Ashkenaz

by Brad Scott

Modern Hebrew has basically two dialects that make up the language that most modern Israelis speak: Ashkenazic and Sephardic. The Ashkenaz dialect comes from central and eastern Europe, for the most part. Some dictionaries confine its source to modern day Germany, which is interesting considering it's etymology. This word comes from the verbal root of 'ash^ekan (אשכן). This word means to enclose. It appears as one of the sons of Gomer in B^ere’shiyt (Genesis) 10:3. It is translated primarily as clusters of grapes, and is the valley of Eschol in B^emid^ebar (Numbers) 13:23. This word's association with Germany is interesting. It's meaning of being enclosed is graphically seen in the Berlin wall, which stood for several decades.

Shalom Alecheim! ◊