Ben Yehuda and the idea of revival

Ben Yehuda was a Lithuanian Jew, born in 1857. As was standard for young boys, he began to study Hebrew and the Torah at age three. By the age of twelve he had been studying in Hebrew for nine years and had read most of the Torah, Mishna, and Talmud, giving him much familiarity with both Biblical and Talmudic Hebrew. His parents hoped he would become a rabbi, and sent him to a nearby seminary. At the seminary he continued to study Hebrew, and was exposed to the Hebrew of the enightenment, including secular writing. He later learned French, German, and Russian and was sent to Dünaberg for more education. There he read the Ha-Shahar, from which he learned of Hebrew nationalism and realized that the revival of Hebrew in Palestine could protect and unite the Jews of the Diaspora against external assimilation.

Upon graduation he went to Paris to study at the Sorbonne. There he studied many things, including the history and politics of the middle east, but the one that had the most lasting effect was Hebrew. Specifically, his advanced Hebrew classes taught in Hebrew. It was this use of Hebrew in a spoken form that convinced him fully that the revivial of Hebrew as the language of a nation was practical. From Paris he went to Algiers, and there he had only Hebrew for a language in common with the Jews. In Algiers got much practice in using Hebrew in secular contexts for normal communication.

While in Paris, and then later in Algiers, Ben Yehuda published several articles in the Hebrew language press. He tried to convince people of the practicality of Hebrew as a reborn spoken language and of how a Hebrew revival in Palestine would keep the Jewish youth from deserting Judiasm for the national cultures. Despite receiving a mixed response, he decided to go to Palestine and try to effect this revival.