Hebrew

Since no one reads this, no one remembers this post. As I continue to find more and more negative information about life in Israel (the crazy rush in the supermarket, the antiquated -- from an American's perspective -- shopping system (I personally find this nice. I want to go back in time a little), the strange bank hours and so on and so forth), I find it more and more comforting that I what I like rises above all that. Hebrew will be spoken in Israel, even if English and other languages creep into it (לקונדל, used in a comment by Joe Schmoe Ha'Aretz Commenter #42 and reported on by NPR).

It's something constant, but it seems to be hard to explain to other people. Yehonatan Geffen likes it enough to stay in Israel. I like it enough to go, yet when I tell some people about my idea of moving to Israel, I get "Are you Jewish?" Hebrew just isn't the first thing that comes to mind.

The fact that Israel is a Jewish state -- a reason for people to move -- is nice, will make some things nicer for me (and other things worse, or at least from an American perspective...maybe it won't matter in a few years), and has influence, I think, on the language and behavior of Israelis (that latter is a hypothesis; the former is a fact), but I like language from the secular perspective (this is "secular" aliyah, even though I might be more observant than Jane Schmoe Jew....it's all relative): the way the language works, the fact that few people speak it (well, like Israelis; globally), the connection between Biblical and Modern Hebrew (as an interesting fact), its attempt to adjust to modernity and current events, its ease of being spoken in more quickly than English, its ability to fool naive non-native speakers, and so on.

Doesn't anyone else want to move to Israel mainly for the Hebrew and the culture? If I move, they will definitely tell me I am crazy.