Not only in Hebrew - How the Jewish Middle Ages read the Bible

Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities

Not only in Hebrew - How the Jewish Middle Ages read the Bible

Prof. Dr. Hanna Liss (Heidelberg University of Jewish Studies) & Dr. Stephen Dörr (Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities)

Many people today are no longer aware that Jews did not always speak Hebrew. The lecture takes you to medieval France (especially Champagne, Lorraine, Normandy, Franche-Comté), where Old French, the langue d'oïl, was also the native language of the Jews, in which they also glossed and explained their holy scriptures. What is special about this is that they wrote French with Hebrew letters and their interpretations of the Bible show clear influences from contemporary French literature. The lecture presents the French Judaism of the Middle Ages, where the Song of Songs could certainly be understood as a counterpart to the chansons des femmes. It also shows that there are quite a few French words that are only accessible to us through Jewish texts.

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