Wednesday, January 05, 2005

HADESH YOMAYNU K'KEDEM

Or the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Gil and Jack (who run similar blogs, in identical colors) report that Israelis are worried that Hebrew is being swallowed whole by other languages, English in particular.

I'm not worried. 3000 years ago, the superpower spoke Aramaic, and Hebrew survived. There's even this exchange in Kings II:

The Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah [the king's chief ministers] said to Rabshakeh, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and do not speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people who are on the wall."

In those days, educated Jews relied on Aramaic - and even composed two books of the old testament in that language. Today, the same sort of Jews rely on English.

We will endure ths, too.