Talmud Study

* Re “Closing Book on 7 1/2 Years of Talmud Study,” Sept. 28.

Reporter Duke Helfand’s fine article on Jewry’s commitment to daily study of the classic tomes of the Oral Torah is marred by a common misapplication: “[The Talmud is] written largely in Aramaic, a Semitic language that uses Hebrew characters. . . .” Not factually so. Jewish Aramaic is conveyed in the Aramaic alphabet, and the same alphabet has been used to convey the Hebrew language for over two millennia. Hebrew in its earliest Biblical sources is not called “Hebrew” but “language of Canaan” (Isaiah 19:18) and “Judaean, Judahite” (2 Kings 18:26, 28, etc.). In the Hellenistic period, Josephus called the language by a Greek term, “Hebraios,” and “Hebrew language” is used by teachers of the Mishnah. Ancient Hebrew had no common system of writing and so it was expressed in different Semitic alphabets: Proto-Canaanite, Phoenician, proto-Hebrew, Aramaic, post-exilic (Babylonian) Aramaic and so forth. Also, today’s Jewish languages of Yiddish and Ladino, which contain many Hebrew loanwords, are written with Aramaic characters.

ZEV GARBER

Teacher and Chair, Jewish

Studies, Valley College

Van Nuys