The Hebrew Language as a Source of Ritual and Practice

Abstract

The use of Hebrew in liturgical and ritual contexts may be traced back to the earliest origins of the Jewish people. The various linguistic genres employed for aspects of worship in the prophetic period were expanded in the Second Temple period when there was competition from Aramaic and Greek and influences from the Hellenistic world. The liturgical language of the Talmudic rabbis differed from that of the Qumran texts and Biblical Hebrew and itself underwent changes in the Geonic era, especially in the light of the powerful emergence of the novel register represented by the piyyuṭim. There was considerable controversy in the Middle Ages about whether the language of prayer should follow the biblical precedent or that of the rabbis, and a host of innovative language entered by way of the mystical dimension. The concern of many Jewish Hebraists in the modern world was that Jews should use beautiful and pure language for their worship and omit anything irrational or indecorous. When composing their Jewish prayer books, the various modern religious movements responded in different ways to the linguistic challenge but their responses altered with the events of the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel.