Editing Hebrew language (section)

===Mishnah and Talmud===
{{Main|Mishnaic Hebrew}}
The term "Mishnaic Hebrew" generally refers to the Hebrew dialects found in the [[Talmud]], excepting quotations from the Hebrew Bible. The dialects organize into Mishnaic Hebrew (also called [[Tannaim|Tannaitic]] Hebrew, Early Rabbinic Hebrew, or [[Mishnah|Mishnaic]] Hebrew I), which was a [[spoken language]], and [[Amoraim|Amoraic]] Hebrew (also called Late Rabbinic Hebrew or Mishnaic Hebrew II), which was a [[literary language]]. The earlier section of the Talmud is the Mishnah that was published around 200 CE, although many of the stories take place much earlier, and were written in the earlier Mishnaic dialect. The dialect is also found in certain Dead Sea Scrolls. Mishnaic Hebrew is considered to be one of the dialects of Classical Hebrew that functioned as a living language in the land of Israel. A transitional form of the language occurs in the other works of Tannaitic literature dating from the century beginning with the completion of the Mishnah. These include the [[Midrash halakha|halachic]] [[Midrash]]im ([[Sifra]], [[Sifre]], [[Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael|Mekhilta]] etc.) and the expanded collection of Mishnah-related material known as the [[Tosefta]]. The Talmud contains excerpts from these works, as well as further Tannaitic material not attested elsewhere; the generic term for these passages is ''[[Baraita|Baraitot]]''. The dialect of all these works is very similar to Mishnaic Hebrew.

About a century after the publication of the Mishnah, Mishnaic Hebrew fell into disuse as a spoken language. By the third century CE, sages could no longer identify the Hebrew names of many plants mentioned in the Mishnah. Only a few sages, primarily in the southern regions, retained the ability to speak the language and attempted to promote its use.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=הר |first=משה דוד |title=ארץ-ישראל בשלהי העת העתיקה: מבואות ומחקרים |publisher=יד יצחק בן-צבי |year=2022 |isbn=978-965-217-444-4 |editor-link=Moshe David Herr |volume=1 |publication-place=ירושלים |pages=218 |language=he |trans-title=Eretz Israel in Late Antiquity: Introductions and Studies |chapter=היהודים בארץ-ישראל בימי האימפריה הרומית הנוצרית |trans-chapter=The Jews in the Land of Israel in the Days of the Christian Roman Empire}}</ref> According to the [[Jerusalem Talmud]], Megillah 1:9: "Rebbi Jonathan from [[Beit Guvrin-Maresha National Park|Bet Guvrrin]] said, four languages are appropriate that the world should use them, and they are these: The Foreign Language (Greek) for song, Latin for war, Syriac for elegies, Hebrew for speech. Some are saying, also Assyrian (Hebrew script) for writing."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 1:9:3 |url=https://www.sefaria.org/Jerusalem_Talmud_Megillah.1.9.3?vhe=The_Jerusalem_Talmud,_edition_by_Heinrich_W._Guggenheimer._Berlin,_De_Gruyter,_1999-2015&lang=bi |access-date=2024-06-10 |website=www.sefaria.org |archive-date=28 July 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240728212323/https://www.sefaria.org/Jerusalem_Talmud_Megillah.1.9.3?vhe=The_Jerusalem_Talmud,_edition_by_Heinrich_W._Guggenheimer._Berlin,_De_Gruyter,_1999-2015&lang=bi |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":3" />

The later section of the Talmud, the [[Gemara]], generally comments on the Mishnah and Baraitot in two forms of Aramaic. Nevertheless, Hebrew survived as a liturgical and literary language in the form of later Amoraic Hebrew, which occasionally appears in the text of the Gemara, particularly in the Jerusalem Talmud and the classical [[Aggadah|aggadah midrashes]].

Hebrew was always regarded as the language of Israel's religion, history and national pride, and after it faded as a spoken language, it continued to be used as a ''[[lingua franca]]'' among scholars and Jews traveling in foreign countries.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.fbi.gov/about/leadership-and-structure/intelligence-branch/national-virtual-translation-center|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090117194849/http://www.nvtc.gov/lotw/months/august/Hebrew.html|url-status=dead|title=National Virtual Translation Center|archivedate=17 January 2009|website=Federal Bureau of Investigation}}</ref> After the 2nd century CE when the [[Roman Empire]] exiled most of the Jewish population of Jerusalem following the [[Bar Kokhba revolt]], they adapted to the societies in which they found themselves, yet letters, contracts, commerce, science, philosophy, medicine, poetry and laws continued to be written mostly in Hebrew, which adapted by borrowing and inventing terms.