The Story of Hebrew / Lewis Glinert.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Glinert, Lewis, author.

Series:

Library of Jewish ideas.

Library of Jewish Ideas ; 10

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hebrew language--Usage.

Hebrew language.

Hebrew language--Revival.

Hebrew language--History.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (297 pages) : illustrations, photographs.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2017]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

A unique history of the Hebrew language from biblical times to the modern Jewish stateThis book explores the extraordinary hold that Hebrew has had on Jews and Christians, who have invested it with a symbolic power far beyond that of any other language in history. Preserved by the Jews across two millennia, Hebrew endured long after it ceased to be a mother tongue, resulting in one of the most intense textual cultures ever known. It was a bridge to Greek and Arab science. It unlocked the biblical sources for Jerome and the Reformation. Kabbalists and humanists sought philosophical truth in it, and Colonial Americans used it to shape their own Israelite political identity. Today, it is the first language of millions of Israelis.The Story of Hebrew takes readers from the opening verses of Genesis-which seemingly describe the creation of Hebrew itself-to the reincarnation of Hebrew as the everyday language of the Jewish state. Lewis Glinert explains the uses and meanings of Hebrew in ancient Israel and its role as a medium for wisdom and prayer. He describes the early rabbis' preservation of Hebrew following the Babylonian exile, the challenges posed by Arabic, and the prolific use of Hebrew in Diaspora art, spirituality, and science. Glinert looks at the conflicted relationship Christians had with Hebrew from the Renaissance to the Counter-Reformation, the language's fatal rivalry with Yiddish, the dreamers and schemers that made modern Hebrew a reality, and how a lost pre-Holocaust textual ethos is being renewed today by Orthodox Jews.A major work of scholarship, The Story of Hebrew is an unforgettable account of what one language has meant to those possessing it.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Figures

Introduction

1. "Let There Be Hebrew"

2. Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome

3. Saving the Bible and Its Hebrew

4. The Sephardic Classical Age

5. Medieval Ashkenaz and Italy: Sciences, Sonnets, and the Sacred

6. Hebrew in the Christian Imagination, I: Medieval Designs

7. Hebrew in the Christian Imagination, II: From Kabbalists to Colonials

8. Can These Bones Live? Hebrew at the Dawn of Modernity

9. The Hebrew State

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Notes

Further Reading

Index

Notes:

"This book tells two stories: first, how Hebrew has been used in Jewish life, from the Israelites to the ancient Rabbis and across 2,000 years of nurture, abandonment, and renewal, eventually given up by many for dead but improbably rescued to become the everyday language of modern Israel. Second, it tells the story of how Jews-and Christians-have perceived Hebrew, and invested it with a symbolic power far beyond normal language"--ECIP introduction.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 261-263) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

ISBN:

9781400884780

1400884780

OCLC:

1132664047