The Language of Prayer in the Pre-Modern Era

According to the Mishna, Jewish prayer does not have to be said ‘in the holy tongue’ (i.e. Hebrew) but can be uttered in any language that the person understands. This opinion was accepted by both the Babylonian and the Palestinian Talmud, and was upheld by almost all rabbinic authorities in the pre-modern era. But despite this widely accepted permission to pray in every language, the practice was very seldom used. Almost all ancient Jewish Prayer books preserved until today are in the Hebrew language, even the many of them which use local vernacular to write the prayer instructions. There is, however, an exception to this general rule: Aramaic. Alongside Hebrew, the siddur’s main language, several Aramaic prayers gained entrée to the siddur, and remain fixed prayers recited in Aramaic to the present. Of these, the best known is the Kaddish prayer. Various scholars provide historical explanations to this phenomenon. But the main explanation for the uniqueness of Aramaic from all other languages is the partly sanctification of this language which moves it from a regular vernacular towards the holy language – Hebrew. This partly sanctification is most probably derived from the fact that some parts of the Holy Scriptures are written in Aramaic.