This book, Israel , honors the memory of Professor Israel Yeivin – teacher, dear friend and colleague, meticulous and diligent scholar, a modest man who edified us with his noble character as well as his ideas. Israelis published by the Hebrew University Bible Project (HUBP), of which Prof. Yeivin was one of the first staff members. He worked in this capacity for many years, leaving his mark on the project. His scholarship focused on Masoretic manuscripts, particularly the Aleppo Codex. The fruits of his labors were published by the Bible Project and in his book on the Aleppo Codex. The wonderfully detailed notes he wrote for the Project on the thousands of erasures and corrections made in the text of the Aleppo Codex still remain unpublished. Most of these were made by the leading Masorete Aharon Ben-Asher.

We are proud to present our readers with volume 13 of our series Studies in Jewish Education . This volume is concerned with the possibility of "translating" insights derived from areas of knowledge sometimes thought to be outside the purview of education – to issues and problems on the agenda of educational thinkers, researchers and practitioners. As we have learned from our teachers, Prof. Seymour Fox, of blessed memory, and Prof. Michael Rosenak (may he be granted many more years of prolific creativity) – "translating" from philosophical systems or lead concepts, from principles deriving from the tradition of Jewish thought, or from cultural visions – to educational thought and practice, is a most complex matter. Some prefer to work in the "normative" mode, wherein normative world views are "translated" from fundamental philosophical "principles" to educational " ideals ," "goals" and "means." In the transition from one category to the next, however, certain terms must necessarily be modified or reinterpreted. This process is both enriching and impoverishing – as certain understandings are inevitably "lost" in translation even as other insights are gained. Others prefer to work in the "deliberative" mode, beginning from symptoms of malaise emanating from the field of educational practice, accessing world-views and disciplines of knowledge in order to arrive at an informed formulation of the "problem," then generating alternative solutions to the "problem" – alternatives from among which some will be chosen for implementation and others, perhaps just as promising, will have to be discarded or shelved. For those who feel more at home in this mode – worldviews, concepts, disciplines and cultural visions do not function as overarching norms, but rather as "resources," drawn upon to the degree that they are seen to address problems as experienced by those affected by them. As if this were not complex enough, Prof. Rosenak has reminded us that neither mode – normative or deliberative – is, or should be sufficient in itself. On the one hand, normative discourse that does not also have its "ears to the ground," picking up on current educational problems and addressing them in terms intelligible to those who suffer from them, will end up being sterile and hortatory. Deliberative discourse, on the other hand, is always anchored in normative assumptions, without which one could not articulate what it is about the "problem" that is "problematic," or in need of amelioration. According to Rosenak, there must be a constant, dialectical interaction between the normative and deliberative modes if educational issues are to be addressed both honestly and intelligently.

This collection deals with syntactic and semantic phenomena of the Hebrew language within the framework of theoretical linguistics. Most articles are within Noam Chomsky's framework of Generative Grammar and theories within formal semantics. The contributions are written by linguists specializing in theoretical linguistics and familiar with the Hebrew language and its uniqueness among the world's languages. The introductory chapter outlines in general terms the state of the art concerning the study of Hebrew in Israel, and highlights the significance of the theoretical approach in enriching the discourse on Hebrew linguistics as well as enabling easier access to theoretical studies. The introductory chapter is followed by two chapters describing and explaining the theoretical approach, illustrating the explanations from Hebrew. The next eleven chapters were chosen to deal with specific phenomena that are crucial in understanding the structure of Hebrew, on the one hand, and shedding light on the contribution of Hebrew to the general theory on the other hand: the verbal system, notably the binyanim; the marker et; and some issues concerning the tense system; the noun system; pronouns; adverbs; and prepositions. The last two chapters of the volume are each dedicated to a subfield of linguistics: language acquisition and neurolinguistics, respectively. One discusses two phenomena concerning Hebrew acquisition, and the other discusses the syntactic impairment in agrammatic aphasia phenomenon in Hebrew speakers. It is the only collection of its kind aimed at opening a channel of interaction between Hebraists interested in expanding the discourse on Hebrew and theoretical linguists interested in Hebrew.

The collection of articles in 'The Hebrew Language in the Era of Globalization' is designed for researchers and teachers of Hebrew in Educational frameworks, and allows for a comprehensive study of varied aspects of the Hebrew language. The volume brings to center stage research issues regarding Hebrew in its cultural, social, and linguistic contexts; discusses the state of Hebrew in Israel and in the world; and looks into current curricula for the teaching of Hebrew as a Second Language. The volume is unique in that it combines theory and practice; deals with Hebrew as a first, second, and heritage language; and relates to learners of different ages and from a number of different populations – native speakers of Hebrew, the Arab sector in Israel, and Jewish communities in the Diaspora. The volume is comprised of three sections. The first section covers the following topics: The state of Hebrew in the context of Israel-Diaspora relations; Hebrew in European and American universities; the dilemma of the language of prayer; challenges confronting the modern reader of a classical text; linguistic and socio-linguistic trends in modern Hebrew; achievements of new immigrant students in academic Hebrew; the theoretical basis for the development of curricula for the teaching of Hebrew as a first and second language; and a model for a language policy in a multilingual and multi-cultural society such as Israel. The second section presents the new curriculum for learners of Hebrew in the Arab sector as well as curricula for the teaching of Hebrew in the Diaspora for kindergarten children, elementary school students and junior-high and high school students. The third section expresses concern about the future of Hebrew both in Israel and in the Diaspora in the era of globalization.

The Kethib and Qeri forms, scattered here and there, throughout the Biblical Text, combine here, like a mosaic, to form a complete picture and give one a comprehensive system of language. The book The Kethib and Qeri analyzes this linguistic system acording to the manuscript 'Kether Aram Tsova' presenting the method of the most authoritative Masorite scholar, Rabbi Aharon Ben-Asher. This sistematic study examines the Biblical phenomenon of Kethib and Qeri interchanges by linguistic criteria. The book consists of an introduction summarizing the research on this topic, and the following four chapters. Chapter One: Orthography deals with different orthographic realizations of words as הנער (K ) / הַנַּעֲרָה Q))Deut.22:15) ). Chapter Two: Morphology engages in morphological interchanges, as ואתי (K ) / וְאַתְּ (Q ) (Jud.17:2). Chapter Three: Syntax including various categories related to the syntax in particular the morpho-syntax like syntactic concord, as מגדיל (ישועות) (K ) / מִגְדּוֹל (ישועות) (Q)( Sam.22:512). And Chapter Four: Lexicon and Style deals with interchanges of K/Q in the domain of lexicon and style as העיר(התיכונה)(K ) / חָצֵר(התיכונה)(Q)(Kings. 20:42 ). Finally, a general summary of discussions and conclusions. Additionally, statistical data that indicate the validity of the findings with respect to occurrences of Kethib and Qeri in the Biblic Text in general. The Kethib and Qeri System in the Biblical Text is an innovative linguistic analysis,that will be of great interest to scholars of Biblical Language,Bible Exegesis and Masoretic Text.

Judezmo — the language also known as Ladino, Spanyolit, and Judeo-Spanish — is a Jewish language composed of Romance, Hebrew-Aramaic and Arabic, and Balkan elements, which arose in medieval Spain and evolved after the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, primarily in the Ottoman Empire. The present book is a comprehensive, university-level Hebrew-language introduction to Judezmo, as written in the traditional Rashi alphabet. It includes a structural and sociolinguistic overview of the language and the literature created in it from the Middle Ages through the modern era, a rich anthology of reading selections, linguistic analysis, exercises to reinforce the active acquisition of the language, a detailed chart of the verbal system, and a bilingual dictionary. The reading selections, presented in order of difficulty, were taken from the modern Judezmo literature and press of the past 200 years, and from the rich Judezmo oral literature — including proverbs and sayings, folk songs and ballads, stories, jokes and riddles. The reading selections introduce the reader to the captivating cultural and social world of the Judezmo-speaking Sephardim in the modern era. The linguistic analysis includes a description of the Judezmo sound system, the Hebrew-letter and Roman-letter writing systems used to transcribe it, and a morphological and syntactic analysis of the linguistic structures appearing in the reading selections, designed to provide the reader with a thorough introduction to modern Judezmo in its diverse regional and stylistic forms. The book is meant for individual study as well as group use, and assumes no prior knowledge of any language except Hebrew.

The present volume presents the English reader with a representative selection of current research into Mishnaic Hebrew by Israeli scholars. Twenty-two articles are included in this collection: two introductory essays, which provide a detailed overview of the modern study of Mishnaic Hebrew, as well as twenty more investigations into specific topics of grammar and lexicon.

Alphabetic writing is one of the principal features of Western culture. Our knowledge of the early history, development and spread of the alphabet is constantly changing. This introduction to West Semitic epigraphy and paleography is the author’s personal way of introducing this field of study on the basis of the evidence available to date.