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Faculty | The Department of Hebrew Language
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Department Chair: Prof. Adina Moshavi
adina.moshavi@mail.huji.ac.il

BA Advisor: Dr. ​​​​​​​Aynat Rubinstein
​​​​​​​aynat.rubinstein@mail.huji.ac.il

MA Advisor: Prof. Ofra Tirosh-Becker
otirosh@mail.huji.ac.il

Department Secretary: Ms. Iris Pereg
irispe@savion.huji.ac.il
Phone: 025883975 
Room: 6709

Faculty

Prof. Adina Moshavi

Prof. Adina Moshavi

Department Chair
adina.moshavi@mail.huji.ac.il
Room 2105
Personal Website

Research interests: syntax of Biblical Hebrew and the Dead Sea Scrolls, pragmatics of Biblical Hebrew, questions and answers in biblical dialogue, grammaticalization of negative polarity items in Hebrew, syntax and semantics of Hebrew numerical phrases, relationship between philology and biblical interpretation.

FASSBERG

Prof. Steve Fassberg

steven.fassberg@mail.huji.ac.il
Personal website

Research interests: Biblical Hebrew; The languages of the Dead Sea Scrolls; Aramaic dialectology; Northwest Semitic; Semitic philology (Caspar Levias Chair in Ancient Semitic Languages).

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List of Publications:

A Grammar of the Palestinian Targum Fragments from the Cairo Genizah. Harvard Semitic Studies 38. Atlanta, Georgia: Scholars Press, 1990. 322 pages.

Studies in the Syntax of Biblical Hebrew (סוגיות בתחביר המקרא). Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1994. 202 pp.

The Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Challa. Semitic Languages and Linguistics 54. Leiden: Brill, 2010. 314 pp.

An Introduction to the Syntax of Biblical Hebrew  (מבוא לתחביר לשון המקרא). Biblical Encyclopaedia Library 36. Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 2019. 286 pp. + XXI (in Hebrew).

“The Origin of the Ketib/Qere in the Aramaic Portions of Ezra and Daniel,” Vetus Testamentum 29 (1989) 1-12.

“The Orthography of the Relative pronoun שה- in the Second Temple and Mishnaic Periods,” Scripta Classica Israelica 15 [1996] 240-250.

“The Linguistic Study of the Damascus Document: A Historical Perspective,” in  Proceedings of the International Symposium, February 1998, on the Damascus Document: A Centennial of Discovery, 53-67. Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah 34. Ed. J.M. Baumgarten, E.G. Chazon & A. Pinnick. Leiden: Brill, 2000.

“The Syntax of the Biblical Documents from the Judean Desert as Reflected in a Comparison of Multiple Copies of Biblical Texts,” in Diggers at the Well: Proceedings of a Third International Symposium on the Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Ben Sira, 94-109. Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah 36. Ed. T. Muraoka & J. F. Elwolde. Leiden, 2000.

“The Lengthened Imperative קָטְלָה in Biblical Hebrew,” Hebrew Studies 42 (2001) 243-255.

“The Movement from Qal to Piˤˤel in Hebrew and the Disappearance of the Qal Internal Passive,” Hebrew Studies 42 (2001) 243-255.

“Why Doesn’t Melex Appear as Ma:lex in Pause in Tiberian Hebrew?” Lěšonénu 64 (2002) 207-219.

“Qumran Aramaic,” Maarav 9 (2002) 19-31.

“Infinitival Forms in Aramaic,” Historical Linguistics 2005: Selected Papers from the 17th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Madison, Wisconsin, 31 July – 5 August 2005, 239-256. Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Sciences: Series IV – Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 284. Ed. J.C. Salmons & S. Dubenion-Smith.Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2007.

“Suppletive Noun Paradigms in Tiberian Hebrew,” Lěšonénu 70 (2008) 39-54.

“Vowel Dissimilation in Plural Pronouns in Biblical Hebrew,” Orientalia 78 (2010) 326-335.

“Which Semitic Language Did Jesus and Other Contemporary Jews Speak?,” The Catholic Biblical Quarterly 74 (2012) 263-280.

“Two Biblical Hebrew Sounds Laws in the Light of Modern Spoken Semitic,” 95-100, in Nicht nur mit Engelszungen: Beiträge zur semitischen Dialektologie. Festschrift für Werner Arnold zum 60. Geburtstag. Ed. R. Kuty, U. Seeger & S. Talay. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2013.

“The Origin of the Periphrastic Preterite kəm/qam-qāṭəlle in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic,” 172-186, in Neo-Aramaic and its Linguistic Context. Ed. G. Khan & L. Napiorkowska. Gorgias Neo-Aramaic Studies 14. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2015.

“Judeo-Aramaic,” 64-177, in Handbook of Jewish Languages. Ed. L. Kahn & A.D. Rubin. Leiden: Brill, 2016.

Ed. with W.R. Garr,  A Handbook of Biblical Hebrew. 2 vols. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 2016. 363 pp. + XVII .

“Jewish Palestinian Aramaic in Judean Desert Documents from the First Jewish Revolt to the Bar Kosiba Revolt,” 171-175, in Eretz-Israel: Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Studies 32 (Joseph Naveh Volume). Ed. J. Aviram et al. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society & Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2016.

with S. Aḥituv and W.R. Garr, “Epigraphic Hebrew,” I:55-68, II:36-42, in A Handbook of Biblical Hebrew. 2 vols. Ed. W.R. Garr & S.E. Fassberg. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 2016.

“Two Maskilic Explanations of the Difference between the Causative Piʽel and the Hiphʽil in Biblical Hebrew,” 263-280, in Le-maʽan Ziony: Essays in Honor of Ziony Zevit. Ed. F. E. Greenspahn & G.A. Rendsburg. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock, 2017.

“Perfect Third Masculine Singular  בעוand Related Forms in Samaritan Aramaic,” Language Studies (מחקרים בלשון) 17-18 (2017) 447-454 (in Hebrew).

“Rabbinic Literature: Lexicology and Lexicography,” 2:665-679 in The Classic Rabbinic Literature of Eretz Israel: Introductions and Studies. 2 vols. Ed. M. Kahana et al. Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi, 2018 (in Hebrew).

“The Ethical Dative in Aramaic,” Aramaic Studies 15 (2018) 101-116.

“Gutturals and Gemination in Samaritan Hebrew,” 30-43 in The Reconfiguration of Hebrew in the Hellenistic Period: Proceedings of the Seventh International Symposium on the Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Ben Sira at Strasbourg University, June 2014. Ed. J. Joosten et al.. Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah 124. Leiden: Brill, 2018.

“A Note on the Ellipsis of the Preposition Bet Before the Nouns בית and פתח,” Studia Biblica Slovaca 10 (2018) 159-163.

“The Noun אַולָא / אַוָל in Aramaic,” Lešonenu 81 (2019) 246-256 (in Hebrew).

“Is There an Enclitic mem in Biblical Hebrew?,” 87-104 in Studies in Biblical Hebrew. Ed. M. Rhyzik. Studies in Language 25. Jerusalem: Academy of Hebrew Language, 2019 (in Hebrew).

“Hebrew and Aramaic: Mutual Influence in Palestine,” Orientalia 89 (2020) 5-21.

“The Grammar of Baal’s Epithets,” 91-100 in Mighty Baal: Essays in Honor of Mark Smith. Ed. S. C. Russell and E. J. Hamori. Leiden: Brill, 2020.

“Should the Text Be Emended, Was It Already Emended, or Is There a Reflexive Piel?,” 89-96 in A Necessary Task: Essays on Textual Criticism of the Old Testament in Memory of Stephen Pisano. Ed. D. Candido and L. P.  da Silva Pinto. Analecta Biblica 14. Rome 2020.

with Samuel E. Fox, “The Verb yhb in Aramaic,” Aramaic Studies 18 (2020) 268-278.

“On The Afel Stem in Western Neo-Aramaic,” 287-299 in Studies in the Grammar and Lexicon of Neo-Aramaic. Ed. G. Khan and  P. M. Noorlander. Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures 5. Cambridge, 2021.

“Jewish Palestinian Aramaic: Chronology, Geography, and Typology,” Aramaic Studies 19 (2021) 1-20.

“III-y Imperatives in Ancient Hebrew,” 57-74 in New Perspectives in Biblical and Rabbinic Hebrew. Ed. A.D. Hornkohl and G. Khan. Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures 7. Cambridge, 2021.

 

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OFRA

Prof. Ofra Tirosh-Becker

MA Advisor
02-5880244
otirosh@mail.huji.ac.il
Room 2113
Personal website

Prof. Ofra Tirosh-Becker is the Bialik Professor of Hebrew language. She is a Professor in the Department of Arabic Language and Literature and in the Department of Hebrew Language at the Hebrew University. She is the Head of the Hebrew University's Center for Jewish Languages and Literatures. From 2018 through 2021 she was the Director of the Ben-Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East. She served as the Chairperson of the Department of Hebrew and as the Chairperson of the Department of Arabic Language and Literature. Prof. Tirosh-Becker is also a member of the executive committee of the Academy of the Hebrew Language in Jerusalem, and a full member of this Academy.

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She is the founder and co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Jewish Languages published by Brill, a co-editor of Massorot: Studies in Language Traditions and the Jewish Languages, and the editor of the Languages and Linguistics Section of the online edition of the Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. She was a visiting professor at Harvard University a few times.

Tirosh-Becker is a recipient of the 2011 Asaraf Prize from The Academy of the Hebrew Language, the 2013 Ben-Zvi Award for Research of Jewish Communities in the East, and the 2013 Polonsky Prize for Creativity and Originality in the Humanistic Disciplines (First Prize). Her two-volume book Rabbinic Excerpts in Medieval Karaite Literature was published in 2011 (Vol. 1: Philological and Linguistic Studies, Vol. 2: A Critical Annotated Scientific Edition of the Texts). Together with Prof. Lutz Edzard of Erlangen University, Germany she published the book Jewish Languages: Text Specimens, Grammatical, Lexical, and Cultural sketches (2021).

Her research focuses on the contacts between Arabic and Hebrew, including: North-African Judeo-Arabic; Judeo-Arabic translations of the Bible and of post-biblical literature; Medieval Hebrew; Hebrew in Algeria in the 19th-20th centuries; The contact between Hebrew and Arabic in the Middle Ages; Rabbinic Hebrew in Karaite writings.

Prof. Tirosh-Becker completed her B.A. at the Department of Hebrew Language and the Department of Arabic Language and Literature at the Hebrew University. Her Master's thesis is on a Judeo-Arabic translation of Psalms from Constantine, Algeria, written under the supervision of Prof. Moshe Bar-Asher. In 2000 she received her doctoral degree from the Hebrew University. Her doctoral thesis, also under the supervision of Prof. Moshe Bar-Asher, focused on rabbinic Hebrew embedded in medieval Karaite literature, which for the most part was written in Judeo-Arabic.

In 2000 she carried out her post-doctoral training at the Center for Jewish Studies of Harvard University as a Starr Fellow and a Fulbright Scholar. In 2001-2002 she was a post-doctoral fellow at the Eliezer Ben Yehuda Research Center for the History of Hebrew at the Hebrew University.

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