The notion of Hebrew has several uses recognized by the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) in its dictionary. The term can be used to refer to an individual who was part of the Semitic people who managed to conquer the region of Palestine. In this context, Hebrew is used as a synonym for Jew or Israelite.
It is also called a Jew or a Jew who, according to the RAE, professes the so-called Law of Moses. The Hebrews therefore practice Judaism, the oldest monotheistic religion.
The practices of the Hebrews are based on the teachings taken from the Torah, one of the books that is part of the Tanach. Also very important is the Talmud, the work that compiles the discussions of the rabbis about the narratives, customs and traditions of Judaism.
Hebrew, on the other hand, is a Semitic language that is estimated to be written, read, and spoken by more than six million people. Most of them reside in Israel, where Hebrew is one of the official languages, although Jewish communities living in other countries also use Hebrew.
Judaism has Hebrew as the language of prayer and liturgy. Their tradition even indicates that God transmitted his message to humans in this same language.
Leading contemporary Hebrew writers include David Grossman (winner of the International Man Booker Prize, the Israel Prize and the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, among other recognitions) and Amos Oz (distinguished with the Princess of Asturias Award from the letters, the Goethe Prize, the Prize Israel, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade and other awards).
In the Hebrew language we can distinguish two graphic systems: italics and square. The former is used in handwriting, although it also appears in various advertisements, signs and posters on public roads or in magazines. The second has more angular shapes, and that's where it derives its name. Although both originated from the same root, it is not enough to study the square to understand the italics.
Today, the pronunciation of Hebrew closely resembles the phonetics of Yiddish , a variant of German that Ashkenazi communities have used since the 15th century in eastern Europe. For this reason, the letters of its alphabet have sounds closer to those of German than to the Hebrew phonemes that gave rise to them; This is not so in the case of Jews of Arab culture, the so-called Mizrahi . Interestingly, although the Hebrew Academy maintains the eastern pronunciation as the most correct, it is the least used today.
It is important to note the age of the Hebrew language, since its spread began more than two thousand years ago. At first it was used by the Israelite people who inhabited Palestine and the Jewish communities spread it throughout the centuries throughout much of the Mediterranean. Few languages have kept their structures and alphabets almost intact throughout their history. In the particular case of Hebrew, given the importance of the sacred texts, which are also in Aramaic, it is really essential to learn it in order to read and copy them.