Discovering

Nature of Hebrew
Olivia Wilson
 What we'll
discuss
• History of Hebrew
Language
• Nature of Prose and
Poetry
• Best Literary Piece
of Hebrews
Hebrew language, Semitic language of the Northern Central (also called
Northwestern) group; it is closely related to Phoenician and Moabite,
with which it is often placed by scholars in a Canaanite subgroup. Spoken
in ancient times in Palestine, Hebrew was supplanted by the
western dialect of Aramaic beginning about the 3rd century BCE; the
language continued to be used as a liturgical and literary language,
however. It was revived as a spoken language in the 19th and 20th
centuries and is the official language of Israel.
The Hebrew language has gone through several major periods of
development throughout its history. These periods are often referred to as:
1. Biblical Hebrew:

This is the earliest form of the Hebrew language and is primarily associated with
the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh). It was spoken from around the 5th century BCE to the
10th century BCE. Biblical Hebrew is characterized by its poetic and prose texts,
including religious and historical writings. It is the language in which the books of
the bible were originally written, it has its own unique grammar and vocabulary.
Bible Hebrew is no longer spoken as a native language but is still studied and used
for religious and scholarly purpose.
2. Mishnaic Hebrew:

Following the Babylonian exile and the return to Israel, Mishnaic Hebrew
emerged as a spoken and written form of the language during the 2nd to 4th
centuries CE. It is associated with the Mishnah, a compilation of Jewish oral
traditions and laws.
The Hebrew language has gone through several major periods of
development throughout its history. These periods are often referred to as:
3. Medieval Hebrew:

During the Middle Ages, Hebrew continued to evolve and develop as a literary and
liturgical language. It was used for religious texts, philosophical works, poetry, and
scientific writings. Medieval Hebrew spanned from the 6th to the 18th centuries CE.
From about the 6th to the 13th century CE, when many words were borrowed from
Greek, Spanish, Arabic, and other languages; and Modern Hebrew, the language of
Israel in modern times. Scholars generally agree that the oldest form of Hebrew is
that of some of the poems in the Bible, especially the “Song of Deborah” in chapter
5 of Judges. The sources of borrowed words that first appeared during this period
include the other Canaanite languages as well as Akkadian. Hebrew also contains a
small number of Sumerian words borrowed from an Akkadian source. In addition to
the Bible, a small number of inscriptions in Hebrew of the biblical period are
extant; the earliest of these is a short inscription in Phoenician characters dating
from the 9th century BCE.
PHOENICIAN CHARACTERS
1. Tel Dan Stele- discovered in Northern Israel, refers to the
“The House of David”.
2. Mesha Stele: Also known as the Moabite Stone, the Mesha Stele was found in
Jordan in 1868. It contains an inscription by King Mesha of Moab, mentioning his
victories over Israel, as described in the biblical Book of 2 Kings.
3. Siloam Inscription: Discovered in Jerusalem in 1880, the Siloam Inscription is
an inscription in ancient Hebrew that describes the construction of the Siloam
Tunnel during the reign of King Hezekiah of Judah. This event is mentioned in the
biblical Book of 2 Kings.
3. Ketef Hinnom Scrolls: Unearthed in Jerusalem in 1979, the Ketef Hinnom
Scrolls contain two tiny silver amulets with inscriptions of biblical verses,
including parts of the Priestly Blessing found in the Book of Numbers.
The Hebrew language has gone through several major periods of
development throughout its history. These periods are often referred to as:
4. Modern Hebrew:

In the late 19th century, efforts to revive Hebrew as a spoken language began,
leading to the development of Modern Hebrew. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda is often
credited with spearheading this revival. Modern Hebrew is the standard form of
the language spoken in Israel today and has evolved to accommodate modern
concepts, technologies, and everyday communication.
 HEBREW POETRY
Hebrew poetry is a form of literary expression that has a long
and rich tradition dating back thousands of years. It
encompasses various styles, themes, and structures,
reflecting the cultural, religious, and historical contexts in
which it was created. One notable characteristic of Hebrew
poetry is its use of parallelism, where ideas or phrases are
repeated or mirrored to create rhythm and emphasis. This
parallelism can take different forms, such as synonymous
parallelism (repeating the same idea using different words).

Amos 5:24
But let justice roll down like waters,
And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
 HEBREW POETRY

Antithetical parallelism (contrasting ideas)

Prov 10:1 (cf. also Ps 1:6; Matt 7:18; 10:39)

A wise child makes a glad father,
But a foolish child is a mother’s grief.

The light of the righteous rejoiceth: but the lamp of the

wicked shall be put out.
 HEBREW POETRY

Antithetical parallelism (contrasting ideas)

Prov 10:1 (cf. also Ps 1:6; Matt 7:18; 10:39)

A wise child makes a glad father,
But a foolish child is a mother’s grief.

Synthetic parallelism ( expanding an idea or the thought of the

first line is developed in the next).

Ascribe to the Lord, O gods,

Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength;
Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name;
Worship the Lord in holy array.
 HEBREW POETRY

Hebrew poetry often employs vivid imagery, metaphors, and

symbolism to convey emotions, ideas, and experiences. It
can explore a wide range of themes, including love, nature,
spirituality, wisdom, and the human condition. The use of
figurative language and poetic devices adds depth and
beauty to the verses.
 A. TYPES OF HEBREW POETRY

Psalms: hymns; thanksgiving; Prophecy: threats; judgment;

royal psalms; wisdom psalms; salvation;visions; disputations;
laments; liturgies. judicial speeches; laments.

Wisdom writings: proverbs; Others: funerary dirges; songs

legends; riddles; sayings. of war; curses; drinking songs;
love poems.
 YEHUDA AMICHAI (1924-2000)
Yehuda Amichai was born in Wurzburg, Germany, in 1924. He emigrated with his family to
Palestine in 1936. He later became a naturalized Israeli citizen. Although German was his
native language, by the time he moved to Palestine, he read Hebrew fluently.

He served In the Jewish Brigade of the British Army in World War II and fought with the Israeli
defense forces in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Following the war, he attended Hebrew University
to study Biblical texts and Hebrew literature; he then taught in secondary schools.
 YEHUDA AMICHAI (1924-2000)
Yehuda Amichai has published eleven volumes of poetry in Hebrew, two novels, and a book of
short stories. His poems, written in Hebrew, have been translated into forty languages, and
entire volumes of his work have been published in English, French, German, Swedish, Spanish,
and Catalan. One of his acclaimed poems is “Tourists,” which won the Bialik Prize for
Literature in 1957.
 TOURIST
Visits of condolence is all we get from them.
They squat at the Holocaust Memorial,
They put on grave faces at the Wailing Wall
And they laugh behind heavy curtains
In their hotels.
They have their pictures taken
Together with our famous dead
At Rachel’s Tomb and Herzl’s Tomb
And on Ammunition Hill.
They weep over our sweet boys
And lust after our tough girls
And hang up their underwear
To dry quickly
In cool, blue bathrooms.
 HEBREW PROSE
Hebrew prose refers to written text in the Hebrew language that
follows the conventions and structures of prose, which is non-
poetic or non-verse writing. Hebrew prose can encompass
various genres such as novels, short stories, essays, articles, and
other forms of narrative or expository writing. It is characterized
by its use of grammatical and syntactical rules specific to the
Hebrew language. Hebrew prose can explore a wide range of
topics and themes, reflecting the diversity of literary expression
within the Hebrew language. It is narrative prose that is based
on an understanding of time as the flow of history, of man as
part of a nation, and of reality as a series of actions rather than a
constellation of objects in space.
 A. TYPES OF HEBREW PROSE

“Narrative style” “Reportorial style”

Saga; tale; novella; legend; Historiography; biography;

myth. genealogy; lists.
 AMOS OZ (1939-2018)

Amos Oz was born in Jerusalem in 1939. He is the author of fourteen novels and
collections of short fiction, and numerous works of nonfiction. His acclaimed
memoir A Tale of Love and Darkness was an international bestseller and recipient
of the prestigious Goethe prize, as well as the National Jewish Book Award. He
served in the Israeli army (1957–60, 1967, and 1973).
 AMOS OZ (1939-2018)

After the Six-Day War in 1967, he became active in the Israeli peace movement
and with organizations that advocated a two-state solution to the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict. In addition to writing, he worked as a part-time
schoolteacher and labourer.
 A TALE OF LOVE AND DARKNESS

Fania-is Oz’s mother. She is a nervous, sad woman who Oz always feel is living
with inescapable darkness. She moved from Russia to Jerusalem where she
married her husband after being chased out of college by anti-semites. She reads
8 languages and speaks 5. When Oz is 12, she overdoses on pills and dies.

Yehuda-is Oz’s father, he loses himself in literature and art; after his wife dies for
example, he never speaks of her again. Oz also says they didn’t talk about
themselves and only about simple things. Yehuda’s family was Lithuanian, but he
moved to Jerusalem and attended college. Though he wanted to be a professor,
he was a librarian for most of his life. He reads 17 languages and speaks 11. He
eventually gets remarried, moves to London, gets a Ph.D., and has two children
with his new wife: Marganita and David. At the end of the bool, he dies 20 years
after his wife.
 A TALE OF LOVE AND DARKNESS

Samuel-Samuel Yosef Agnon is winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and was
friends with Oz’s father. Oz spent time around him as a child and as an adult. He is
illustrative of the group of artists and writers that Oz grows up with.

Zelda-Teacher Zelda is a teacher of Oz’s who he has strong loving feelings for.
Later, she becomes a famous poet. She is kind and understanding. When Oz is
little, he gets her mail. As an adult, he sees the letter box is smashed open and
thinks someone must have been less patient than him or Zelda.

Haya-is Oz’s aunt on his mother’s side. It’s at her house that his mother kills
herself when Oz is 12. She is married to a man called Tsvi. They live in Tel Aviv.
 A TALE OF LOVE AND DARKNESS

A Tale of Love and Darkness is a 2002 memoir by Israeli journalist, novelist, and
intellectual Amos Oz. Casting light on previously undisclosed aspects of Oz’s
childhood, family life, and development as a thinker, it gives new context to his highly
public and influential persona. Key events in the book include his mother’s suicide in
1952, his tension with his father, and his fears of writing transparently about himself.
Oz’s memoir, which has been translated into more than twenty languages, has
received critical acclaim for his candid and in-depth explication of his complex identity.

Oz begins A Tale of Love and Darkness in Jerusalem, where he grew up. His childhood
was couched in the dissolution of the British Mandate for Palestine, the land that
would become the State of Israel; the ambiguous status of his homeland affected his
childhood, causing him to view the world as relatively unstable.
 A TALE OF LOVE AND DARKNESS
Following the atrocities of World War II and the mass displacement of the surviving Jews, Oz’s
home became Israel. In 1952, the love and darkness referred to in the novel’s title enveloped
Oz’s life when Fania Mussman, his mother, started experiencing severe depression. That year,
she committed suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills, traumatizing the young Oz. Oz dedicates
his memoir to his memories of his mother and her boundless love. Half a century later, he still
feels immeasurable pain.

After Oz’s mother died, he lived for a few more years with his father, Ariyeh Klausner, before
moving to Kibbutz Hulda as a teenager. During these years, he met a number of notable Israeli
intellectuals, artists, and politicians. These ranged from Shaul Tchernichovsky and Shmuel Yosef
Agnon to the founding Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, today exalted as one of the
greatest Jewish heroes. The poet Zelda also became his mentor and influenced his creative life
considerably. Many of these connections he obtained through his uncle, the well-known
historian Joseph Klausner.
 A TALE OF LOVE AND DARKNESS
Oz’s relationship to his father was contentious, especially after his mother’s death. He
decided to change his name from Klausner to Oz, replacing his father’s Eastern European
name with a Hebrew name. This choice symbolized a break from his father’s legacy. Oz
explores many aspects of his family lineage. His parents both came from intellectual
backgrounds. While his mother wanted to raise him in the traditions of their native Eastern
Europe, his father insisted on giving him a more mainstream Western education. He
forbade him from learning Russian, insisting that he learn Hebrew instead.

As he grew up, he became more aware of the relationships between politics, art, and
scholarship. This caused him to feel appreciation for his uncle Joseph Klausner, whose
passion for history was rooted in interdisciplinary thought and his deeply personal
experience as a Jew during a period of unprecedented strife. The hardest challenge for Oz
was to understand why his mother suffered so much and chose to leave him behind.
 A TALE OF LOVE AND DARKNESS

Much of her family was killed in Russia before the survivors made it to British-Mandate
Palestine. Though their new country and culture presumed itself a free land, his mother
viewed it as anything but. Her mistrust of Russia and Europe lingered, and she saw no way
to resist Western hegemony, not to mention restore the family and society that had been
ripped away from her. At his memoir’s close, Oz emphasizes his gratitude for having had an
intellectual childhood. Though the process of grief is endless, his education has equipped
him with the tools for coping.
 A TALE OF LOVE AND DARKNESS
Theme: “A Tale of Love and Darkness” by Amos Oz revolves around the complexities of love,
darkness, and the human condition. The book explores the intertwining of personal and national
histories, as well as the impact of political and social turmoil on individuals and their relationships.
It delves into themes of longing, loss, and the search for identity amidst a backdrop of conflict and
despair. Ultimately, the tale explores the power of storytelling and the ways in which love and
darkness shape our lives.

Conflict: The primary conflict revolves around the struggle between personal desires and societal
expectations. The protagonist, Amos, grapples with his own aspirations and dreams, which often
clash with the realities of the world around him. This conflict is further intensified by the political
and social unrest in Israel during the time period in which the story is set.
 A TALE OF LOVE AND DARKNESS

Moral Story: One possible lesson is the importance of empathy and understanding. Through the
protagonist’s experiences, readers witness the effects of historical events on individuals and
families. It highlights the need to recognize and empathize with the pain and suffering of others,
even when their experiences may be different from our own. Another moral aspect is the power of
storytelling and literature to provide solace and meaning in difficult times. The protagonist find
refuge in books and storytelling, which offer a form of escape in the world.
Thank You
for
listening!