks in the 16th century. It long remained a watering place and small trade centre for the nomadic Bedouin tribes of the Negev , despite Turkish efforts at town planning and development around 1900. Its capture in 1917 by the British Army opened the way for their conquest of Palestine and Syria. After being taken by Israeli troops in October 1948, Beersheba

14210-579: The Aramaized Rabbinic Hebrew of the Talmud. Hebrew persevered through the ages as the main language for written purposes by all Jewish communities around the world for a large range of uses—not only liturgy, but also poetry, philosophy, science and medicine, commerce, daily correspondence and contracts. There have been many deviations from this generalization such as Bar Kokhba 's letters to his lieutenants, which were mostly in Aramaic, and Maimonides' writings, which were mostly in Arabic; but overall, Hebrew did not cease to be used for such purposes. For example,

14413-503: The British Mandate who at the turn of the 20th century were arriving in large numbers from diverse countries and speaking different languages. A Committee of the Hebrew Language was established. After the establishment of Israel, it became the Academy of the Hebrew Language . The results of Ben-Yehuda's lexicographical work were published in a dictionary ( The Complete Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Hebrew , Ben-Yehuda Dictionary ). The seeds of Ben-Yehuda's work fell on fertile ground, and by

14616-463: The Gemara explained that Michael accompanied Gabriel to rescue Lot. The Gemara cited the use of the singular "He" in Genesis 19:25, where it says, " He overthrew those cities," instead of " they overthrew" to demonstrate that a single angel (Gabriel) destroyed the cities. Noting that in Genesis 18:5, Abraham offered, "And I will fetch a morsel of bread," but Genesis 18:7 reports, "And Abraham ran to

14819-526: The Great conquered Babylon, he allowed the Jewish people to return from captivity. In time, a local version of Aramaic came to be spoken in Israel alongside Hebrew. By the beginning of the Common Era , Aramaic was the primary colloquial language of Samarian , Babylonian and Galileean Jews, and western and intellectual Jews spoke Greek , but a form of so-called Rabbinic Hebrew continued to be used as

15022-432: The Hebrew name of god , Yahweh, as three letters, Yod-Heh-Vav (YHV), according to the author and his team meant that the tablet is Hebrew and not Canaanite. However, practically all professional archeologists and epigraphers apart from Stripling's team claim that there is no text on this object. In July 2008, Israeli archaeologist Yossi Garfinkel discovered a ceramic shard at Khirbet Qeiyafa that he claimed may be

15225-602: The Hebrew Bible. The Masoretes inherited a biblical text whose letters were considered too sacred to be altered, so their markings were in the form of pointing in and around the letters. The Syriac alphabet , precursor to the Arabic alphabet , also developed vowel pointing systems around this time. The Aleppo Codex , a Hebrew Bible with the Masoretic pointing, was written in the 10th century, likely in Tiberias, and survives into

15428-454: The Israeli population speaks Hebrew as a native language, while most of the rest speak it fluently. In 2013 Hebrew was the native language of 49% of Israelis over the age of 20, with Russian , Arabic , French , English , Yiddish and Ladino being the native tongues of most of the rest. Some 26% of immigrants from the former Soviet Union and 12% of Arabs reported speaking Hebrew poorly or not at all. Steps have been taken to keep Hebrew

15631-509: The Israelites until they were then as numerous as the stars. In Deuteronomy 10:22, Moses reported that God had made the Israelites as numerous as the stars. And Deuteronomy 28:62 foretold that the Israelites would be reduced in number after having been as numerous as the stars. The parashah has parallels or is discussed in these early nonrabbinic sources: The second century BCE Book of Jubilees reported that Abraham endured ten trials and

15834-487: The Lord appeared to him [Abraham]." Rabbi Leazar ben Menahem taught that the opening words of Genesis 18:1, "And the Lord appeared," indicated God's proximity to Abraham. Rabbi Leazar taught that the words of Proverbs 15:29, "The Lord is far from the wicked," refer to the prophets of other nations. But the continuation of Proverbs 15:29, "He hears the prayer of the righteous," refers to the prophets of Israel. God appears to nations other that Israel only as one who comes from

16037-425: The Lord appeared to him." (And thus through circumcision performed on his flesh did Abraham come to see God.) A midrash interpreted Song of Songs 2:9, "My beloved is like a gazelle or a young hart; behold, he stands behind our wall," to apply to God's Presence in the synagogue. The midrash read the words, "behold, He stands behind our wall," to allude to the occasion in Genesis 18:1 when God came to visit Abraham on

16240-536: The Lord came to Abram in a vision," (8) when Abram was 99 years old and God asked him to circumcise himself, (9) when Sarah asked Abraham (in the words of Genesis 21:10) to "Cast out this bondwoman and her son," and (10) the binding of Isaac. And the Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael taught that Abraham inherited both this world and the World To Come as a reward for his faith, as Genesis 15:6 says, "And he believed in

16443-407: The Lord." Rabbi Hama son of Rabbi Ḥanina taught that visiting the infirm (as God did in Genesis 18:1) demonstrates one of God's attributes that humans should emulate. Rabbi Hama asked what Deuteronomy 13:5 means in the text, "You shall walk after the Lord your God." How can a human being walk after God, when Deuteronomy 4:24 says, "[T]he Lord your God is a devouring fire"? Rabbi Hama explained that

16646-477: The Middle East was the closely related Aramaic language, then Greek , scholarly opinions on the exact dating of that shift have changed very much. In the first half of the 20th century, most scholars followed Abraham Geiger and Gustaf Dalman in thinking that Aramaic became a spoken language in the land of Israel as early as the beginning of Israel's Hellenistic period in the 4th century BCE, and that as

16849-483: The Negev during this period, and Negev Bedouin. Anthropologist and educationalist Aref Abu-Rabia , who worked for the Israeli Ministry of Education and Culture , described it as "the first Bedouin city". In June 1899, the Ottoman government ordered the creation of the Beersheba sub-district ( kaza ) of the district ( mutasarrıflık ) of Jerusalem , with Beersheba to be developed as its capital. Implementation

17052-400: The Negev, which would later become Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, was established in 1969. The then Egyptian president Anwar Sadat visited Beersheba in 1979. In 1983, its population was more than 110,000. During the 1990s post-Soviet aliyah , the city's population greatly increased as many immigrants from the former Soviet Union settled there. As part of its Blueprint Negev project,

17255-692: The Rural Property Tax Ordinance not being applied there. The 1945 village survey conducted by the Palestine Mandate government found 5,570 (5,360 Muslims, 200 Christians and 10 others). In 1947, the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) proposed that Beersheba be included within the Jewish state in their partition plan for Palestine. However, when the UN's Ad Hoc Committee revised

17458-560: The Seven ' ), is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel . Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the centre of the fourth-most populous metropolitan area in Israel, the eighth-most populous Israeli city with a population of 214,162, and the second-largest city in area (after Jerusalem ), with a total area of 117,500 dunams (45 mi / 117.5 km). Human habitation near present-day Beersheba dates back to

17661-621: The Talmud, the Gemara , generally comments on the Mishnah and Baraitot in two forms of Aramaic. Nevertheless, Hebrew survived as a liturgical and literary language in the form of later Amoraic Hebrew, which occasionally appears in the text of the Gemara, particularly in the Jerusalem Talmud and the classical aggadah midrashes . Hebrew was always regarded as the language of Israel's religion, history and national pride, and after it faded as

17864-460: The Talmud, various regional literary dialects of Medieval Hebrew evolved. The most important is Tiberian Hebrew or Masoretic Hebrew, a local dialect of Tiberias in Galilee that became the standard for vocalizing the Hebrew Bible and thus still influences all other regional dialects of Hebrew. This Tiberian Hebrew from the 7th to 10th century CE is sometimes called "Biblical Hebrew" because it

18067-511: The Tanakh ( Hebrew Bible ), Parashat Vayeira has four "open portion" ( פתוחה ‎, petuchah ) divisions (roughly equivalent to paragraphs, often abbreviated with the Hebrew letter פ ‎ ( peh )). Parashat Vayeira has two further subdivisions, called "closed portion" ( סתומה ‎, setumah ) divisions (abbreviated with the Hebrew letter ס ‎ ( samekh )) within the first open portion. The first open portion, petuchah ) spans

18270-488: The ability to speak the language and attempted to promote its use. According to the Jerusalem Talmud , Megillah 1:9: "Rebbi Jonathan from Bet Guvrrin said, four languages are appropriate that the world should use them, and they are these: The Foreign Language (Greek) for song, Latin for war, Syriac for elegies, Hebrew for speech. Some are saying, also Assyrian (Hebrew script) for writing." The later section of

18473-478: The above phases of spoken Classical Hebrew are simplified into "Biblical Hebrew" (including several dialects from the 10th century BCE to 2nd century BCE and extant in certain Dead Sea Scrolls) and "Mishnaic Hebrew" (including several dialects from the 3rd century BCE to the 3rd century CE and extant in certain other Dead Sea Scrolls). However, today most Hebrew linguists classify Dead Sea Scroll Hebrew as

18676-441: The angels to spend the night at his house and bathe their feet, but they said that they would spend the night in the square. Lot urged them strongly, so they went to his house, and he prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. Before they had retired for the night, all the men of Sodom gathered about the house shouting to Lot to bring his visitors out so that they might be intimate with them. Lot went outside

18879-542: The area's "green lung", as part of the plans to develop a "green band" around the city. The forest includes designated picnic areas, biking trails, and walking trails. According to Mayor Ruvik Danilovich , Beersheba still has an abundance of open, underdeveloped spaces that can be used for urban development. Hebrew language Hebrew ( Hebrew alphabet : עִבְרִית ‎, ʿĪvrīt , pronounced [ ʔivˈʁit ] or [ ʕivˈrit ] ; Samaritan script : ࠏࠨࠁࠬࠓࠪࠉࠕ ‎ ʿÎbrit )

19082-520: The area. Following the conclusion of the war, the 1949 Armistice Agreements formally granted Beersheba to Israel. The town was then transformed into an Israeli city with only an exiguous Arab minority. Beersheba was deemed strategically important due to its location with a reliable water supply and at a major crossroads, northeast to Hebron and Jerusalem , east to the Dead Sea and al Karak , south to Aqaba , west to Gaza and southwest to Al-Auja and

19285-561: The average Jew, and that the language had evolved since Biblical times as spoken languages do. Recent scholarship recognizes that reports of Jews speaking in Aramaic indicate a multilingual society, not necessarily the primary language spoken. Alongside Aramaic, Hebrew co-existed within Israel as a spoken language. Most scholars now date the demise of Hebrew as a spoken language to the end of the Roman period , or about 200 CE. It continued on as

19488-547: The beginning of the 20th century, Hebrew was well on its way to becoming the main language of the Jewish population of both Ottoman and British Palestine. At the time, members of the Old Yishuv and a very few Hasidic sects, most notably those under the auspices of Satmar , refused to speak Hebrew and spoke only Yiddish. In the Soviet Union, the use of Hebrew, along with other Jewish cultural and religious activities,

19691-454: The birth of Isaac possible). Similarly, the Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer taught that when the three angels visited Abraham, Abraham ran to meet them and prepare for them a great banquet. He told Sarah to prepare cakes for them, but when Sarah was kneading, she perceived that the manner of women was upon her, so Abraham did not serve his visitors any of the cakes. Rather, Abraham ran to fetch a calf, but

19894-513: The border with Egypt . After a few months, the town's war-damaged houses were repaired. As a post-independence wave of Jewish immigration to Israel began, Beersheba experienced a population boom as thousands of immigrants moved in. The city rapidly expanded beyond its core, which became known as the "Old City", as new neighborhoods were built around it, complete with various housing projects such as apartment buildings and houses with auxiliary farms, as well as shopping centers and schools. The Old City

20097-636: The boy's cry, and would make of him a great nation. Then God opened her eyes to a well of water, and she and the boy drank. God was with Ishmael and he grew up in the wilderness and became a bowman . Ishmael lived in the wilderness of Paran , and Hagar got him an Egyptian wife . The fifth reading and the first open portion end here. In the sixth reading, Abimelech and Phicol the chief of his troops asked Abraham to swear not to deal falsely with them. Abraham reproached Abimelech because Abimelech's servants had seized Abraham's well, but Abimelech protested ignorance. Abraham gave Abimelech sheep and oxen and

20300-412: The calf before them, and waited on them under the tree as they ate. (In Genesis 18:9, there are dots above the letters א‎ ‎, ל ‎, and ו‎ ‎ in "They said to him.") One of the visitors told Abraham that he would return the next year, and Sarah would have a son, but Sarah laughed to herself at the prospect, with Abraham so old. God then asked Abraham why Sarah had laughed at bearing

20503-414: The calf fled from him and went into the cave of Machpelah . Abraham chased in after the calf and found Adam and Eve lying there upon their beds. Lights were kindled above them, and a sweet scent was upon them. Abraham consequently sought to get the cave as a burial possession, as Genesis 23 reports. The Gemara read Genesis 18:9, "And they said to him, 'Where is Sarah your wife?' And he said, 'Behold, she

20706-406: The calf," without reporting that Abraham brought any bread to his guests. Ephraim Maksha'ah, a disciple of Rabbi Meir, said in his teacher's name that Abraham ate even unconsecrated food ( chullin ) only when it was ritually pure, and that day Sarah had her menstrual period (and so the bread that she baked was ritually impure by virtue of this phenomenon that reflected the rejuvenation that was to make

20909-517: The camp, such as a bath house and dwellings, were found in later excavations. During the Byzantine period, at least six churches were built there, one of which is the largest church to have been excavated in the Negev. Some of the churches were still in use until the Umayyad period but it remains uncertain whether they continued beyond the early eight century. Monasticism is also attested in historical documents and one structure has been identified as

21112-399: The city for the sake of the innocent ones, and each time God agreed to do so. When God had finished speaking to Abraham, God departed, and Abraham returned to his place. The second reading ends here with the end of chapter 18. In the third reading, as Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom in the evening, the two angels arrived, and Lot greeted them and bowed low to the ground. Lot invited

21315-524: The city in regard to idolatry ( Amos 5:5 and 8:14). Following the Babylonian conquest and subsequent enslavement of many Israelites , the town was abandoned. After the Israelite slaves returned from Babylon , they resettled the town. According to the Hebrew Bible, Beersheba was the southernmost city of the territories settled by Israelites, hence the expression " from Dan to Beersheba " to describe

21518-466: The command to walk after God means to walk after the attributes of God. As God clothes the naked—for Genesis 3:21 says, "And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife coats of skin and clothed them"—so should we also clothe the naked. God visited the sick—for Genesis 18:1 says, "And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre " (after Abraham was circumcised in Genesis 17:26)—so should we also visit

21721-602: The composition of 1 Maccabees in archaizing Hebrew, Hasmonean coinage under John Hyrcanus (134-104 BCE), and coins from both the Great Revolt and Bar Kokhba Revolt featuring exclusively Hebrew and Palaeo-Hebrew script inscriptions. This deliberate use of Hebrew and Paleo-Hebrew script in official contexts, despite limited literacy, served as a symbol of Jewish nationalism and political independence. The Christian New Testament contains some Semitic place names and quotes. The language of such Semitic glosses (and in general

21924-410: The content of Hebrew inscriptions suggests that the written texts closely mirror the spoken language of that time. Scholars debate the degree to which Hebrew was a spoken vernacular in ancient times following the Babylonian exile when the predominant international language in the region was Old Aramaic . Hebrew was extinct as a colloquial language by late antiquity , but it continued to be used as

22127-568: The dialects of Classical Hebrew that functioned as a living language in the land of Israel. A transitional form of the language occurs in the other works of Tannaitic literature dating from the century beginning with the completion of the Mishnah. These include the halachic Midrashim ( Sifra , Sifre , Mekhilta etc.) and the expanded collection of Mishnah-related material known as the Tosefta . The Talmud contains excerpts from these works, as well as further Tannaitic material not attested elsewhere;

22330-411: The door and struck the people with blindness so that they were unable to find the door. The visitors directed Lot to bring what family he had out of the city, for they were about to destroy the place, because the outcry against its inhabitants had become so great. So Lot told his sons-in-law that they needed to get out of the place because God was about to destroy it, but Lot's sons-in-law thought that he

22533-419: The dream that God knew that Abimelech had a blameless heart, and so God had kept him from touching her. God told Abimelech to restore Abraham's wife, since he was a prophet , and he would intercede for Abimelech to save his life, which he would lose if he failed to restore her. Early the next morning, Abimelech told his servants what had happened and asked Abraham what he had done and why he had brought so great

22736-423: The earliest Hebrew writing yet discovered, dating from around 3,000 years ago. Hebrew University archaeologist Amihai Mazar said that the inscription was "proto-Canaanite" but cautioned that "[t]he differentiation between the scripts, and between the languages themselves in that period, remains unclear", and suggested that calling the text Hebrew might be going too far. The Gezer calendar also dates back to

22939-513: The earliest speakers of Modern Hebrew had Yiddish as their native language and often introduced calques from Yiddish and phono-semantic matchings of international words. Despite using Sephardic Hebrew pronunciation as its primary basis, modern Israeli Hebrew has adapted to Ashkenazi Hebrew phonology in some respects, mainly the following: The vocabulary of Israeli Hebrew is much larger than that of earlier periods. According to Ghil'ad Zuckermann : The number of attested Biblical Hebrew words

23142-532: The early 6th century BCE, the Neo-Babylonian Empire conquered the ancient Kingdom of Judah , destroying much of Jerusalem and exiling its population far to the east in Babylon . During the Babylonian captivity , many Israelites learned Aramaic, the closely related Semitic language of their captors. Thus, for a significant period, the Jewish elite became influenced by Aramaic. After Cyrus

23345-403: The end of chapter 21. In the seventh reading, which coincides with chapter 22, sometime later, God tested Abraham, directing him to take Isaac to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering . Early the next morning, Abraham saddled his donkey and split wood for the burnt offering, and then he, two of his servants , and Isaac set out for the place that God had named. On

23548-407: The entrance, shutting the door behind him, and begged the men of Sodom not commit such a wrong. Lot offered the men his two virgin daughters , if they would not do anything to his guests, but they disparaged Lot as one who had come as an alien and now sought to rule them, and they pressed threateningly against him. But the visitors stretched out their hands and pulled Lot back into the house and shut

23751-505: The fatherless and widow." Psalm 33:5 reports that God "loves righteousness and justice." In Psalm 89:14, the Psalmist tells God, "Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne." Psalm 103:6 says that God "executes righteousness and acts of justice for all who are oppressed"; Psalm 140:13 (140:12 in the KJV) says that God "will maintain the cause of the poor, and the right of the needy"; and Psalm 146:7 says that God "executes justice for

23954-711: The first Middle East printing press, in Safed (modern Israel), produced a small number of books in Hebrew in 1577, which were then sold to the nearby Jewish world. This meant not only that well-educated Jews in all parts of the world could correspond in a mutually intelligible language, and that books and legal documents published or written in any part of the world could be read by Jews in all other parts, but that an educated Jew could travel and converse with Jews in distant places, just as priests and other educated Christians could converse in Latin. For example, Rabbi Avraham Danzig wrote

24157-418: The first five readings. The second open portion coincides with the sixth reading. The third open portion covers the binding of Isaac, which is most of the seventh reading, excluding only the concluding maftir ( מפטיר ‎) reading. And the fourth open portion coincides with the concluding maftir reading. Closed portion divisions further divide the long fourth reading. In the first reading, as Abraham

24360-506: The former Soviet Union as well as Beta Israel immigrants from Ethiopia . The Soviet immigrants have made the game of chess a major sport in Beersheba, and it is now Israel's national chess center, with more chess grandmasters per capita than any other city in the world. Beersheba is home to Ben-Gurion University of the Negev . This city also serves as a center for Israel's high-tech and developing technology industry . The city has constructed over 250 roundabouts, earning its moniker as

24563-612: The fourth millennium BC. In the Bible, Beersheba marks the southern boundary of ancient Israel , as mentioned in the phrase " From Dan to Beersheba ." Initially assigned to the Tribe of Judah , Beersheba was later reassigned to Simeon . During the monarchic era , it functioned as a royal city but eventually faced destruction at the hands of the Assyrians . The Biblical site of Beersheba is Tel Be'er Sheva , lying some 4 km distant from

24766-406: The generic term for these passages is Baraitot . The dialect of all these works is very similar to Mishnaic Hebrew. About a century after the publication of the Mishnah, Mishnaic Hebrew fell into disuse as a spoken language. By the third century CE, sages could no longer identify the Hebrew names of many plants mentioned in the Mishnah. Only a few sages, primarily in the southern regions, retained

24969-400: The herd," doing much more than he offered, Rabbi Eleazar taught that the righteous promise little and perform much; whereas the wicked promise much and do not perform even little. The Gemara deduced the behavior of the wicked from Ephron, who in Genesis 23:15 said, "The land is worth 400 shekels of silver," but Genesis 23:16 reports, "And Abraham hearkened to Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron

25172-555: The instructions for inaugurating the Tabernacle in Leviticus 9:4, "And [take] an ox and a ram for peace-offerings . . . for today the Lord will appear to you," Rabbi Levi taught that God reasoned that if God would thus reveal God's Self to and bless him who sacrificed an ox and a ram for God's sake, how much more should God reveal God's Self to Abraham, who circumcised himself for God's sake. Consequently, Genesis 18:1 reports, "And

25375-462: The language as Ivrit , meaning Hebrew; however, Mishnah Megillah refers to the language as Ashurit , meaning Assyrian , which is derived from the name of the alphabet used , in contrast to Ivrit , meaning the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet . Hebrew ceased to be a regular spoken language sometime between 200 and 400 CE, as it declined in the aftermath of the unsuccessful Bar Kokhba revolt , which

25578-465: The language spoken by Jews in scenes from the New Testament) is often referred to as "Hebrew" in the text, although this term is often re-interpreted as referring to Aramaic instead and is rendered accordingly in recent translations. Nonetheless, these glosses can be interpreted as Hebrew as well. It has been argued that Hebrew, rather than Aramaic or Koine Greek, lay behind the composition of

25781-471: The language. The revival of the Hebrew language as a mother tongue was initiated in the late 19th century by the efforts of Ben-Yehuda. He joined the Jewish national movement and in 1881 immigrated to Palestine , then a part of the Ottoman Empire . Motivated by the surrounding ideals of renovation and rejection of the diaspora " shtetl " lifestyle, Ben-Yehuda set out to develop tools for making

25984-518: The line of Turkish defense between Gaza and Beersheba. Approximately five-hundred soldiers of the Australian 4th Light Horse Regiment and the 12th Light Horse Regiment of the 4th Light Horse Brigade , led by Brigadier General William Grant , with only horses and bayonets, charged the Turkish trenches, overran them and captured the wells in what has become known as the Battle of Beersheba , called

26187-551: The local sheikh until the government house ( Saraya ) was built. Kamal was replaced by Muhammed Carullah Efendi in 1901, who in turn was replaced by Hamdi Bey in 1903. The governor in 1908 was promoted to 'adjoint' ( mutassarrıf muavin ) to the governor of the Jerusalem district, which placed him above the other sub-district governors. A visitor to Beersheba in May 1900 found only a ruin, a two-storey stone khan , and several tents. By

26390-417: The long fourth reading, the angel replied that he would grant Lot this favor too, and spare that town. The angel urged Lot to hurry there, for the angel could not do anything until he arrived there, and thus the town came to be called Zoar . As the sun rose and Lot entered Zoar, God rained sulfurous fire from heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah and annihilated the entire plain. Lot's wife looked back and turned into

26593-437: The men of Sodom in Genesis 19:1–11. Nehemiah 9:8 interpreted God’s test of Abraham in Genesis 22 as a test of Abraham's faith, saying to God, "You found his heart faithful before You." God's blessing to Abraham in Genesis 22:18 that "All the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by your descendants" parallels God's blessing to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 that "all the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you," and

26796-577: The modern city, which was established at the start of the 20th century by the Ottomans . The city was captured by the British-led Australian Light Horse troops in the Battle of Beersheba during World War I . The population of the town was completely changed in 1948–49. Bir Seb'a ( Arabic : بئر السبع ), as it was then known, had been almost entirely Muslim, and the 1947 UN Partition Plan designated it to be part of

26999-727: The newly declared State of Israel . Hebrew is the most widely spoken language in Israel today. In the Modern Period, from the 19th century onward, the literary Hebrew tradition revived as the spoken language of modern Israel, called variously Israeli Hebrew , Modern Israeli Hebrew , Modern Hebrew , New Hebrew , Israeli Standard Hebrew , Standard Hebrew and so on. Israeli Hebrew exhibits some features of Sephardic Hebrew from its local Jerusalemite tradition but adapts it with numerous neologisms, borrowed terms (often technical) from European languages and adopted terms (often colloquial) from Arabic. The literary and narrative use of Hebrew

27202-669: The north of the city. In the following years, the town served as front-line defence against Nabatean attacks and was on the limes belt, which in this region is attributed to the time of Vespasian (1st century AD). The city become the centre of an eparchy around 268. During the Roman and Byzantine periods, the city developed significantly and the burial grounds on the outskirts of the city became residential areas. The inhabitants, which consisted of Nabataeans , Jews and other ethnicities, spoke primarily Greek and lived from olive oil production, viticulture, agricultural and other trades. After

27405-426: The numerous wells in the area. According to the Hebrew Bible , the wells were dug by Abraham and Isaac when they arrived there. The streets were laid out in a grid, with separate areas for administrative, commercial, military, and residential use. It is believed to have been the first planned settlement in the region, and is also noteworthy for its elaborate water system; in particular, a huge cistern carved out of

27608-419: The oath of Isaac and Abimelech in Genesis 26:33 . Alternatively, Obadiah Sforno suggested that the well is called Seven because it was the seventh dug; the narrative of Genesis 26 includes three wells dug by Abraham which are reopened by Isaac ( Esek , Sitnah, Rehoboth ), for a total of six, after which Isaac goes to Beersheba, the seventh well. The double name of Shib'a and Beersheba is referenced again by

27811-516: The older one lay with her father without his being aware. And the next day the older one persuaded the younger to do the same. The two daughters thus had children by their father, the older one bore a son named Moab who became the father of the Moabites , and the younger bore a son named Ben-ammi who became the father of the Ammonites . A closed portion ends here with the end of chapter 19. As

28014-484: The oppressed." And Isaiah 28:17, quotes God saying, "I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plummet ." Steven Schwarzschild concluded in the Encyclopaedia Judaica that "God's primary attribute of action . . . is justice" and "Justice has widely been said to be the moral value which singularly characterizes Judaism." Judges 19 tells a story parallel in many regards to that of Lot and

28217-422: The parashah as Torah readings for Rosh Hashanah . Genesis 21 is the Torah reading for the first day of Rosh Hashanah, and Genesis 22 is the Torah reading for the second day of Rosh Hashanah. In Reform Judaism , Genesis 22 is the Torah reading for the one day of Rosh Hashanah. In traditional Sabbath Torah reading, the parashah is divided into seven readings ( עליות ‎, aliyot ). In the Masoretic Text of

28420-534: The phonetic values are instead inspired by the acrophonic principle. The common ancestor of Hebrew and Phoenician is called Canaanite , and was the first to use a Semitic alphabet distinct from that of Egyptian. One ancient document is the famous Moabite Stone , written in the Moabite dialect; the Siloam inscription , found near Jerusalem , is an early example of Hebrew. Less ancient samples of Archaic Hebrew include

28623-400: The place that God had named, and Abraham built an altar , laid out the wood, bound Isaac, laid him on the altar, and picked up the knife to slay him. Then an angel called to Abraham, telling him not to raise his hand against the boy, for now God knew that Abraham feared God, since he had not withheld his son. Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught in a thicket by its horns, so he offered it as

28826-425: The plan, they moved Beersheva to the Arab state on account of it being primarily Arab. Egyptian forces had been stationed at Beersheva since May 1948. After the Arab states invaded Palestine and declared war on the newly-founded Jewish state of Israel , Yigal Allon proposed the conquest of Beersheba, which was approved by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion . According to Israeli historian Benny Morris , Allon ordered

29029-591: The present day. It is perhaps the most important Hebrew manuscript in existence. During the Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain , important work was done by grammarians in explaining the grammar and vocabulary of Biblical Hebrew; much of this was based on the work of the grammarians of Classical Arabic . Important Hebrew grammarians were Judah ben David Hayyuj , Jonah ibn Janah , Abraham ibn Ezra and later (in Provence ), David Kimhi . A great deal of poetry

29232-635: The primary language of use, and to prevent large-scale incorporation of English words into the Hebrew vocabulary. The Academy of the Hebrew Language of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem currently invents about 2,000 new Hebrew words each year for modern words by finding an original Hebrew word that captures the meaning, as an alternative to incorporating more English words into Hebrew vocabulary. The Haifa municipality has banned officials from using English words in official documents, and

29435-533: The prophet Amos reported, "Indeed, my Lord God does nothing without having revealed His purpose to His servants the prophets." Ezekiel 16:49–50 explains what the "grievous" sin was that Genesis 18:20 reported in Sodom. Ezekiel 16:49–50 says that Sodom's iniquity was pride. Sodom had plenty of bread and careless ease, but Sodom did not help the poor and the needy. The people of Sodom were haughty and committed abomination, so God removed them. Jeremiah 23:14 condemns

29638-476: The prophets of Jerusalem for becoming like the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah in that they committed a horrible thing, they committed adultery, they walked in lies, they strengthened the hands of evil-doers, and they did not return from their wickedness. Lamentations 4:6 judged the iniquity of Jerusalem that lead to the Babylonian captivity as greater than the sin of Sodom that led to its destruction in an instant. In Genesis 18:25, Abraham asked, "Shall not

29841-580: The public in May 1918, serving the Negev and settlements south of Mount Hebron . In 1928, at the beginning of the tension between the Jews and the Arabs over control of Palestine and wide-scale rioting which left 133 Jews dead and 339 wounded, many Jews abandoned Beersheba, although some returned occasionally. After an Arab attack on a Jewish bus in 1936, which escalated into the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine ,

30044-541: The reading continues in chapter 20, Abraham settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he was sojourning in Gerar , Abraham said that Sarah was his sister, so King Abimelech had her brought to him, but God came to Abimelech in a dream and told him that taking her would cause him to die, for she was married. Abimelech had not approached her, so he asked God whether God would slay an innocent, as Abraham and Sarah had told him that they were brother and sister. God told Abimelech in

30247-527: The reforms of Diocletian, the town became part of the province of Palaestina Tertia and grew to an approximate size of 60 hectares during its peak in the 6th century. Beersheba was described in the Madaba Map and Eusebius of Caesarea as a large village with a Roman garrison. The camp was later identified in aerial photographs taken during the First World War and other structures associated with

30450-494: The region has been inhabited since the 4th millennium BC (between 5000 and 6,000 years ago). Tel Be'er Sheva , an archaeological site containing the ruins of an ancient town believed to have been the Biblical Beersheba, lies a few kilometers east of the modern city. The town dates to the early Israelite period , around the 10th century BCE. The site was possibly chosen due to the abundance of water, as evidenced by

30653-419: The remaining Jews left. At the time of the 1922 census of Palestine , Beersheba had a population of 2,356 (2,012 Muslims, 235 Christians, 98 Jews and 11 Druze ). At the time of the 1931 census , Beersheba had 545 occupied houses and a population of 2,959 (2,791 Muslims , 152 Christians, 11 Jews and five Baháʼí ). The 1938 village survey did not cover Beersheba due to the area's largely nomadic population and

30856-674: The rest of the Middle East; and eventually Greek functioned as another international language with the eastern areas of the Roman Empire. William Schniedewind argues that after waning in the Persian period, the religious importance of Hebrew grew in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, and cites epigraphical evidence that Hebrew survived as a vernacular language – though both its grammar and its writing system had been substantially influenced by Aramaic. According to another summary, Greek

31059-505: The rock beneath the town. During the Persian rule 539 BC–c. 332 BC Beersheba was at the south of Yehud Medinata autonomous province of the Persian Achaemenid Empire . During that era the city was rebuilt and a citadel had been constructed. Archeological finds from between 359 and 338 BC have been made, finding pottery and an ostracon . During the Hasmonean rule, the city was not attributed great importance as it

31262-800: The ruling of Mishnah Yevamot 8:3 that while a male Ammonite or Moabite was forbidden from entering the congregation of Israel, an Ammonite or Moabite woman was permitted. Rabbi Haggai said in Rabbi Isaac's name that all of the Matriarchs were prophets. At the School of Rabbi Ishmael , it was taught that Genesis 18:12–13 demonstrated how great is the cause of peace, for Sarah said of Abraham in Genesis 18:12, "My lord [Abraham] being old," but when God reported Sarah's statement to Abraham, God reported Sarah to have said, "And I [Sarah] am old," so as to preserve peace between Abraham and Sarah. Similarly, in

31465-416: The seventh reading continues with the maftir reading that concludes the parashah, later, Abraham learned that Milcah had borne eight children to his brother Nahor , among whom was Bethuel , who became the father of Rebekah . Nahor's concubine Reumah also bore him four children. The seventh reading, the fourth open portion, chapter 22, and the parashah end here. Jews who read the Torah according to

31668-497: The sick. God comforted mourners—for Genesis 25:11 says, "And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed Isaac his son"—so should we also comfort mourners. God buried the dead—for Deuteronomy 34:6 says, "And He buried him in the valley"—so should we also bury the dead. Similarly, the Sifre on Deuteronomy 11:22 taught that to walk in God's ways means to be (in the words of Exodus 34:6) "merciful and gracious." Reading

31871-452: The silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, 400 shekels of silver, current money with the merchant," indicating that Ephron refused to accept anything but centenaria (which are more valuable than ordinary shekels). In Genesis 18:5, the heart is refreshed. A midrash catalogued the wide range capabilities of the heart reported in the Hebrew Bible. The heart speaks, sees, hears, walks, falls, stands, rejoices, cries,

32074-642: The sixth hour, or exactly midday. Rav Judah said in Rav's name that Genesis 18:1–3 showed that hospitality to wayfarers is greater than welcoming the Divine Presence . Rav Judah read the words "And he said, 'My Lord, if now I have found favor in Your sight, pass not away'" in Genesis 18:3 to reflect Abraham's request of God to wait for Abraham while Abraham saw to his guests. And Rabbi Eleazar said that God's acceptance of this request demonstrated how God's conduct

32277-493: The southern villages of Judea." In other words, "in terms of dialect geography, at the time of the tannaim Palestine could be divided into the Aramaic-speaking regions of Galilee and Samaria and a smaller area, Judaea, in which Rabbinic Hebrew was used among the descendants of returning exiles." In addition, it has been surmised that Koine Greek was the primary vehicle of communication in coastal cities and among

32480-474: The spoken language of the Russian Jews, should be treated as their only national language, while Hebrew was to be treated as a foreign language. Hebrew books and periodicals ceased to be published and were seized from the libraries, although liturgical texts were still published until the 1930s. Despite numerous protests, a policy of suppression of the teaching of Hebrew operated from the 1930s on. Later in

32683-503: The stars of heaven. In Genesis 26:4, God reminded Isaac that God had promised Abraham that God would make his heirs as numerous as the stars. In Genesis 32:13, Jacob reminded God that God had promised that Jacob's descendants would be as numerous as the sands. In Exodus 32:13, Moses reminded God that God had promised to make the Patriarchs’ descendants as numerous as the stars. In Deuteronomy 1:10, Moses reported that God had multiplied

32886-457: The start of 1901 there was a barracks with a small garrison as well as other buildings. The Austro-Hungarian -Czech orientalist Alois Musil noted in August 1902: By 1907, there was a large village, military post, a residence for the kaymakam and a large mosque. The population increased from 300 to 800 between 1902 and 1911, and by 1914 there were 1,000 people living in 200 houses. A plan for

33089-470: The term "Hebrew" generally render its meaning as roughly "from the other side [of the river/desert]"—i.e., an exonym for the inhabitants of the land of Israel and Judah , perhaps from the perspective of Mesopotamia , Phoenicia or Transjordan (with the river referred to being perhaps the Euphrates , Jordan or Litani ; or maybe the northern Arabian Desert between Babylonia and Canaan ). Compare

33292-420: The third day after Abraham's circumcision. Genesis 18:1 says, "And the Lord appeared to him by the terebinths of Mamre, as he sat ( יֹשֵׁב ‎, yoshev ) . . . ." The word for "he sat" is in a form that can be read yashav , the letter vav being omitted, as though it read that Abraham was sitting before he saw God, but on seeing God, he wanted to stand up. But God told him to sit, as Abraham would serve as

33495-415: The third day, Abraham saw the place from afar, and directed his servants to wait with the donkey, while Isaac and he went up to worship and then return. Abraham took the firestone and the knife , put the wood on Isaac, and the two walked off together. When Isaac asked Abraham where the sheep was for the burnt offering, Abraham replied that God would see to the sheep for the burnt offering. They arrived at

33698-593: The total number of Arabs driven out from Beersheva and surrounding areas reached 30,000 with many ending up in Jordan as refugees. Following Operation Yoav , a 10-kilometer radius exclusion zone around Beersheba was enforced into which no Bedouin were allowed. In response, the United Nations Security Council passed two resolutions on the November 4 and 16 demanding that Israel withdraw from

33901-506: The town in the form of a grid was developed by a Swiss and a German architect and two others. The grid pattern can be seen today in Beersheba's Old City. Most of the residents at the time were Arabs from Hebron and the Gaza area, although Jews also began settling in the city. Many Bedouin abandoned their nomadic lives and built homes in Beersheba. During World War I , the Ottomans built

34104-478: The two men made a pact. Abraham then offered Abimelech seven ewes as proof that Abraham had dug the well. They called the place Beersheba, for the two of them swore an oath there. After they concluded their pact, Abimelech and Phicol returned to Philistia , and Abraham planted a tamarisk and invoked God's name. Abraham lived in Philistia a long time. The sixth reading and the second open portion end here with

34307-580: The upper class of Jerusalem , while Aramaic was prevalent in the lower class of Jerusalem, but not in the surrounding countryside. After the suppression of the Bar Kokhba revolt in the 2nd century CE, Judaeans were forced to disperse. Many relocated to Galilee, so most remaining native speakers of Hebrew at that last stage would have been found in the north. Many scholars have pointed out that Hebrew continued to be used alongside Aramaic during Second Temple times, not only for religious purposes but also for nationalistic reasons, especially during revolts such as

34510-487: The weekly Torah portions in the Book of Genesis, and its word-count is second only to Parashat Naso in the entire Torah. It is made up of 7,862 Hebrew letters, 2,085 Hebrew words, 147 verses, and 252 lines in a Torah Scroll ( Sefer Torah ). (In the Book of Genesis, Parashat Miketz has the most letters, and Parashiyot Noach and Vayishlach have the most verses.) Jews read it on the fourth Sabbath after Simchat Torah , in October or November. Jews also read parts of

34713-464: The well back. He set aside seven lambs to swear that it was he that had dug the well and no one else. Abimelech conceded that the well belonged to Abraham and, in the Bible, Beersheba means "Well of Seven" or "Well of the Oath". Beersheba is further mentioned in the following Bible passages: Isaac built an altar in Beersheba (Genesis 26:23–33). Jacob had his dream about a stairway to heaven after leaving Beersheba. (Genesis 28:10–15 and 46:1–7). Beersheba

34916-413: The well which they had dug, and they said to him, "We found water." And he called it Shib'a ("seven" normally, possibly "oath" or a proper noun); therefore the name of the city is Be'er Sheba to this day. The original Hebrew name could therefore relate to the oath of Abraham and Abimelech ('well of the oath') or the seven ewes in that oath ('well of the seven'), as related in Genesis 21:31 , and/or to

35119-491: The whole kingdom. Zibiah , the consort of King Ahaziah of Judah and the mother of King Jehoash of Judah , was from Beersheba. The city has been destroyed and rebuilt many times. Considered unimportant for centuries, Be’er Sheva regained notoriety under Byzantine rule (in the 4th–7th century), when it was a key point on the Limes Palestinae , a defense line built against the desert tribes; however, it fell to

35322-511: The wine-cup of benediction (the wine-cup over which the Grace after Meals is recited and which is shared by all the guests). The Gemara reported that sages in the Land of Israel (and some said Rabbi Isaac) deduced from Sarah's practice as shown in Genesis 18:9 that while it was customary for a man to meet wayfarers, it was not customary for a woman to do so. The Gemara cited this deduction to support

35525-517: The women, children, disabled and elderly were driven by truck to the Gaza border. The Egyptian soldiers were interned in POW camps. Some men lived in the local mosque and were put to work cleaning, however, when it was discovered that they were supplying information to the Egyptian army, they were also deported. The town was subject to large-scale looting by the Haganah , and by December, in one calculation,

35728-455: The word Habiru or cognate Assyrian ebru , of identical meaning. One of the earliest references to the language's name as " Ivrit " is found in the prologue to the Book of Sirach , from the 2nd century BCE. The Hebrew Bible does not use the term "Hebrew" in reference to the language of the Hebrew people; its later historiography, in the Book of Kings , refers to it as יְהוּדִית Yehudit " Judahite (language)". Hebrew belongs to

35931-413: The words of Psalm 43:36, "Your condescension has made me great," to allude to Abraham. For God made Abraham great by allowing Abraham to sit (on account of his age and weakness after his circumcision) while the Shekhinah stood, as Genesis 18:1 reports, "And the Lord appeared to him in the plains of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door." A baraita taught that in Genesis 18:1, "in the heat of the day" meant

36134-424: The world today; the latter group utilizes the Samaritan dialect as their liturgical tongue. As a non- first language , it is studied mostly by non-Israeli Jews and students in Israel, by archaeologists and linguists specializing in the Middle East and its civilizations , and by theologians in Christian seminaries . The modern English word "Hebrew" is derived from Old French Ebrau , via Latin from

36337-421: Was a spoken language , and Amoraic Hebrew (also called Late Rabbinic Hebrew or Mishnaic Hebrew II), which was a literary language . The earlier section of the Talmud is the Mishnah that was published around 200 CE, although many of the stories take place much earlier, and were written in the earlier Mishnaic dialect. The dialect is also found in certain Dead Sea Scrolls. Mishnaic Hebrew is considered to be one of

36540-414: Was a child and all the magnates of the kingdom and the magicians sought to kill him, (2) when he was put into prison for ten years and cast into the furnace of fire, (3) his migration from his father's house and from the land of his birth, (4) the famine, (5) when Sarah his wife was taken to be Pharaoh's wife, (6) when the kings came against him to slay him, (7) when (in the words of Genesis 17:1) "the word of

36743-409: Was bidden to leave Haran, two were with his two sons, two were with his two wives, one was in the wars of the Kings, one was at the covenant between the pieces, one was in Ur of the Chaldees (where, according to a tradition, he was thrown into a furnace and came out unharmed ), and one was the covenant of circumcision. Similarly, the Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer counted as the 10 trials (1) when Abraham

36946-460: Was built in the city. The station has a glass-enclosed complex also containing shops and cafés. Some $ 10.5  million was also invested in renovating Beersheba's Old City, preserving historical buildings and upgrading infrastructure. The Turkish Quarter was also redeveloped with newly cobbled streets, widened sidewalks, and the restoration of Turkish homes into areas for dining and shopping. In 2011, city hall announced plans to turn Beersheba into

37149-427: Was built to serve as an administrative center by the Ottoman administration for the benefit of the Bedouin at the outset of the 20th century and was given the name of Bir al-Sabi (well of the seven). Until World War I , it was an overwhelmingly Muslim township with some 1,000 residents. Ben-David and Kressel have argued that the Bedouin traditional market was the cornerstone for the founding of Beersheba as capital of

37352-406: Was carried out against the Roman Empire by the Jews of Judaea . Aramaic and, to a lesser extent, Greek were already in use as international languages, especially among societal elites and immigrants. Hebrew survived into the medieval period as the language of Jewish liturgy , rabbinic literature , intra-Jewish commerce, and Jewish poetic literature . The first dated book printed in Hebrew

37555-402: Was entrusted to a special bureau of the Ministry of the Interior. The British incorporation of Sinai into Egypt led to a need for the Ottomans to consolidate their hold on southern Palestine. There was also a desire to encourage the Bedouin to become sedentary, with a predicted increase of tranquility and tax revenue. The first governor ( kaymakam ), Isma'il Kamal Bey, lived in a tent lent by

37758-504: Was found faithful and patient in spirit. Jubilees listed eight of the trials: (1) leaving his country, (2) the famine, (3) the wealth of kings, (4) his wife taken from him, (5) circumcision, (6) Hagar and Ishmael driven away, (7) the binding of Isaac, and (8) buying the land to bury Sarah. Josephus taught that Lot entreated the angels to accept lodging with him because he had learned to be a generous and hospitable man by imitating Abraham. The Wisdom of Solomon held that Wisdom delivered

37961-418: Was giving Abraham a thousand pieces of silver to serve her as vindication before all. Abraham then prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and the women in his household, so that they bore children, for God had stricken the women with infertility because of Sarah. Another closed portion ends here with the end of chapter 20. As the reading continues in chapter 21, God took note of Sarah, and she bore Abraham

38164-418: Was joking. As dawn broke, the angels urged Lot to flee with his wife and two remaining daughters, but still he delayed. So out of God's mercy, the men seized Lot, his wife, and daughters and brought them out of the city, telling them to flee for their lives and not to stop or look back anywhere in the plain. But Lot asked them whether he might flee to a little village nearby. The third reading ends here. In

38367-467: Was just and right. God told Abraham that the outrage and sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was so great that God was going to see whether they had acted according to the outcry that had reached God. The men went on to Sodom, while Abraham remained standing before God. Abraham pressed God whether God would sweep away the innocent along with the guilty, asking successively if there were 50, or 45, or 40, or 30, or 20, or 10 innocent people in Sodom, would God not spare

38570-416: Was manifested in the demolition of the public buildings and their transformation into a source of raw material for secondary construction . In the second half of the 8th century, the city was apparently abandoned. In 1483, during the late Mamluk era, the pilgrim Felix Fabri noted Beersheba as a city. Fabri also noted that Beersheba marked the southern-most border of "the Holy Land". The present-day city

38773-406: Was not mentioned when conquered from Edom or described in the Hasmonean wars . Around 64-63 BC, the Roman general Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus made Beersheba, known as Birosaba , the southern part of the Judea province. During the Herodian period there was a small settlement in Beersheba. Remains of a Jewish village dating back to the 1st century AD were discovered in the Harkapet neighborhood in

38976-438: Was now a more significant written language than Aramaic within Judaea." This nationalist aspect was further emphasized during periods of conflict, as Hannah Cotton observing in her analysis of legal documents during the Jewish revolts against Rome that "Hebrew became the symbol of Jewish nationalism, of the independent Jewish State." The nationalist use of Hebrew is evidenced in several historical documents and artefacts, including

39179-430: Was part of a wider British offensive in aimed at breaking the Turkish defensive line from Gaza to Beersheba. The Ottoman army engaged in three battles with the British forces near Gaza between March 26 and November 7, 1917. Having failed in the First and Second Battles of Gaza , the British succeeded in the Third Battle of Gaza . On October 31, 1917, three months after taking Rafah , General Allenby 's troops breached

39382-406: Was published by Abraham Garton in Reggio ( Calabria , Italy) in 1475. With the rise of Zionism in the 19th century, the Hebrew language experienced a full-scale revival as a spoken and literary language. The creation of a modern version of the ancient language was led by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda . Modern Hebrew ( Ivrit ) became the main language of the Yishuv in Palestine , and subsequently

39585-471: Was rapidly settled by new immigrants and has since developed as the administrative, cultural, and industrial centre of the Negev. It is one of the largest cities in Israel outside of metropolitan Tel Aviv , Jerusalem , and Haifa . Human settlement in the area dates from the Copper Age . The inhabitants lived in caves, crafting metal tools and raising cattle. Findings unearthed at Tel Be'er Sheva , an archaeological site east of modern-day Beersheba, suggest

39788-470: Was revived beginning with the Haskalah movement. The first secular periodical in Hebrew, Ha-Me'assef (The Gatherer), was published by maskilim in Königsberg (today's Kaliningrad ) from 1783 onwards. In the mid-19th century, publications of several Eastern European Hebrew-language newspapers (e.g. Hamagid , founded in Ełk in 1856) multiplied. Prominent poets were Hayim Nahman Bialik and Shaul Tchernichovsky ; there were also novels written in

39991-436: Was sitting in the entrance of his tent by the terebinths of Mamre in the heat of the day, he looked up and saw God in the form of three men. He ran, bowed to the ground, and welcomed them. Abraham offered to wash their feet and fetch them a morsel of bread, and they assented. Abraham rushed to Sarah's tent to order cakes made from choice flour, ran to select a choice calf for a servant-boy to prepare, set curds and milk and

40194-479: Was suppressed. Soviet authorities considered the use of Hebrew "reactionary" since it was associated with Zionism, and the teaching of Hebrew at primary and secondary schools was officially banned by the People's Commissariat for Education as early as 1919, as part of an overall agenda aiming to secularize education (the language itself did not cease to be studied at universities for historical and linguistic purposes ). The official ordinance stated that Yiddish, being

40397-437: Was the language of government, Hebrew the language of prayer, study and religious texts, and Aramaic was the language of legal contracts and trade. There was also a geographic pattern: according to Bernard Spolsky , by the beginning of the Common Era, " Judeo-Aramaic was mainly used in Galilee in the north, Greek was concentrated in the former colonies and around governmental centers, and Hebrew monolingualism continued mainly in

40600-402: Was the territory of the tribe of Simeon and Judah ( Joshua 15:28 and 19:2). The sons of the prophet Samuel were judges in Beersheba ( I Samuel 8:2). Saul , Israel's first king, built a fort there for his campaign against the Amalekites (I Samuel 14:48 and 15:2–9). The prophet Elijah took refuge in Beersheba when Jezebel ordered him killed ( I Kings 19:3). The prophet Amos mentions

40803-408: Was to a certain extent a pidgin . Near the end of that century the Jewish activist Eliezer Ben-Yehuda , owing to the ideology of the national revival ( שיבת ציון , Shivat Tziyon , later Zionism ), began reviving Hebrew as a modern spoken language. Eventually, as a result of the local movement he created, but more significantly as a result of the new groups of immigrants known under the name of

41006-451: Was turned into a city center, with shops, restaurants, and government and utility offices. An industrial area and one of the largest cinemas in Israel were also built in the city. By 1956, Beersheba was a booming city of 22,000. In 1959, during the Wadi Salib riots , riots spread quickly to other parts of the country, including Beersheba. Soroka Hospital opened its doors in 1960. By 1968, the population had grown to 80,000. The University of

41209-570: Was written, by poets such as Dunash ben Labrat , Solomon ibn Gabirol , Judah ha-Levi , Moses ibn Ezra and Abraham ibn Ezra , in a "purified" Hebrew based on the work of these grammarians, and in Arabic quantitative or strophic meters. This literary Hebrew was later used by Italian Jewish poets. The need to express scientific and philosophical concepts from Classical Greek and Medieval Arabic motivated Medieval Hebrew to borrow terminology and grammar from these other languages, or to coin equivalent terms from existing Hebrew roots, giving rise to

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