Editor’s note: While surfing the web the other day, I came across this article by Rebeca Kuropatwa on the PaleoJudaica Blogspot (a blog I did not know existed.)
In the article, Kuropatwa writes about the fac that this fall, for the first time, the University of Manitoba’s Judaic Studies program will be offering, not only Hebrew and Yiddish and Arabic language classes, but Aramaic.
When I read this, I thought of saying Kaddish, since this fundamental Jewish prayer is written in Aramaic, and though I speak Hebrew I have never been able to understand the words of the Kaddish when I read them.
In ancient times, Aramaic was the common language spoken by many Jews in Israel and Babylonia, and the Talmud itself is mainly in Aramaic.
Justin Jaron Lewis, assistant professor in the Judaic Studies programe will be teaching the Aramaic course, The Aramaic of The Zohar.
To read Kuropatwas’s article and learn how Lewis became interested in teaching Aramaic,
click here: http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2011_09_11_archive.html#8832164139222977641
