#11 Sacred Languages and Spoken Languages

In Nerith Aviv's documentary Sacred Languages, Spoken Languages, Aviv explores the importance of sacred Hebrew in Israel. Aviv documents his journey across Israel on a train ride. At every stop, Aviv interviews and obtains a person's view on sacred Hebrew. As the train ride scenery changes from the rural to urban areas, the views on sacred Hebrew also changes. In general, the Israelis from the rural areas had more respect for sacred Hebrew, probably because of sustained and strong traditions and culture. So on the flip side, Israelis from urban settings viewed sacred Hebrew as an outdated and ancient language. They did not view it as sacred as the rural speakers did. A main contribution to this factor was probably the movement from rituals and traditions to modernization and technology as people moved from rural to urban. The main reason why sacred Hebrew was even preserved was because of the deep and strong roots of history tied down with it. Sacred Hebrew is viewed as a holy language, the language of God. But as time goes on, the respect for it has diminished. If sacred Hebrew can find a way of tying itself to the modern world, it would find more respect within the new generations. But just because sacred Hebrew's respect is diminishing does not at all mean that the language will die out. Israel and Israelis' roots are found in religion. It is their foundation of life and history and culture, nobody would try to eliminate sacred Hebrew. There just has to be a revitalization of it within this modern world.