A Grammar of Mishnaic Hebrew

2 MISNAIC HEBREW
The term ' New Hebrewon the other hand, distinguishes our
idiom from BH only, but ignores the later phases through which
the Hebrew language passed after the Talmudic age, or confuses
these important phases with the particular idiom of the second
period.
3. In earlier MiSnaic literature no distinction is drawn between
BH and MH. The two idioms are known as K'^pn fit^^ the Holy
Tongue, as contrasted with other languages, which are described
as i^in ]\\^by the common tongue. Thus, in So. vii. i ff. it is laid
down that certain prescribed religious formulae may be recited
I^B^b i^aa, which is interpreted as ]S\^b (B^r. 40 b; cf. also
Sab. 40 b), and other formulae may be recited only t^hpn I^K^ba.
These latter include passages from Scripture, like D^^aa K"!^
(Deut. xxvi. 3 b-io a), nT^n (xxv. 9 b), nsbbp^ n^a-ja (ib.
xxvii. 15-26), which had to be recited in the actual words of
Scripture, i.e. in BH. But they also include hSl^ fnb nb^a,
which were composed in MH (So. vii. 7; cf. the commen­
taries, ad loc.\ and the address of the noPlbo n^K^ |nb (Deut.
XX. 3-4) which was amplified, in MH (ib. So. viii. i f.). Cf. also:
n^aipi nnne? yoK' nKnp p«a n-nn i>3 IDIK n;n
«an th\v fa N^n K^npn jiK^ba nano^R. Meir (r. 175 C.E.) used
to say : * Whoever dwells in the Land of Israel, and reads the
S^ma* ^ morning and evening, and speaks the Holy tongue, lo he
belongs to the world to come,' Sifre, Deut. xxxii. 43; where
certainly ordinary MH must be meant, like that used by R. Meir
himself in this dictum. Again, "lanb Vntp P^3^J?nK^3 r«pK I«30
n-jin i^lp^ Chpn Hence they said: When
a child begins to speak, his father speaks with him in the Holy
tongue, and teaches him Torah, ib. Deut. xi. 19: p.?? ^^"^
n^?jj liirS i« tJ^npn iK noS ^pnio \S^) bgnf!:—Rabbi (200 C.E.)
said: in the Land of Israel why the Sursi (Syrian) tongue?
» Deut. vi. 4 ; Singer, p. 40 f.