TY - CHAP
T1 - Intentional Ignorance of the Hebrew Language
AU - Parush, Iris
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
PY - 2022/1/1
Y1 - 2022/1/1
N2 - This chapter explores the treatment of the Hebrew language in nineteenth-century Eastern European Jewish society, and contends that the traditional education system cultivated intentional ignorance of the Hebrew language among large parts of the male population. The chapter investigates the surprising dearth of systematic teaching of Hebrew and its grammar in the traditional Jewish education system, as well as the hostile attitude toward those who did study Hebrew grammar and who used this knowledge for studying the Bible—a hostility that went as far as suspecting these individuals of heresy. This literacy policy is attributed, among other things, to the threat that unmediated access to the literal meanings of the Bible posed to rabbinic authority. The last parts of the chapter examine the implications of the intentional ignorance of Hebrew for the Haskalah writers who chose Hebrew as their language of writing. It is shown that the widespread ignorance of Hebrew and the ambivalent attitude toward it had far-reaching implications for Haskalah writers, for their readerships, and for the emerging modern Hebrew literature.
AB - This chapter explores the treatment of the Hebrew language in nineteenth-century Eastern European Jewish society, and contends that the traditional education system cultivated intentional ignorance of the Hebrew language among large parts of the male population. The chapter investigates the surprising dearth of systematic teaching of Hebrew and its grammar in the traditional Jewish education system, as well as the hostile attitude toward those who did study Hebrew grammar and who used this knowledge for studying the Bible—a hostility that went as far as suspecting these individuals of heresy. This literacy policy is attributed, among other things, to the threat that unmediated access to the literal meanings of the Bible posed to rabbinic authority. The last parts of the chapter examine the implications of the intentional ignorance of Hebrew for the Haskalah writers who chose Hebrew as their language of writing. It is shown that the widespread ignorance of Hebrew and the ambivalent attitude toward it had far-reaching implications for Haskalah writers, for their readerships, and for the emerging modern Hebrew literature.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85127105573&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-030-81819-7_7
DO - 10.1007/978-3-030-81819-7_7
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:85127105573
T3 - New Directions in Book History
SP - 181
EP - 224
BT - New Directions in Book History
PB - Palgrave Macmillan
ER -