Indeed, students of language have come to recognize that the experiences of a group, its mental and emotional habits, its modes of thoughts and attitudes are registered and reflected in the words and idioms of the group’s language. What is true of language in relation to individual growth is equally true in the case of the cultural growth and development of a people. Defective linguistic growth is known to go hand in hand with stunted intellectual and emotional development. Our personality matures and develops through language and by our use of it. Words and idioms are as indispensable to our thoughts and experiences as are colors and tints to a painting. Language and experience are inextricably interwoven, and the awareness of one awakens the other. We do not first have thoughts, ideas, feelings, and then put them into a verbal framework. Our ideas and experiences are not independent of language they are all integral parts of the same pattern, the warp and woof of the same texture. Relationship Between Language and CultureĪn analysis of the nature of language and of Judaism may help to clarify this point. The Jewish people can no more be dissociated from Hebrew than they can be dissociated from their own spiritual identity - Judaism. It has been, in sum, the language of Judaism and intimately identified with the national and religious experiences of the Jewish people throughout the generations. Hebrew has been the sacred language of the Jewish people - the language of its religion, culture and civilization. As a matter of fact, it has persisted as a living language for many centuries after it had ceased to be a spoken vernacular in the accepted sense of the term. ![]() Nor has it been merely a folk tongue like other living languages. ![]() Hebrew has not been a denationalized universal tongue, the medium of a specific religion, in the sense that Latin has been the official language of the Roman Catholic Church. The answer to these questions may be discovered by considering the unique character of Judaism and its relation to the Hebrew language. How was the Hebrew language able to exist and function as an effective instrument of creative self-expression and intercommunication for about 2,000 years, without such an essential ingredient for survival as a state or territory? How could Hebrew retain its vitality and elasticity over such a long period of time in the face of such adverse conditions? Judaism’s Uniqueness My Jewish Learning is a not-for-profit and relies on your help Donate
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