Thoughts about Zionism

Greetings classmates! I recently read a rather interesting article about Orthodox Jews and their feelings regarding Israel and Zionism as a whole. For those of you who don’t know, Zionism is the belief that Jews should live in and operate a Jewish state around Jerusalem, our holy city. According to a slightly radical website titled truetorahjews.org, “Israeli propaganda endangers Jews worldwide.” I will briefly summarize and respond to the article, but if you wish to read it in its purest form, you can visit the following link: http://www.truetorahjews.org/issues/france-denmark

Basically, the article argued that antisemitism has increased since Israel became an independent nation in May of 1948. It cited peace between Jews and Arabs prior to Zionism’s inception as the primary point. It also mentioned radical attempts to bomb the Temple Mount and the Israeli settlements in the West Bank as escalators of an unnecessary crisis and the main reasons for growing antisemitism.

Personally, I think that the Holocaust proved Israel’s inception to be an important step in the rebuilding of Jewish culture, but this blog is not meant to discuss my views, but to talk about the importance of the Hebrew language.

Last summer,during my “I only read books that relate to Judaism” phase, I devoted myself to a novel called Exodus by Leon Uris. The book was published in 1958 and highlights Israel’s early history. I still remember being shocked to learn that Orthodox Jews were against speaking Hebrew as a conversational language. They only believed it should be use in synagogue and religious settings and argued to keep Yiddish as the tongue-of-choice. As we know, Hebrew became Israel’s official language, but this article proves there are still people out there who wish to keep things the way they have always been.  I just thought it was interesting that we commonly associate all Jews with Israel, and, as this article pointed out, that is not the case.

On another note, I will continue to use transparent.com, an online language-learning site that has helped me enormously in the past few days. Too bad my free trial expires shortly! Hopefully, by then, my new textbook will have arrived!

And yes, this was posted far past my bedtime. Hell Week has taken its toll.

Week 1: שבוע 1

See what I mean? There's a frickin' ant! Her name is Malmalah...

Oy vey. It’s been a difficult week. And not because of difficulty acclimating, or the language’s complexity. The fault lies in my Welcome to Modern Hebrew book; it is absolutely terrible or, in Hebrew, נורא (nor-ah)! I didn’t realize when I got it, but it’s definitely  more of a kid’s guide than an adult’s textbook. 

The chapters are not organized in any particular way, and vocabulary is introduced where it is completely unnecessary. I know how to say umbrella (מטרייה - mee-tree-yah), but I don’t know how to say please, or thank you!

I turned to my Rabbi for guidance, as I always do in times of need. She suggested a specific book on amazon.com, and it should be arriving any day now. Until then, I will continue to explore the resource I currently have, for any help it could possibly provide.

In order to not make this week a complete waste of my time, I started to create a Hebrew Vocabulary notebook, with all the vocabulary I have learned so far. This consists of five prefixes, two verbs, and a series of helpful (plus a few useless) words:

 The book also has some practice exercises, which I have completed:

Using the masculine and feminine forms of "live" 

Matching English vocabulary to its Hebrew translation

I decided a different way to further my understanding of the language would be to research its history.  These are some fun facts I’ve learned:

1. Hebrew is thought to be a combination of Arabic and Aramaic.
2. Scholars have argued whether the Israelites brought their language to Palestine, or whether it had been spoken there prior to their arrival. Some believe that Abraham and Sarah, the first Jews, actually spoke Aramaic!
3. Modern Hebrew was not revived until the late 19th century, when Eliezer ben Yehuda moved to Israel and encouraged use of the language at school and home.
4. Ladino (spoken by Sephardic Jews of the Iberian Peninsula) and Yiddish (spoken by Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern/Central Europe) are modeled after Hebrew. These two languages were developed by the European Jews and currently mark the most plain distinction between the two Jewish factions. I belong to the Ashkenazic group, as do most American Jews.
5. Jesus spoke Biblical Hebrew, which, during his time, was commonly used at synagogue.

The sources I used to find this information were as follows:

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/7453-hebrew-language

http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/Unit_One/History/history.html

Something interesting that I noticed in the language itself is that not every sentence requires a conjugated verb, as in English and French. Take, for example, the sentence, “I am in the house.”

English: I am in the house.

French: Je suis dans la maison.

Hebrew: אני בבית - Ah-nee ba-ba-yeet

As can be seen, the conjugated verb (“am” in English - “suis” in French) is absent from the Hebrew version, yet it means the same thing and is grammatically correct.

Of course, I cannot wait until the new book comes in the mail. Until then, I will do more research on the history of the Hebrew language and suck out whatever knowledge that could possibly be contained in my book’s pages.

Peace! (שלום - sha-lom)

Oh, and, shabbat shalom (שבת שלום), a popular greeting used on the Sabbath.

This Week's Comments:
Hannah Gruen
Sarah Wolbach
Laura Roth

בָּרוּך הַבָּא - Welcome

Greetings to all who made it to my blog! If you’re reading this, you’re either lost or need to comment on three other blogs. Regardless, I hope that you will enjoy reading this as much as I know I will enjoy learning Hebrew!

Motivation:

All of my reasons for wishing to learn Hebrew stem from the importance of Judaism in my life. My synagogue is one of my favorite places, and I spend hours there every week. I think that it’s extremely important to understand your culture, and learning the language of my people will allow me to do this. In addition, I am thinking about moving to Israel after getting out of college. It is a place I have always longed to visit, and I want to be a part of its future.

Back of Picture Depicting Ancestral Home

Something about me that many people do not know is that I have an obsession with genealogy. Like, an "I've created eight family trees, one for each of my great-grandparents, the largest of which is over 1100 people" obsession. This quest of mine has led me to come across many old documents that are written in Hebrew. If I had the ability to translate them, I would gain a much better understanding of my family!

Resources:   

Rabbi Abrasley, Congregation Beth Or

The resources I’ve acquired include the Welcome to Modern Hebrew volumes 1 and 2. I anticipate spending the majority of the process immersing myself in these two books, because they will give me the basic understanding of vocabulary and sentence structure needed to learn any language.    

I also found a website called transparent.com, which gives 7-day free trials in language learning. I plan to use this at some point during the process, most likely the last week.

Most importantly, Rabbi Laura Abrasley agreed to give me private study sessions, as she is fluent in Hebrew. This will vastly improve my speaking skills, one of the main reasons why I wish to learn the language.

With these books, websites, and rabbis, I will definitely be kept busy!

Goals:

By the end of the project, I would love to be able to decipher common Hebrew words without vowels, the way they do in Israel. If I want to live there someday, I am going to have to learn this skill at some point!

Additionally, I would love to read aloud and translate a popular bible verse in Hebrew, maybe the story of creation or Noah’s ark.This could either be recited in front of the class or filmed and shown at a later date.

Thankfully, I have an advantage in that I already have the ability to read Hebrew. I also know basic words, like shalom (hello, goodbye, and peace), ken v’lo (yes and no), and saba v’savtah (grandpa and grandma). I am extremely excited to begin working on this project, as learning Hebrew is something I have always wanted to do! My plan is to begin immersing myself in the Welcome to Modern Hebrew volume 1 this weekend, so I expect my next blogpost will be a review of that and the progress I have made. I will practice writing, reading, and speaking new words. 

Feel free to share any questions, comments, or concerns you have regarding my project. With Hebrew's alleged complexity, I am going to need all the help I can get! 


This Week's Comments:
Jess Miao 
Dani Grafton 
Alycia Lee