October 13, 2020 • 10 mins
The revival of modern Hebrew began on this day in 1881, when Eliezer Ben-Yehuda began speaking it exclusively among friends and family. / On this day in 1917, a crowd of thousands of people gathered in Fátima, Portugal, to witness a miracle, and many reported seeing unusual solar activity that became known as the Miracle of the Sun.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, history enthusiasts, you get not one, but two events
in history today. Heads up that you also might hear
two different hosts, me and Tracy V. Wilson. With that said,
on with the show. Welcome to this day in History
Class from how Stuff Works dot com and from the
desk of Stuff you Missed in History Class. It's the
show where we explore the past one day at a
(00:20):
time with a quick look at what happened today in history. Hello,
and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson, and
it's October. The modern revival of the Hebrew language began
on this day in eighty one, when Elaser bin Yehuda
decided that among his friends and family, it was the
(00:42):
only language that he was going to speak. So it's
a bit of a misconception that Hebrew was a dead
language or wasn't being used at all. Before this point.
It was really common for Jews and a lot of
the world to learn Hebrew, but it was really more
as a written language and mostly used for religious next
and for study. A lot of people could speak some Hebrew,
(01:04):
but maybe not very fluently, almost never as a first language.
It's estimated though, that when Ben ye Judah started this work.
More than half of Jewish men and boys could understand
things like the Torah and daily prayers in Hebrew, and
about could read a typical book that was written Hebrew.
Sometimes Jewish communities are also using Hebrew to communicate about
(01:26):
other matters or to communicate with other Jews when they
didn't have another common language that they could use to communicate.
Eliaser been Yehuda was born in Lithuania in eighteen fifty
eight and his family wanted him to be a rabbi.
That first, he really excelled in the studies that were
needed for that, but he gradually decided he wanted to
become a doctor. While he was pursuing his medical studies,
(01:48):
Bulgaria was fighting for independence from the Ottoman Empire, and
that led the Russian Empire to declare war on the
Ottoman Empire in eighteen seventy seven. Ben ya Huda was
really inspired by this and for other independent struggles, and
the idea of a people coming together to form a
nation and a national identity in their ancestral homeland really
(02:09):
appealed to him. He started to believe that Jews should
do the same that Jews should have a homeland and
a common language and a common national identity. So in
eighteen eighty one he moved to Jerusalem with plans to
revive the Hebrew language, and it was once he got
there that he made that decision that it was the
only language that he would speak with his friends and family.
He had a son in eighteen eighty two, and he
(02:30):
persuaded his wife to raise their child only in Hebrew,
including keeping him in their home so that he wouldn't
be exposed to other languages. In eighteen eighty four, Benyahuda
established a newspaper to help spread the popularity of this language.
To do this, he was having to coin new words
and print a glossary at the back, encouraging readers to
(02:52):
keep this glossary for their future reference. As he added
new words to the language. One of the words he
needed to coin for his newspaper was the word newspaper,
which didn't exist in Hebrew before this. And raising his
son in Hebrew also meant coming up with Hebrew words
for all kinds of everyday objects, from omelet to bicycle.
(03:12):
Another big focus for him was teaching Hebrew in schools,
because if children were speaking Hebrew, then their families would
be learning it too, and these children would grow up
into natural, fluent Hebrew speakers. Over time, he started compiling
all these new words that he was coining into a dictionary,
and the Hebrew Language Council was established in eighteen ninety.
(03:33):
Later it became the Hebrew Language Academy. Although interest in
and knowledge of Hebrew really started to spread, Benya Huda
was not without his critics. Some Orthodox Jews considered his
work to be heretical, because Hebrew was considered to be
a holy language and not something that was supposed to
be used for just day to day casual conversation. This
was complicated by the fact that he had become quite secular,
(03:56):
and he was really approaching this as something of a
national identity more than a religious identity. He was trying
to fit in with his Orthodox neighbors, but it was
clear to them that he didn't quite belong. When Benya
Huda's first wife, Vora, died of tuberculosis, he remarried her sister, Himda,
and she became really instrumental in helping him with this work.
(04:19):
She and his son finished the dictionary that he had
started after Eliezer Benya Whoda's death in at the age
of sixty four. That same year, British authorities, who at
that time had colonial control of Palestine, recognized Hebrew as
the official language of Jee's living in Palestine. So, as
I noted earlier, it's not as though Hebrew was a
(04:41):
dead language before all this happened. But to quote Cecil Roth,
before ben Ya Huda, Jews could speak Hebrew after him
they did. Thanks to Eves Jeff Cope for her research
work on this podcast, and Toutari Harrison for all of
her audio work on the show. You can subscribe to
the Stay in History Class Apple podcast. It's Google Podcasts
and wherever else you get your podcasts, and you can
(05:03):
tune in tomorrow for a royal trial. Hello again, I'm Eves,
and you're listening to This Day in History Class, a
show where we drop history knowledge every single day. The
(05:29):
day was October nineteen seventeen. A crowd of about seventy
thousand people reported having seen what became known as the
Miracle of the Sun in Fatima, Portugal. Witnesses gave conflicting
accounts of unusual solar activity, but analysis suggested that the
phenomenon had a psychological explanation. In early nineteen seventeen, three
(05:54):
shepherd children who lived near Fatima said that they had
begun seeing apparitions of an angel and May. They said
that they saw an apparition of the Virgin Mary and
Coba Dada, and she said that she would reappear to
them on the thirteenth day of the next six months.
The children told their parents about the apparitions. As words
(06:16):
spread around the town, some people believed the children, while
others didn't. Either way, people began flocking to Fatima to
witness a Virgin Mary sighting. After their third reported sighting,
the children said that the Virgin Mary told them three
secrets about the future. Of course, their sightings stirred up
(06:37):
a lot of controversy in secular and religious circles. A
state authority took the children into custody and tried to
get them to deny the legitimacy of their claims, but
they did not recant, and newspapers continued to pick up
the story of the Virgin Mary sightings as thousands more
people made the pilgrimage to the Cooba da Idea fields.
(07:00):
The most anticipated of the visits was the one on
October thirteenth, since the Virgin Mary reportedly told the children
that a miracle would happen that day. Estimates of the
number of people present at the covid Idea fields ranged
from around thirty thousand up to one hundred thousand. The
people in the crowd claimed that they saw a miracle
(07:23):
as they looked at the sun, but what they actually
reported being varied wildly. Some people said the sun came
out from behind rain clouds and danced around the sky.
Some said it changed colors. Others said that the Sun
moved towards Earth in a zig zag motion. Still, other
(07:43):
people present said that the sun did not do anything extraordinary.
The event was said to have lasted for ten minutes.
Thirteen years later to the day, the Catholic Church recognized
the event as a miracle that was worthy of belief
and approved the devotion to Our Lady of Fatima. While
some people believe in a supernatural explanation for the miracle
(08:05):
of the Sun, others explained it away with science. Besides
general disbelief in miracles and skepticism, critics doubted the occurrence
of any unexplained solar phenomenon because many people did not
see anything happen, and those who did did not agree
on what they saw. One explanation of the event was
(08:26):
that it was an optical illusion caused by staring at
the sun for too long. Others positive that the pilgrims
had been expecting a miracle to happen, so they saw one.
Still others suggested that it had something to do with
the weather or atmosphere in the area at that particular time.
The Church claimed that it was a supernatural event, and
(08:47):
so did many believers, but many skeptics said the event
is better explained as a psychological phenomenon. Lucia Jesus dos Pantos,
the girl who saw the visions of the Virgin Mary,
became a calmer light Nune and stood by her story
her entire life. Her two younger cousins, who also reported
seeing the apparitions, just sent To and Francisco Marto died
(09:11):
of the flu not long after the apparitions began coming
to them. Decent To and Francisco were canonized in tw
I'm is Jeff cot and hopefully you know a little
more about history today than you did yesterday. No, any
fellow history buffs who would enjoy the show, you can
share it with them. We're on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram
(09:34):
at t d I h C podcast or if you
want to get a little more fancy, you can send
us an email at this day at i heart media
dot com. We're here every day so you know where
to find us by. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,
(09:55):
visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, history enthusiasts, you get not one, but two events
in history today. Heads up that you also might hear
two different hosts, me and Tracy V. Wilson. With that said,
on with the show. Welcome to this day in History
Class from how Stuff Works dot com and from the
desk of Stuff you Missed in History Class. It's the
show where we explore the past one day at a
(00:20):
time with a quick look at what happened today in history. Hello,
and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson, and
it's October. The modern revival of the Hebrew language began
on this day in eighty one, when Elaser bin Yehuda
decided that among his friends and family, it was the
(00:42):
only language that he was going to speak. So it's
a bit of a misconception that Hebrew was a dead
language or wasn't being used at all. Before this point.
It was really common for Jews and a lot of
the world to learn Hebrew, but it was really more
as a written language and mostly used for religious next
and for study. A lot of people could speak some Hebrew,
(01:04):
but maybe not very fluently, almost never as a first language.
It's estimated though, that when Ben ye Judah started this work.
More than half of Jewish men and boys could understand
things like the Torah and daily prayers in Hebrew, and
about could read a typical book that was written Hebrew.
Sometimes Jewish communities are also using Hebrew to communicate about
(01:26):
other matters or to communicate with other Jews when they
didn't have another common language that they could use to communicate.
Eliaser been Yehuda was born in Lithuania in eighteen fifty
eight and his family wanted him to be a rabbi.
That first, he really excelled in the studies that were
needed for that, but he gradually decided he wanted to
become a doctor. While he was pursuing his medical studies,
(01:48):
Bulgaria was fighting for independence from the Ottoman Empire, and
that led the Russian Empire to declare war on the
Ottoman Empire in eighteen seventy seven. Ben ya Huda was
really inspired by this and for other independent struggles, and
the idea of a people coming together to form a
nation and a national identity in their ancestral homeland really
(02:09):
appealed to him. He started to believe that Jews should
do the same that Jews should have a homeland and
a common language and a common national identity. So in
eighteen eighty one he moved to Jerusalem with plans to
revive the Hebrew language, and it was once he got
there that he made that decision that it was the
only language that he would speak with his friends and family.
He had a son in eighteen eighty two, and he
(02:30):
persuaded his wife to raise their child only in Hebrew,
including keeping him in their home so that he wouldn't
be exposed to other languages. In eighteen eighty four, Benyahuda
established a newspaper to help spread the popularity of this language.
To do this, he was having to coin new words
and print a glossary at the back, encouraging readers to
(02:52):
keep this glossary for their future reference. As he added
new words to the language. One of the words he
needed to coin for his newspaper was the word newspaper,
which didn't exist in Hebrew before this. And raising his
son in Hebrew also meant coming up with Hebrew words
for all kinds of everyday objects, from omelet to bicycle.
(03:12):
Another big focus for him was teaching Hebrew in schools,
because if children were speaking Hebrew, then their families would
be learning it too, and these children would grow up
into natural, fluent Hebrew speakers. Over time, he started compiling
all these new words that he was coining into a dictionary,
and the Hebrew Language Council was established in eighteen ninety.
(03:33):
Later it became the Hebrew Language Academy. Although interest in
and knowledge of Hebrew really started to spread, Benya Huda
was not without his critics. Some Orthodox Jews considered his
work to be heretical, because Hebrew was considered to be
a holy language and not something that was supposed to
be used for just day to day casual conversation. This
was complicated by the fact that he had become quite secular,
(03:56):
and he was really approaching this as something of a
national identity more than a religious identity. He was trying
to fit in with his Orthodox neighbors, but it was
clear to them that he didn't quite belong. When Benya
Huda's first wife, Vora, died of tuberculosis, he remarried her sister, Himda,
and she became really instrumental in helping him with this work.
(04:19):
She and his son finished the dictionary that he had
started after Eliezer Benya Whoda's death in at the age
of sixty four. That same year, British authorities, who at
that time had colonial control of Palestine, recognized Hebrew as
the official language of Jee's living in Palestine. So, as
I noted earlier, it's not as though Hebrew was a
(04:41):
dead language before all this happened. But to quote Cecil Roth,
before ben Ya Huda, Jews could speak Hebrew after him
they did. Thanks to Eves Jeff Cope for her research
work on this podcast, and Toutari Harrison for all of
her audio work on the show. You can subscribe to
the Stay in History Class Apple podcast. It's Google Podcasts
and wherever else you get your podcasts, and you can
(05:03):
tune in tomorrow for a royal trial. Hello again, I'm Eves,
and you're listening to This Day in History Class, a
show where we drop history knowledge every single day. The
(05:29):
day was October nineteen seventeen. A crowd of about seventy
thousand people reported having seen what became known as the
Miracle of the Sun in Fatima, Portugal. Witnesses gave conflicting
accounts of unusual solar activity, but analysis suggested that the
phenomenon had a psychological explanation. In early nineteen seventeen, three
(05:54):
shepherd children who lived near Fatima said that they had
begun seeing apparitions of an angel and May. They said
that they saw an apparition of the Virgin Mary and
Coba Dada, and she said that she would reappear to
them on the thirteenth day of the next six months.
The children told their parents about the apparitions. As words
(06:16):
spread around the town, some people believed the children, while
others didn't. Either way, people began flocking to Fatima to
witness a Virgin Mary sighting. After their third reported sighting,
the children said that the Virgin Mary told them three
secrets about the future. Of course, their sightings stirred up
(06:37):
a lot of controversy in secular and religious circles. A
state authority took the children into custody and tried to
get them to deny the legitimacy of their claims, but
they did not recant, and newspapers continued to pick up
the story of the Virgin Mary sightings as thousands more
people made the pilgrimage to the Cooba da Idea fields.
(07:00):
The most anticipated of the visits was the one on
October thirteenth, since the Virgin Mary reportedly told the children
that a miracle would happen that day. Estimates of the
number of people present at the covid Idea fields ranged
from around thirty thousand up to one hundred thousand. The
people in the crowd claimed that they saw a miracle
(07:23):
as they looked at the sun, but what they actually
reported being varied wildly. Some people said the sun came
out from behind rain clouds and danced around the sky.
Some said it changed colors. Others said that the Sun
moved towards Earth in a zig zag motion. Still, other
(07:43):
people present said that the sun did not do anything extraordinary.
The event was said to have lasted for ten minutes.
Thirteen years later to the day, the Catholic Church recognized
the event as a miracle that was worthy of belief
and approved the devotion to Our Lady of Fatima. While
some people believe in a supernatural explanation for the miracle
(08:05):
of the Sun, others explained it away with science. Besides
general disbelief in miracles and skepticism, critics doubted the occurrence
of any unexplained solar phenomenon because many people did not
see anything happen, and those who did did not agree
on what they saw. One explanation of the event was
(08:26):
that it was an optical illusion caused by staring at
the sun for too long. Others positive that the pilgrims
had been expecting a miracle to happen, so they saw one.
Still others suggested that it had something to do with
the weather or atmosphere in the area at that particular time.
The Church claimed that it was a supernatural event, and
(08:47):
so did many believers, but many skeptics said the event
is better explained as a psychological phenomenon. Lucia Jesus dos Pantos,
the girl who saw the visions of the Virgin Mary,
became a calmer light Nune and stood by her story
her entire life. Her two younger cousins, who also reported
seeing the apparitions, just sent To and Francisco Marto died
(09:11):
of the flu not long after the apparitions began coming
to them. Decent To and Francisco were canonized in tw
I'm is Jeff cot and hopefully you know a little
more about history today than you did yesterday. No, any
fellow history buffs who would enjoy the show, you can
share it with them. We're on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram
(09:34):
at t d I h C podcast or if you
want to get a little more fancy, you can send
us an email at this day at i heart media
dot com. We're here every day so you know where
to find us by. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,
(09:55):
visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.
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