Language and Community
Jessi raises an interesting thought in her comment to my previous post. Language is certainly one way community has been fostered in the past (please feel free to cite your favorite example in comments). However, a central question about American Jewry arises as a result - is Hebrew essential to modern American Jews? I'd say it does promote a sense of community, but that it need not be central. I feel a service conducted in English that abides by Jewish philosophy and theology is still very much Jewish, especially if someone disagrees with it. ;-)
Seriously, however, I think this is something worth talking about. I use a little touch of Hebrew and Yiddish here and there, but not as a rule. I mean, Hebrew as we know it didn't even exist 200 years ago! For almost 2000 years Jews did services in their own local language, and as far as I can tell it worked for them. Besides, Reform Judaism teaches that we are part of a larger society and community, and our daily lives need not be dictated by Judaism itself, so English is okay in our world. This is NOT to diminish other Jewish traditions, but simply to validate one in which English is central.
posted by Michael A. Seidman @ 7:44 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
to continue on with my earlier train of thought...I suspect what's more important than language per se is communication. As I understand it, yiddish formed as a way for people of disparate geographies and dialects but of a common religion to communicate with one another. This being the case, it seems that community is fostered by an ability to communicate rather than by a particular language. I guess I assume that the means of communication isn't as important as that communication itself; that the words don't matter as much as what they convey. 'A rose by any other name would smell as sweet'... and all that jazz.
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