Jewish Religious Multilingualism Based on Bernard Spolsky’s Research

At the very beginning, Hebrew was the main language in Judah.

But ever since the Jews left for Babylon, in the Babylonian exile, they began to use other languages, too.

First, in Babylon, Aramaic was used more and more.

Hebrew was still used, but even after the return to Judah, Aramaic kept on spreading and becoming more common.

After the return to Palestine, many Jews spoke Aramaic, but most still had varying degrees of proficiency in Hebrew.

When Greece and Rome became the dominate empires, Greek was added to the languages used by Jews. It was the first or only language of the Jews outside of Palestine. In Palestine, Hebrew was more common in Judaea than in the Galilee.

During this period, the Halakhah recognized the possibility of praying in Greek under certain circumstances.

Even though the use of these languages became more popular, the language of the Mishnah is evidence of Hebrew being a spoken, living language.

By the end of the second temple’s time, Palestine was multilingual: Aramaic as vernacular, Greek for relations with government, and Hebrew for religious life.

After the Romans drove the Jews out of Palestine, the Jews created a new multilingual pattern, developing a Jewish variety according to the Gentile language of each exile. Jews would learn the local language (to some extent) and keep using Hebrew at least for prayer and study (Hebrew and Aramaic). This generally was the pattern up until the Eighteenth century in Western Europe. Then some Jews switched their language to the general language, some even for religious uses too.

The successful revival of Hebrew in Israel led to the loss of earlier Jewish plurilingualism as it replaced immigrant languages including most traditional Jewish languages. Israeli Hebrew developed a certain pronunciation that is different from the many different pronunciations of ritual Hebrew.  Most Israeli Jews (apart from some ultra-orthodox Jews) slowly began speaking in this modified Sephardic pronunciation.

The Halakhah discusses what the “holy language” should be used for. Generally (with exceptions), Hebrew should be used  for Jewish ritual and prayer.  In spite of the strong preference for Hebrew, there has been a continual willingness to accept translation of the sacred texts into the vernacular language of the community.

As we’ve seen, Jewish society was traditionally multilingual, many times developing a “Jewish” language- a mixture between Hebrew and local languages. This enabled the Hebrew language to stay alive through thousands of years, and finally go back to full use in the Israeli state.