129-621: Shas ( Hebrew : ש״ס ) is a Haredi religious political party in Israel. Founded in 1984 under the leadership of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef , a former Israeli Sephardi chief rabbi , who remained its spiritual leader until his death in October 2013, it primarily represents the interests of Sephardic and Mizrahi Haredi Jews. Shas is the third-largest party in the Knesset in 2024. Since 1984 it has been part of most governing coalitions, whether
258-685: 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
387-701: A break from politics in late February 2001, the Labor party established a unity government with the Likud party, in which Shimon Peres represented the Labor party as the most senior figure of its ministers. At the same time, Benyamin Ben-Eliezer competed against Matan Vilnai for the position of defense minister in the unity government (Shimon Peres was appointed to the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs). The Labor party primaries were set for September 4, 2001. These primaries were supposedly won by Avraham Burg (who
516-595: 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
645-661: 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
774-579: 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
903-594: 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
1032-468: 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
1161-623: A moderate policy on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict , after Yosef had declared that lives were more important than territories, but it has since moved to the right and opposes any freeze in Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank . In addition, it was skeptical towards the U.S. Obama Administration 's intentions regarding the Israeli–Palestinian peace process and has begun to support a consolidation of Israeli settlement interests, especially regarding yeshivas and Jewish holy sites in
1290-742: 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 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
1419-677: A plague." Saeb Erekat of the PLO said Yosef's remarks were tantamount to a call for "genocide against Palestinians". Yosef later apologized and wrote to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak: "I support your efforts and praise all the leaders and the peoples — Egyptians, Jordanians and Palestinians — who are partners and wish the success of this important process of achieving peace in our region, and preventing bloodshed. May God grant you longevity and may you succeed in your efforts for peace and may there be peace in our region." Previously, Yosef had called Arabs "vipers" and called for Israel to "annihilate" them. "It
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#17327723268621548-560: A revival of authentic, non-Europeanized Jewish culture . However, it still represents the Sephardi and Mizrahi Haredi Jewish sectors in the Knesset . Shas has at times been able to exert disproportionate influence by gaining control of the balance of power in the Knesset within the context of the traditionally narrow margin between Israel's large parties. Like its Labor Zionist counterparts (i. e., Labor and Meretz ) that gain votes from
1677-424: A senior Likud minister, speaking on anonymity, told Al-Monitor that Deri was mediating the political coalition talks between Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz . It was also reported that Deri "might even be open to a new alliance with Blue and White – now that its anti-clerical component, Yair Lapid, quit the party and went his own way" and would only commit to remaining with Netanyahu's coalition until
1806-548: 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
1935-481: A situation in which it did not yet receive a chance to elect the head of the party. When it eventually elected Amram Mitzna , he had little more than one month to gather the attention of the Israeli public and convince the Israeli public of his positions—the most prominent among them being his claim that Israel had no interest in continuing to have control in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank . After Barak took
2064-586: A situation in which the significant differences regarding the way Israel should react to the Intifada were not split between the Labor party and the Likud party, but rather between the dovish faction in the Labor party (which supported the positions of the left-wing Meretz party) and the hawkish faction in the Labor party (whose position was very close to that of the Likud party). Although Prime Minister Ehud Barak did not run in these elections (and in practice
2193-668: 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
2322-474: A straw party with the symbols of Otzma Yehudit , which was running on a joint list with Yachad during the election. During the 2015 election, Shas won 7 seats. In 2017, opinion polling showed that Shas was falling under the election threshold of 3.25%. In response, Shas leaders said that there was a coup attempt in the party. In the same year, a tape was leaked of the party's former spiritual leader, criticizing Jerusalem Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar. On 17 April 2020,
2451-472: 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
2580-558: 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
2709-518: 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
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#17327723268622838-482: Is believed to be based on the Semitic root ʕ-b-r ( ע־ב־ר ), meaning "beyond", "other side", "across"; interpretations of 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
2967-595: Is derived from Old French Ebrau , via Latin from 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
3096-612: 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 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
3225-514: 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
3354-580: Is forbidden to be merciful to them. You must send missiles to them and annihilate them. They are evil and damnable." A spokesman later clarified that his comments were only aimed at murderers and terrorists and not the entire Arab world. In 2020, the party was fined ₪ 7,500 by the Central Elections Committee for giving out prayer cards at polling stations during the 2020 Knesset elections , which were claimed to cure " Corona and every illness and pestilence". Women activists protested
3483-411: 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 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
3612-460: Is nothing in Jewish law that says you can't have a woman as a Knesset member. But our rabbis decide what they decide on every subject and the same goes for this." When a group of ultra-Orthodox women created their own party, U'Bizchutan , Isaac Bezalel, the Shas spokesman, said: "The Haredi public is not yet open to women serving in the Knesset." Eleven men serve as members of the Knesset for Shas in
3741-590: 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. 2003 Israeli legislative election Legislative elections were held in Israel on 28 January 2003. The result
3870-748: 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 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"
3999-841: 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 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
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4128-405: 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
4257-547: 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
4386-650: 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
4515-456: The 1999 elections , its strongest showing since its formation. Although 26 seats were projected for the following election had it run in 2001, Shas was reduced to 11 seats in the 2003 election because the two-ballot system was amended. In the 2006 elections , it gained one more seat, after running what the BBC called "an aggressive campaign that targeted the neo-conservative economic policies of
4644-513: The 2009 elections , in which Shas won eleven seats, it joined Benjamin Netanyahu 's coalition government and held four cabinet posts. Eli Yishai , who led the party at that time, was one of four Deputy Prime Ministers and Minister of Internal Affairs . On 4 December 2011, Shas launched its United States affiliate, American Friends of Shas, based in Brooklyn, New York. Shas won 11 seats in
4773-502: The 2013 elections , but chose to form part of the Labor opposition to Netanyahu's new government. Yair Lapid of the Yesh Atid party and Naftali Bennett of The Jewish Home , who had won more seats and joined the coalition, both favored conscription of the previously exempt Haredi men into Israel's national service and a reduction in state financial support for Haredi families, policies Shas opposes. In December 2014, Eli Yishai left
4902-512: The Euphrates , Jordan or Litani ; or maybe the northern Arabian Desert between Babylonia and Canaan ). Compare 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
5031-572: 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
5160-542: 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 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
5289-442: The Likud leadership, Sharon collected donations totaling six million NIS in ways that were prohibited under the law regulating the funding of political parties. The Comptroller's Report published in early September 2001 stated that these contributions were breaking the law (a previous similar complaint against Netanyahu led to the issuing of a warning, and a similar complaint against Ehud Barak even led to an investigation regarding
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5418-682: 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
5547-536: 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
5676-575: The kibbutz movement, Shas gains votes and supports from moshavim that are inhabited by Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews, either Orthodox or non-Orthodox. Also, since it became a member of the World Zionist Organization , it gains votes from Orthodox settlers in the West Bank. In the elections to the eleventh Knesset in 1984, Shas won four seats. Following Aryeh Deri 's conviction on corruption charges in 1999, Shas gained 17 seats in
5805-462: 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
5934-460: 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 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
6063-555: 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,
6192-611: 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
6321-639: The 30th government on 28 February 2003. His coalition initially included just Shinui and the National Union, although Yisrael BaAliyah had merged into Likud soon after the election. On 3 March the National Religious Party joined the government. Sharon's decision to implement the Gaza disengagement plan led to the National Union and the National Religious Party leaving the coalition during June and November 2004 respectively. Shinui left
6450-766: 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,
6579-687: 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
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#17327723268626708-458: The Druze community) on 26 December. Those elections had a relatively low voter turnout and at the end of those elections, Ben-Eliezer won with a small gap of just 1,900 votes. Although winning the Labor party's leader position allegedly promised Ben Eliezer his candidacy for prime minister for the Labor party, in practice the problematic election process led to many issues which were also affected by
6837-526: 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
6966-602: 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
7095-426: The Israel Defense Forces. The coalition upheavals delayed the initial adoption of the Tal law. The adoption of the law, which in practice legitimized the existing massive draft dodging within the ultra-Orthodox community (while giving them the option to work for a whole year after they get to the age of 18, and afterwards giving them the option to choose whether to join the military or civilian service, or return to
7224-420: The Israeli policy of restraint in response to Palestinian terrorist attacks, succeeded in considerably reducing the numbers of terrorist attacks carried out against Israel; nevertheless, they led to the disintegration of the unity government. In addition, the economic situation also deteriorated significantly, and after Operation Defensive Shield, an emergency economic plan was brought forth on April 25, 2002, which
7353-454: 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
7482-454: The Labor party to establish an alternative to government policies, mainly because it was difficult to present a position contrary to that which was supported by the party up until then. Contributing this was the militaristic tendency of large sections from the Israeli public that supported more severe measures than those which were actually implemented against the Palestinians for militant and terrorist attacks against Israelis. This tendency led to
7611-446: The Labor party withdrew from the unity government, which led to rumors that the main reason they withdrew was due to the considerations regarding the primaries. The primaries were eventually won by Amram Mitzna, who at that point in time was the mayor of Haifa . He won 53% of the votes while Ben-Eliezer won 38% of the votes and Haim Ramon won only 7% of the votes. Operation Defensive Shield and Operation Determined Path , which ended
7740-417: 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
7869-514: The Sepharadim, Guardians of the Torah". Shas was founded in 1984, prior to the elections to the eleventh Knesset in the same year, in protest against the small representation of Sephardim in the largely Ashkenazi Agudat Yisrael , through the merger of regional lists which were compiled in 1983. It was originally known as the Worldwide Sephardic Association of Torah Keepers ( Hebrew : הִתְאַחֲדוּת הַסְּפָרַדִּים הָעוֹלָמִית שׁוֹמְרֵי תּוֹרָה , Hitahdut HaSfaradim HaOlamit Shomrei Torah ). The party
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#17327723268627998-404: The Shas party, which he had led for more than a decade. He said he would lead a new religious party in the election scheduled for March 2015. His departure from Shas and Aryeh Deri did not come as a surprise. The party that he formed, Yachad , failed to pass the election threshold. In the 2015 elections, Shas was accused of tampering with the ballots of Yachad . They were also accused of creating
8127-449: 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
8256-406: 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
8385-512: The West Bank. It further believes in a "United Jerusalem" and supports the Greater Jerusalem plan. In 2010, Shas joined the World Zionist Organization , having made significant changes to its charter. One of Shas's demands is a compensation package for Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews who were forced to flee their home countries and leave their property behind. Shas opposes any form of public expression of homosexuality, including Gay Pride parades, especially in Jerusalem . Shas MK Nissim Ze'ev accused
8514-422: 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
8643-411: 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
8772-455: 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
8901-428: 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,
9030-415: 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 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
9159-541: 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
9288-488: The details of the affair were revealed by Haaretz . (It turned out later on that the attorney Liora Glatt-Berkowitz , who was in charge of the investigation, leaked the information.) The exposure of the affair caused a political storm and led to calls for the resignation of Ariel Sharon from the opposition. On the other hand, Likud members alleged that the leak of the affair's details was politically motivated and intended to harm Sharon's popularity. The table below lists
9417-568: 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;
9546-513: 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
9675-590: 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
9804-529: The economic policy, the state budget, and the new defense policy, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government had to re-appoint several new ministers to his government. As a result, Benjamin Netanyahu was appointed as the Foreign Minister on November 1, and Shaul Mofaz was appointed as the defense minister the next day (a move which aroused much criticism due to its timing - Mofaz was appointed to this position only four months after he finished serving in
9933-503: The fact that since the last elections there was a significant deterioration in the security situation in Israel, after Operation Defensive Shield in May 2002 and Operation Determined Path in June 2002, there was an improvement in the security situation. The fact that Binyamin Ben-Eliezer was the defense minister in most of this period (until the unity government was dismantled) did not allow
10062-436: 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 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
10191-711: 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
10320-406: 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
10449-663: The government in December 2004 following disagreements over the budget. The party later disintegrated following a disputed leadership election, with eleven MKs leaving to form the Secular Faction and one left to establish HaOlim , which merged into the National Union. Two MKs later left the Secular Faction to establish National Home . Labor–Meimad joined the coalition in January 2005, with Agudat Yisrael added to
10578-566: The government in March 2005. Labor–Meimad later pulled out in November that year, the same month in which Sharon led a breakaway of fourteen MKs from Likud to form Kadima. Likud left the coalition in January 2006. Following Sharon's stroke, Ehud Olmert took over as Acting Prime Minister . The Knesset term also saw one of One Nation's MKs leave to form Noy , before joining Likud. One Nation then merged into Labor. Yisrael Beiteinu broke away from
10707-491: 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 the language as Ivrit , meaning Hebrew; however, Mishnah Megillah refers to the language as Ashurit , meaning Assyrian , which
10836-442: The homosexual community of "carrying out the self-destruction of Israeli society and the Jewish people", calling homosexuals "a plague as toxic as bird flu ". However, the party condemns any form of violence against gay people. Several Shas MKs, including Aryeh Deri , Rafael Pinhasi , Yair Levy , Ofer Hugi and Yair Peretz , have been convicted of criminal offenses that include fraud and forgery. In addition, MK Shlomo Benizri
10965-406: The lack of enthusiasm from the dovish faction of the Labor party to Ben Eliezer's policy as defense minister. After making serious allegations of racial discrimination against him due to being Sephardi , Ben Eliezer was forced to agree to another round of primaries. During the period of time between the decision to hold another primary and the primaries themselves, which were set for 19 November 2002,
11094-415: The lack of female representation in Shas by organizing a " No Female Candidate, No Female Vote " campaign. The women said they would not vote for a party that does not include women candidates on its slate and sent an open letter to the Knesset representatives of ultra-Orthodox parties, which was also circulated on social media. Rabbi Mordechai Blau, a senior party member, threatened that women participating in
11223-643: 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 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
11352-465: 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
11481-471: 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
11610-499: 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 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
11739-461: The left, leaving a vacuum between it and the far left group. This situation significantly affected the potential voters of the Labor Party, which since 1977 relied primarily on the moderate left. In addition, the situation in which Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced that early elections would be held, just several days after the Labor party left the unity government, caught the Labor party in
11868-619: The military as the Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces ). Eventually Sharon announced the dissolution of the Knesset and early elections. On 23 July 2002, the Knesset approved the Tal Law as an attempt to reach a compromise to the public demand that the Israeli ultra-Orthodox citizens would share an equal extent of obligations which other Israeli citizens are required to fulfill, specifically requiring them to serve in
11997-562: The money was actually transferred only on 17 January 2002). Cyril Kern's money was transferred to the Israel Discount Bank on 30 April 2002 and was returned to Cyril Kern on 17 December. These facts, coupled with the lack of clarity regarding the extent of Cyril Kern's businesses in Israel, became "political dynamite", and were investigated during the election campaign by the State Attorney's Office. On 6 January 2003,
12126-494: The movement or bucking the party leadership would find their children "banned from Haredi schools" and their employers "boycotted by the community". Shas announced that it would create a women's council within the movement, a step that was welcomed by the campaigners. At the same time, they said: "We will move forward and call on the Haredi factions to enable women to serve as MKs in the Knesset." Eli Yishai said on Israel Radio: "There
12255-727: 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
12384-590: The next election. Defunct Defunct The stated purpose of the party is to "return the crown to the former glory", meaning to protect the religious and cultural heritage of Sephardic Jewry and rectify what it sees as the "continued economic and social discrimination against the Sephardic population of Israel". Focusing on the needs of Sephardic Orthodox Israelis, Shas established its own government-funded religious education system called MaAyan HaHinuch HaTorani, which became popular in poor Sephardic towns, increasing
12513-482: The organizations that helped him get elected). As a result, Sharon returned 1.5 million NIS to the donors on October 4, but had difficulties in raising the more funds. On October 22, Sharon's son Gilad was able to get a loan at a relatively high interest from Bank Leumi , and then made contact with the South African businessman Cyril Kern, who gave him a loan for the rest of the balance on November 30 (even though
12642-595: 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 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. '
12771-413: The parliamentary factions represented in the 15th Knesset . Apart from Likud's clear victory, the election was also a success for the secularist Shinui . Despite gains by the right in the election, multiple polls showed strong public support for policies advocated by the left (such as dismantling settlements, unilaterally withdrawing from Gaza, and creating a Palestinian state). Ariel Sharon formed
12900-534: The party's popular support. Shas advocates for the increased influence of Halakha , the Jewish religious law, in Israeli society and actively engages in the Baal teshuva movement , encouraging non- Orthodox Israelis of Sephardic and Mizrahi-Jewish heritage to adopt an Orthodox Jewish lifestyle. Shas is a Haredi religious party, but it has participated in left-wing governments and is often willing to compromise on both religious and economic issues. At first, Shas followed
13029-401: The platform of a return to religion and as a counter to an establishment dominated by Ashkenazi Jews of European extraction. Not all Shas voters are ultra-Orthodox Jews . Many of its voters are Modern Orthodox and traditional Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews, due to its alignment with the promotion of an "authentic Middle Eastern" Israeli culture , which fits with traditional Zionist beliefs of
13158-643: 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
13287-431: The previous government", and joined Ehud Olmert 's coalition government , alongside Kadima , Labor , Gil and, between October 2006 and January 2008, Yisrael Beiteinu . In the government, Shas party leader Yishai was Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor and Deputy Prime Minister , while Ariel Atias was Minister of Communications and Meshulam Nahari and Yitzhak Cohen were Ministers without Portfolio . Following
13416-570: 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
13545-451: The region was Old Aramaic . Hebrew was extinct as a colloquial language by late antiquity , but it continued to be used as 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
13674-431: 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 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
13803-734: 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
13932-585: The ruling party was Labor , Kadima or Likud . The party was originally called Shom'rei Torah ("Guardians of the Torah "), with the acronym ש״ת, pronounced "Shat" or "Shas". However, Israeli election law requires a party wishing to use letters for their acronym that already appear in the acronym of an existing party to first obtain permission from that party, and the Israeli Labor Party , whose letters are אמת, refused to grant Shas permission to use
14061-493: 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
14190-474: 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
14319-466: The twenty-fifth Knesset: Hebrew language Hebrew ( Hebrew alphabet : עִבְרִית , ʿĪvrīt , pronounced [ ʔivˈʁit ] or [ ʕivˈrit ] ; Samaritan script : ࠏࠨࠁࠬࠓࠪࠉࠕ ʿÎbrit ) is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family . A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages , it was natively spoken by
14448-580: 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
14577-413: The widely accepted view that the earlier layers of biblical literature reflect the language used in these kingdoms. Furthermore, 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
14706-523: The yeshiva), caused a significant strengthening of contempt among the Israeli public towards the ultra-Orthodox community, as most non-Muslim non-ultra-Orthodox Israelis are obligated to serve in the military for several years when they reach age 18. The main effect the Tal Law had in this elections was a significant strengthening to the Shinui party. In late 1999, during Ariel Sharon's election campaign for
14835-474: The ת. Instead, it was named ש״ס, Shas, an acronym for Shomrei S'farad , meaning " Sephardic Guardians". The name is also a reference to the six orders ( Shisha S'darim ) of the Mishnah and the Talmud , both of which are often referred to by the same acronym, "Shas". The party's legal name is "Hit'akhdut ha-S'pharadim ha-Olamit Shom'rei Torah" (התאחדות הספרדים העולמית שומרי תורה), meaning "International Union of
14964-421: 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
15093-511: Was a resounding victory for Ariel Sharon 's Likud . The previous separate election for Prime Minister was scrapped, and the post was returned to the leader of the party successfully forming the working coalition government. Similarly to the 2001 elections for the position of prime minister , these elections were also affected by the Second Intifada , which was a period of intense fighting and Palestinian militancy campaigns. Despite
15222-419: Was almost two years out of the political system), at the time Ehud Barak and the Labor Party were widely considered by many in the Israeli public as those directly responsible for the outbreak of the second intifada. In general, similar to previous elections, the Intifada created a significant gap in the public opinions, as the public which once identified itself as "moderate left" drifted significantly away from
15351-449: Was called Economic Defensive Shield (חומת מגן כלכלית). A temporary lull in terrorist attacks against Israelis was among the reasons that the Shas party ministers opposed the emergency economic plan and voted against it in the Knesset. This situation caused Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to fire the Shas ministers on May 20. Nevertheless, Shas rejoined the government on June 3, but this step
15480-514: Was convicted of bribery, conspiring to commit a crime and obstruction of justice on 1 April 2008. Benizri resigned was replaced by Mazor Bahaina , who was number thirteen on the Shas list. In 1999, Deri was sentenced to prison time on corruption charges. In 2010, Ovadia Yosef cursed the Palestinians as "evil, bitter enemies of Israel" and said that, " Abu Mazen and all these evil people should perish from this world. God should strike them with
15609-400: Was formed under the leadership of former Israeli Chief Sephardi Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who established a four-member (including himself) Council of Torah Sages and remained the party's spiritual leader until his death. In founding the party, Yosef received strategic help and guidance from Rabbi Elazar Shach , leader of Israel's non- Hasidic Haredi Ashkenazi Jews. Yosef founded the party in 1984 on
15738-491: 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
15867-629: 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
15996-531: 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
16125-558: Was the Speaker of the Knesset at the time), although in practice there was a very small number of votes (only 1,000 votes in favor of Burg), which led to many claims of fraud, especially of fraud within ballots of the Israeli Druze community. After a long series of discussions and accusations regarding ethnic discrimination of the Druze public, it was decided that the primaries would be held again in 51 polling stations (mostly within
16254-474: Was the beginning of the end of the unity government. On July 28 David Levy and his breakaway Gesher faction left the government due to their opposition to the budget. Although their departure was not significant at the time, further ahead this caused difficulties for the continued existence of the unity government. When the Labor party withdrew from the unity government in September due to their opposition to
16383-551: 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
16512-408: 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
16641-570: 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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