The Christ in Prophecy Journal

The Revival of the Hebrew Language: Part 2 of 8

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda

MP3

Who was the key person in reviving the long dead language of Hebrew?

God orchestrated the revival of spoken Hebrew through a baby born to an Orthodox Jewish family in 1858 in Lithuania, which at that time was part of Russia. He was given the name of Eliezer Yitzhak Perlman.

When Eliezer was 5 years old, his father died of tuberculosis. A few years later, the boy was sent to live with his mother’s wealthy uncle, who was a stern taskmaster. As soon as Eliezer turned 13 and celebrated his Bar Mitzvah, he was sent to a yeshiva (Rabbinical training school) in Belarus. There he fell under the influence of a young progressive rabbi who was caught up in the Jewish Enlightenment Movement.

The Key Teacher

One day the rabbi asked Eliezer to stay after class. When all the other students had left, the rabbi handed Eliezer a book and ask him to read it aloud. It was a Hebrew translation of Robinson Crusoe, and Eliezer was amazed by it.1 This was in 1872.

Eliezer’s amazement was rooted in the fact that Orthodox Jews considered the Hebrew language to be a holy language that was appropriate only for use in the synagogue and for Rabbinical writing.2 To use it for secular purposes was considered ungodly and blasphemous.3 In fact it was taken to be an attack on the Jewish religion.4

From the moment Eliezer saw that Hebrew could be used for other than liturgical purposes, he was hooked on it and its revival as a spoken language. Near the end of his life, while thinking back on that moment, he wrote: “Since the first glance at a Hebrew Robinson Crusoe, I fell in love with the Hebrew tongue as a living language. This love was a great and all-consuming fire that the torrent of life could not extinguish.”5

The Key Situation

Eliezer had grown up with Yiddish as his natural spoken language. He was a prodigy, so at the age of 3 he was reading Hebrew in the Scriptures and prayer books. But it was not used for everyday conversation, and not only because it was considered holy. Another problem was the fact that it did not contain sufficient words to carry on a modern day conversation.

It is estimated that in the 1880s only about 50 percent of all male Jews could understand the Hebrew readings in the synagogue, and as few as 20 percent could read a book written in Hebrew.6 In that same decade, the Jewish poet, Yehuda Leib Gordon (1830-1892), wrote: “Perhaps I am the last of Zion’s poets, and you are the last readers.”7 Although Gordon was a part of the Jewish Enlightenment, he saw little hope for Hebrew becoming a daily spoken language or even a language of literature.

Hebrew, because of its lack of use, was just too clumsy. One of Eliezer’s biographers summed it up this way:8

Young writers preferred to write in Yiddish or in a European language, full of feeling and color. By contrast, Hebrew was bare and stiff, the dry language of the scholar. No one used Hebrew for everyday expressions. Orthodox Jews had a different reason for not speaking Hebrew. They believed it was wrong to use a holy language to say something like, “Take out the garbage.”

Moshe Lilienblum (1843-1910), who was considered the “dean” of Hebrew authors at the time Eliezer was introduced to Robinson Crusoe in Hebrew, was also disillusioned with the future of the language. In a newspaper article, he announced that “Hebrew’s time has passed, and it no longer has a purpose or task in Jewish life.”9

The Key Family

When Eliezer’s great-uncle discovered that the boy had fallen under the influence of a teacher mixed-up in the Jewish Enlightenment, he pulled him out of the yeshiva and disowned him. Eliezer wandered about on his own and ended up at a synagogue in Russia. There he met a remarkable man named Solomon Jonas who asked the boy to come live with his family. Jonas was a wealthy whiskey maker with six children of his own, the oldest of which was a daughter named Deborah who was 18 years old.10

Eliezer lived with this family for the next two years and was tutored by Deborah in French, German and Russian. During that time, his heart grew fond of Deborah.11

At the age of 16, Eliezer’s adopted father decided he needed to pursue his education at a state school in Latvia. But this, as we will see, was not the end of Eliezer’s relationship with the Jonas family.

It is significant to note that during his stay with the Jonas family, Eliezer developed a constant cough.12

Notes

Visit the Lamb & Lion Ministries’ website for a list of references.

In the third segment on the amazing prophetic fulfillment of the return of the Hebrew language, we’ll look at the key event that flared Ben-Yehuda’s passion.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

RELATED ARTICLES

ABOUT AUTHOR View all posts Author Website

Dr. David Reagan

Dr. David Reagan is the Founder and Evangelist Emeritus of Lamb & Lion Ministries. He is a life-long Bible student, teacher, and preacher and he led over 45 pilgrimages to Israel. Dr. Reagan was the host of the radio then television program Christ in Prophecy for nearly 40 years.

2 CommentsLeave a Comment

  • Just got my L&L DVDs I ordered. Fantasic programs! I have around 100 L&L DVDs in my collection and most of those were sent to me via the Prophecy Partner program and not personally orderd. A great benefit of being a Prophecy Partner!

  • Glad you like the DVD, Billy!

    Concerning what Billy was saying about being a Prophecy Partner…

    Would you like to learn Bible prophecy, find out how to share it with others, and partner with Lamb & Lion Ministries in proclaiming the Good News?

    Prophecy Partners receive a letter each month from Dr. Reagan in which he tells about the ministry's outreach, special projects, challenges, and needs. With each letter is a gift of either a copy of our bi-monthly magazine or a special Bible prophecy resource like a booklet or a video program. We call this our Prophecy Partner Program. For a tax-deductible donation of $25 or more per month, you too can be a member of the Prophecy Partner Program.

    Prophecy Partners also get the added benefit of 10% off of many of our resources when ordering from our online store. They also get the print version of the Lamplighter magazine without subscription.

    Sign up!

LEAVE A REPLY

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *