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BH Many chasidim nowadays specifically don't speak Hebrew as a casual language; rather, some dialect of Yiddish.

A similar concept was in the days of the Gemara, where many people specifically spoke Aramaic and not Hebrew

Also in the times of the Rambam, it's known that the Rambam wrote the guide to the perplexed in Arabic, since it's what most people spoke casually, and not Hebrew

What is the source for this? Is it because Hebrew is too holy to use casually? Is it a documented minhag or halacha?

I recall reading something in Torah Ohr about elevating the 70 languages, on the verse "under his feet was a brick of sapphire", because bricks are made by man, as opposed to stones, which are made by heaven, which is the difference between the holy tongue and the 70 languages...

But I'm not sure if this is the main source or just a deeper meaning, so does anyone know what the official source is?

Edit: This is NOT a duplicate of "is it a mitzvah to speak loshon hakodesh", since that is asking for sources regarding if one should, this is asking if there's an inyan to specifically not

B''H Bi'ezras -- Boruch Hashem
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    For your second and third paragraphs, how do you know they were intentionally not speaking Hebrew? – magicker72 May 26 '22 at 03:47
  • "Is it because Hebrew is too holy to use casually ?" (1) Many chasidic rebbe's give divrei Torah in Yiddish. Are those divrei Torah are too casual to be given in Hebrew? (2) Are statements made in Aramaic in the Gemara more casual than those made in Hebrew? (3) Rambam also wrote his commentary on the Mishnah in [Judeo-]Arabic, yet the Bartenura wrote his commentary in Hebrew. Was the Bartenura mistaken in using such a holy language for his commentary? Was Rambam being too cautious in writing his commentary in [Judeo-]Arabic]? – Tamir Evan May 26 '22 at 05:19
  • Related (regarding Yiddish vs. holy language): "The Yiddish Language and its Sanctity". – Tamir Evan May 26 '22 at 05:25
  • You're making this more complicated than it actually is. While many people will site such an inyan nowadays due to Zionism, there is no inyan to not speak Hebrew. Rather, it's just that Jews felt more comfortable speaking the language of their locality. Keep in mind that Yiddish is just Jewish German. Yiddish, while different in some ways to Modern German, is pretty much identical to Middle High German with a Jewish twist. – ezra May 26 '22 at 05:37
  • Modern Hebrew was written by Zionists, and as such I think they view it as a polluted language. For example, the word for "myths" is aggadah, which is the same word used for centuries to describe stories from the Talmud, thus implying they are only myths. You could see why that would be upsetting to religious Jews. – N.T. May 26 '22 at 08:44
  • They just spoke in what was the most widely used language of the time, and therefore what came more naturally to them. Nothing really more than that. – Dov May 26 '22 at 08:45
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    Why are you writing in English? – Heshy May 26 '22 at 11:12
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    @N.T. that's a terrible example for your point since "myth" is used non-pejoratively in English too and a perfect example of anti Zionists making much ado about nothing. Whether you use a word pejoratively or not is independent of the definition. – Double AA May 26 '22 at 12:05
  • @dov see edit.. – B''H Bi'ezras -- Boruch Hashem May 27 '22 at 04:46
  • I don't see an issue with the holy people speaking their holy language. – Mars Sojourner Jun 01 '22 at 13:58
  • @mars is the law of the Creator dependent on whether or not you see an issue? – B''H Bi'ezras -- Boruch Hashem Jun 02 '22 at 14:38

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