Yiddish and Hebrew

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  • February 2, 2017 11:36 pm at 11:36 pm #619165
    Litvos
    Member

    I have one question about Hebrew before the Haskalah. Did the Jews pray in Hebrew (as in spoke little) and then spoke Yiddish for the rest of the day or did they prey in Yiddish only? How many were knowledgable of Hebrew in the 17th to 20th century period?

    February 3, 2017 12:35 am at 12:35 am #1213791
    ☢️ Rand0m3x 🎲
    Participant

    The Jews always prayed in Hebrew. While virtually all post-Talmudic

    Torah writings are in Hebrew, I don’t know about historic literacy rates.

    February 3, 2017 12:37 am at 12:37 am #1213792
    Litvos
    Member

    Rosh Hashanah challah*

    Okay, maybe I spent too much time to Yiddish learning the last hour or so and did not realize what I had just typed. Or maybe I love Hanukkah as a joyful celebration a bit much? Either way, it was an interesting mistyping by me.

    February 3, 2017 12:47 am at 12:47 am #1213793
    Litvos
    Member
    February 3, 2017 5:46 am at 5:46 am #1213794
    ☢️ Rand0m3x 🎲
    Participant

    Wikipedia:

    The Haskalah pursued… a revival of Hebrew for secular purposes.

    February 3, 2017 6:38 am at 6:38 am #1213795
    Litvos
    Member

    I wouldn’t trust that website as a source; however I checked on JVL and it does seem to stem from the secular changes the Haskalah movement brought to the European Jews. I seem to have had a wrong perception of the Hebrew revival. I thought it was meant to replace Yiddish as the language G-d chose to reveal Himself and communicate to the Jeiwsh people.

    February 3, 2017 9:09 am at 9:09 am #1213796
    Nechomah
    Participant

    First of all, secular Jews do not in general pray in any language, so that is irrelevant.

    Second, there is a major difference that must be made between Hebrew as a secular/spoken language versus Loshon HaKodesh (LK), which is the language of Torah, kedusha and prayer.

    Religious Jews who have some understanding of LK pray in LK as that is the language prayer was written in. If a person really does not understand LK (such as a baal teshuva) he can pray in his own language until he hopefully gets enough proficiency to be able to pray in LK. The difference for an Israeli baal teshuva is that he may understand enough LK because his mother tongue is Hebrew, but they are not the same.

    The people from the Haskala wanted to remove the kedusha from LK and make Hebrew into a spoken language again.

    If G-d revealed Himself in LK to the Jewish People, what makes you think that people in this world can replace that language with something else and keep it holy? Their only purpose was to remove the holiness (kedusha) and make it a common, everyday language.

    February 3, 2017 9:12 am at 9:12 am #1213797
    Nechomah
    Participant

    Also, I would suggest that if you are interested in an Orthodox giyur you pay attention to the sources where you are getting your information. If you do not trust Wikipedia, then JVL, with its secular sources aplenty and seemingly absence of Torah sources, would not be the first choice of places to look. Check out sites like Aish.com and other sites referenced in the Coffee Room.

    February 3, 2017 12:19 pm at 12:19 pm #1213798
    Litvos
    Member

    My Orthodox sources for Torah, Talmud, Midrash, Jewish law are as follows: Aish HaTorah, Chabad, Ohr Somayach. I do read on Jewish Virtual Library for Jewish history, and being a secular website is not as issue to me now. I have simply had a wrong perception about the Hebrew revival’s authentic history. To your surprise, I have a meeting with the Orthodox rabbi of the synagogue next week, so you can pray for me it goes well. Good points on the rest, but I never argued about them, so responding is unnecessary.

    Gut Shabbos, Nechomach!

    February 3, 2017 12:32 pm at 12:32 pm #1213799
    zahavasdad
    Participant

    I belive the OP said they were from Bulgaria, If I am not mistaken Bulgaria is a Sephardic country and if OP would convert they would covert as Sephardic .

    Yiddish has no meaning to Sephardim, there is a language that Sephardim spoke called Ladino, however it has mostly fallen into disuse and most religious Sephardim speak Hebrew.

    February 3, 2017 2:03 pm at 2:03 pm #1213800
    Litvos
    Member

    Zahavasdad, the community is Sephardic, however, I will be leaving Bulgaria in seven months and what I will attend is not an actual conversion, but a conversion course. It prepares a ger for their journey to Jewish life and religion, and once you are ready you can start the actual giyur. I will spend the months I am in Bulgaria strictly attending each course. There is a Chabad organization as well here, but it is pretty small and it does not offer these courses. I will be granted a U.S. visa (not sure the word is right), kein ayin hara, in a few years and I will be able to begin my actual conversion in New York where the actual immersion into Judaism is going to happen. I hope that clears up any ideas that I am starting that early my conversion. I believe times is important and only G-d knows when I will be part of the Nation. Yiddish is important for historical reasons to me, I myself stem from a Bessarabian family and the Yiddish language was prevalent and healthy during the time my ancestors were living there.

    Have a good Shabbos!

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