Hebrew (עִבְרִית, ‘Ivrit) is a Semitic
language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. It is
spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and
used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around
the world. In Israel, it is spoken by the majority of
the population, though both Arabic and Hebrew are
official languages. Hebrew is also spoken as a mother
tongue by the Samaritans, though today fewer than a
thousand Samaritans remain. As a foreign language it
is studied mostly by Jews and students of Judaism and
Israel, archaeologists and linguists specializing in
the Middle East and its civilizations and by
theologians.
The modern word "Hebrew" is derived from the word "Ibriy"
which in turn is based upon the root "`abar" (עבּר)
meaning "to cross over". The related name Eber occurs
in Genesis 10:21 and means "the one who traverses". In
the Bible "Hebrew" is called Yehudith (יהודית) because
Judah (Yehuda) was the surviving kingdom at the time
of the quotation, late 8th century (Is 36, 2 Kings
18).
The core of the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) is written
in Classical Hebrew, and much of its present form is
specifically the dialect of Biblical Hebrew that
scholars believe flourished around the 6th century
BCE, around the time of the Babylonian exile. For this
reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as Leshon
HaKodesh (לשון הקודש), "The Holy Language", since
ancient times.
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Jastrow Dictionary of the Targumin, Talmud Babi, Yerushami and
Midrashic Literature Pro. Marcus Jastrow