Word: hebrew
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...reigning cuneiform expert at the University of Chicago, Ignace J. Gelb, who classifies the Eblaite tongue as most akin to the Mesopotamian languages of Old Akkadian and Amorite, and thus distant from Hebrew, believes that the discoveries at Ebla add "nothing directly to biblical scholarship." But Pettinato, who first deciphered Eblaite, considers it an early Canaanite language closest to the northwestern Semitic languages of Hebrew and Ugaritic (the latter was discovered in 1929 at an earlier dig in Ugarit, Syria). One specialist in Ugaritic and Hebrew, American Jesuit Mitchell Dahood of Rome's Pontifical Biblical Institute, goes further...
Especially tantalizing was the appearance of two names which later appear in the Hebrew tradition: Abraham, the spiritual forefather of Jews, Christians and Muslims, and his biblical ancestor Eber (whose name formed the root of the term Hebrew). Even Matthiae, who now scorns such Bible links, had once suggested that Ebrium, the king during Ebla's golden age, might have evolved into the Eber of Genesis...
...meeting was deliberately planned for the 36th year after World War II because the number 36 in Hebrew tradition symbolizes renewal of life. Despite the passage of time, many of the participants were still unable to accept the death of loved ones. Esther Kozminski of Beverly Hills, Calif., said that she had come to Jerusalem "to find my sister, a cute little blond of 14 when 1 last saw her. I have the right to know whether she is dead or alive." Kozminski was unsuccessful, but did encounter a friend from the Lodz ghetto in Poland...
Another lesson of the 1973 mechdal ("failure," in Hebrew) has prompted an entirely new strategic assumption. Before the October War of 1973, I.D.F. commanders had depended on their intelligence network to assess Arab threats, then deployed forces accordingly. Now they assume that an attack can come from anywhere-and have forces permanently deployed on all borders. Even the Egyptian front is covered, although more lightly than before the 1979 peace treaty. Dispatching intelligence teams to the frontline units also is part of the attempt to move fast if necessary...
...studious, scholarly man who reads voraciously in three languages and writes poetry for intellectual relaxation. His office in the Labor Party's headquarters building on the Tel Aviv waterfront is usually swarming with admirers, foreign visitors and party hacks. Inside, the room is piled high with books in Hebrew and English (prominently including Hedrick Smith's work, Reagan: The Man, The President). A color portrait of his patron Ben-Gurion stares down from the wall...