Scholar Ilan Stavans discusses the opposing sides of Hebrew: a divine language, the way for man to communicate with G-d, and a human language, earthly, clumsy, vulgar, imperfect, and prone to decay.

An essayist, cultural critic, and translator, Professor Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture and Five College-Fortieth Anniversary Professor at Amherst College. A native of Mexico, he received his Doctorate in Latin American Literature from Columbia University.

This lecture was part of the 2016 Stroum Lectures, “Hebrew and the Creative Imagination,” hosted by the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies of the University of Washington.

Dying in Hebrew

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