1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:03,239 Speaker 1: Hey, history enthusiasts, you get not one, but two events 2 00:00:03,240 --> 00:00:05,960 Speaker 1: in history today. Heads up that you also might hear 3 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:10,039 Speaker 1: two different hosts, me and Tracy V. Wilson. With that said, 4 00:00:10,160 --> 00:00:13,680 Speaker 1: on with the show. Welcome to this day in History 5 00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:16,239 Speaker 1: Class from how Stuff Works dot com and from the 6 00:00:16,280 --> 00:00:18,480 Speaker 1: desk of Stuff you Missed in History Class. It's the 7 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:20,759 Speaker 1: show where we explore the past one day at a 8 00:00:20,800 --> 00:00:28,440 Speaker 1: time with a quick look at what happened today in history. Hello, 9 00:00:28,520 --> 00:00:31,120 Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson, and 10 00:00:31,160 --> 00:00:35,840 Speaker 1: it's October. The modern revival of the Hebrew language began 11 00:00:35,920 --> 00:00:39,199 Speaker 1: on this day in eighty one, when Elaser bin Yehuda 12 00:00:39,360 --> 00:00:42,040 Speaker 1: decided that among his friends and family, it was the 13 00:00:42,120 --> 00:00:44,760 Speaker 1: only language that he was going to speak. So it's 14 00:00:44,800 --> 00:00:48,080 Speaker 1: a bit of a misconception that Hebrew was a dead 15 00:00:48,159 --> 00:00:51,120 Speaker 1: language or wasn't being used at all. Before this point. 16 00:00:51,680 --> 00:00:53,760 Speaker 1: It was really common for Jews and a lot of 17 00:00:53,800 --> 00:00:56,360 Speaker 1: the world to learn Hebrew, but it was really more 18 00:00:56,400 --> 00:01:00,280 Speaker 1: as a written language and mostly used for religious next 19 00:01:00,520 --> 00:01:04,280 Speaker 1: and for study. A lot of people could speak some Hebrew, 20 00:01:04,319 --> 00:01:08,280 Speaker 1: but maybe not very fluently, almost never as a first language. 21 00:01:08,720 --> 00:01:12,360 Speaker 1: It's estimated though, that when Ben ye Judah started this work. 22 00:01:12,720 --> 00:01:15,440 Speaker 1: More than half of Jewish men and boys could understand 23 00:01:15,440 --> 00:01:18,480 Speaker 1: things like the Torah and daily prayers in Hebrew, and 24 00:01:18,520 --> 00:01:22,280 Speaker 1: about could read a typical book that was written Hebrew. 25 00:01:22,760 --> 00:01:26,360 Speaker 1: Sometimes Jewish communities are also using Hebrew to communicate about 26 00:01:26,400 --> 00:01:29,920 Speaker 1: other matters or to communicate with other Jews when they 27 00:01:29,920 --> 00:01:32,680 Speaker 1: didn't have another common language that they could use to communicate. 28 00:01:33,080 --> 00:01:36,520 Speaker 1: Eliaser been Yehuda was born in Lithuania in eighteen fifty 29 00:01:36,560 --> 00:01:38,600 Speaker 1: eight and his family wanted him to be a rabbi. 30 00:01:39,040 --> 00:01:41,600 Speaker 1: That first, he really excelled in the studies that were 31 00:01:41,720 --> 00:01:45,440 Speaker 1: needed for that, but he gradually decided he wanted to 32 00:01:45,480 --> 00:01:48,800 Speaker 1: become a doctor. While he was pursuing his medical studies, 33 00:01:48,880 --> 00:01:52,400 Speaker 1: Bulgaria was fighting for independence from the Ottoman Empire, and 34 00:01:52,440 --> 00:01:55,280 Speaker 1: that led the Russian Empire to declare war on the 35 00:01:55,320 --> 00:01:58,400 Speaker 1: Ottoman Empire in eighteen seventy seven. Ben ya Huda was 36 00:01:58,440 --> 00:02:02,120 Speaker 1: really inspired by this and for other independent struggles, and 37 00:02:02,160 --> 00:02:04,920 Speaker 1: the idea of a people coming together to form a 38 00:02:05,040 --> 00:02:09,560 Speaker 1: nation and a national identity in their ancestral homeland really 39 00:02:09,560 --> 00:02:12,520 Speaker 1: appealed to him. He started to believe that Jews should 40 00:02:12,520 --> 00:02:14,600 Speaker 1: do the same that Jews should have a homeland and 41 00:02:14,639 --> 00:02:18,440 Speaker 1: a common language and a common national identity. So in 42 00:02:18,440 --> 00:02:21,200 Speaker 1: eighteen eighty one he moved to Jerusalem with plans to 43 00:02:21,280 --> 00:02:23,839 Speaker 1: revive the Hebrew language, and it was once he got 44 00:02:23,840 --> 00:02:25,560 Speaker 1: there that he made that decision that it was the 45 00:02:25,600 --> 00:02:28,040 Speaker 1: only language that he would speak with his friends and family. 46 00:02:28,600 --> 00:02:30,640 Speaker 1: He had a son in eighteen eighty two, and he 47 00:02:30,760 --> 00:02:34,280 Speaker 1: persuaded his wife to raise their child only in Hebrew, 48 00:02:34,480 --> 00:02:37,200 Speaker 1: including keeping him in their home so that he wouldn't 49 00:02:37,240 --> 00:02:41,440 Speaker 1: be exposed to other languages. In eighteen eighty four, Benyahuda 50 00:02:41,520 --> 00:02:46,000 Speaker 1: established a newspaper to help spread the popularity of this language. 51 00:02:46,240 --> 00:02:49,360 Speaker 1: To do this, he was having to coin new words 52 00:02:49,400 --> 00:02:52,400 Speaker 1: and print a glossary at the back, encouraging readers to 53 00:02:52,480 --> 00:02:56,080 Speaker 1: keep this glossary for their future reference. As he added 54 00:02:56,080 --> 00:02:58,280 Speaker 1: new words to the language. One of the words he 55 00:02:58,320 --> 00:03:01,679 Speaker 1: needed to coin for his newspaper was the word newspaper, 56 00:03:01,840 --> 00:03:05,080 Speaker 1: which didn't exist in Hebrew before this. And raising his 57 00:03:05,160 --> 00:03:08,120 Speaker 1: son in Hebrew also meant coming up with Hebrew words 58 00:03:08,200 --> 00:03:11,880 Speaker 1: for all kinds of everyday objects, from omelet to bicycle. 59 00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:16,520 Speaker 1: Another big focus for him was teaching Hebrew in schools, 60 00:03:16,600 --> 00:03:19,280 Speaker 1: because if children were speaking Hebrew, then their families would 61 00:03:19,280 --> 00:03:21,960 Speaker 1: be learning it too, and these children would grow up 62 00:03:21,960 --> 00:03:27,040 Speaker 1: into natural, fluent Hebrew speakers. Over time, he started compiling 63 00:03:27,080 --> 00:03:29,840 Speaker 1: all these new words that he was coining into a dictionary, 64 00:03:30,360 --> 00:03:33,680 Speaker 1: and the Hebrew Language Council was established in eighteen ninety. 65 00:03:33,880 --> 00:03:37,680 Speaker 1: Later it became the Hebrew Language Academy. Although interest in 66 00:03:37,800 --> 00:03:41,280 Speaker 1: and knowledge of Hebrew really started to spread, Benya Huda 67 00:03:41,360 --> 00:03:44,880 Speaker 1: was not without his critics. Some Orthodox Jews considered his 68 00:03:44,920 --> 00:03:47,760 Speaker 1: work to be heretical, because Hebrew was considered to be 69 00:03:47,800 --> 00:03:50,400 Speaker 1: a holy language and not something that was supposed to 70 00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:53,760 Speaker 1: be used for just day to day casual conversation. This 71 00:03:53,880 --> 00:03:56,640 Speaker 1: was complicated by the fact that he had become quite secular, 72 00:03:56,720 --> 00:04:00,120 Speaker 1: and he was really approaching this as something of a 73 00:04:00,240 --> 00:04:04,080 Speaker 1: national identity more than a religious identity. He was trying 74 00:04:04,080 --> 00:04:06,600 Speaker 1: to fit in with his Orthodox neighbors, but it was 75 00:04:06,720 --> 00:04:10,160 Speaker 1: clear to them that he didn't quite belong. When Benya 76 00:04:10,200 --> 00:04:14,680 Speaker 1: Huda's first wife, Vora, died of tuberculosis, he remarried her sister, Himda, 77 00:04:14,840 --> 00:04:18,599 Speaker 1: and she became really instrumental in helping him with this work. 78 00:04:19,080 --> 00:04:21,360 Speaker 1: She and his son finished the dictionary that he had 79 00:04:21,360 --> 00:04:25,400 Speaker 1: started after Eliezer Benya Whoda's death in at the age 80 00:04:25,400 --> 00:04:29,640 Speaker 1: of sixty four. That same year, British authorities, who at 81 00:04:29,640 --> 00:04:34,720 Speaker 1: that time had colonial control of Palestine, recognized Hebrew as 82 00:04:34,760 --> 00:04:38,479 Speaker 1: the official language of Jee's living in Palestine. So, as 83 00:04:38,520 --> 00:04:41,800 Speaker 1: I noted earlier, it's not as though Hebrew was a 84 00:04:41,920 --> 00:04:45,280 Speaker 1: dead language before all this happened. But to quote Cecil Roth, 85 00:04:45,720 --> 00:04:50,000 Speaker 1: before ben Ya Huda, Jews could speak Hebrew after him 86 00:04:50,120 --> 00:04:53,160 Speaker 1: they did. Thanks to Eves Jeff Cope for her research 87 00:04:53,200 --> 00:04:56,159 Speaker 1: work on this podcast, and Toutari Harrison for all of 88 00:04:56,160 --> 00:04:58,920 Speaker 1: her audio work on the show. You can subscribe to 89 00:04:58,960 --> 00:05:01,880 Speaker 1: the Stay in History Class Apple podcast. It's Google Podcasts 90 00:05:01,880 --> 00:05:03,640 Speaker 1: and wherever else you get your podcasts, and you can 91 00:05:03,680 --> 00:05:15,760 Speaker 1: tune in tomorrow for a royal trial. Hello again, I'm Eves, 92 00:05:15,760 --> 00:05:18,719 Speaker 1: and you're listening to This Day in History Class, a 93 00:05:18,800 --> 00:05:29,320 Speaker 1: show where we drop history knowledge every single day. The 94 00:05:29,440 --> 00:05:34,679 Speaker 1: day was October nineteen seventeen. A crowd of about seventy 95 00:05:34,680 --> 00:05:38,159 Speaker 1: thousand people reported having seen what became known as the 96 00:05:38,279 --> 00:05:43,680 Speaker 1: Miracle of the Sun in Fatima, Portugal. Witnesses gave conflicting 97 00:05:43,720 --> 00:05:48,400 Speaker 1: accounts of unusual solar activity, but analysis suggested that the 98 00:05:48,400 --> 00:05:54,480 Speaker 1: phenomenon had a psychological explanation. In early nineteen seventeen, three 99 00:05:54,480 --> 00:05:57,920 Speaker 1: shepherd children who lived near Fatima said that they had 100 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:02,160 Speaker 1: begun seeing apparitions of an angel and May. They said 101 00:06:02,160 --> 00:06:04,960 Speaker 1: that they saw an apparition of the Virgin Mary and 102 00:06:05,040 --> 00:06:08,520 Speaker 1: Coba Dada, and she said that she would reappear to 103 00:06:08,560 --> 00:06:11,520 Speaker 1: them on the thirteenth day of the next six months. 104 00:06:12,680 --> 00:06:16,359 Speaker 1: The children told their parents about the apparitions. As words 105 00:06:16,360 --> 00:06:19,760 Speaker 1: spread around the town, some people believed the children, while 106 00:06:19,800 --> 00:06:24,680 Speaker 1: others didn't. Either way, people began flocking to Fatima to 107 00:06:24,760 --> 00:06:29,479 Speaker 1: witness a Virgin Mary sighting. After their third reported sighting, 108 00:06:29,800 --> 00:06:32,719 Speaker 1: the children said that the Virgin Mary told them three 109 00:06:32,760 --> 00:06:37,480 Speaker 1: secrets about the future. Of course, their sightings stirred up 110 00:06:37,520 --> 00:06:41,800 Speaker 1: a lot of controversy in secular and religious circles. A 111 00:06:41,920 --> 00:06:45,039 Speaker 1: state authority took the children into custody and tried to 112 00:06:45,080 --> 00:06:48,960 Speaker 1: get them to deny the legitimacy of their claims, but 113 00:06:49,120 --> 00:06:52,560 Speaker 1: they did not recant, and newspapers continued to pick up 114 00:06:52,560 --> 00:06:56,240 Speaker 1: the story of the Virgin Mary sightings as thousands more 115 00:06:56,279 --> 00:06:59,120 Speaker 1: people made the pilgrimage to the Cooba da Idea fields. 116 00:07:00,200 --> 00:07:03,240 Speaker 1: The most anticipated of the visits was the one on 117 00:07:03,360 --> 00:07:08,159 Speaker 1: October thirteenth, since the Virgin Mary reportedly told the children 118 00:07:08,440 --> 00:07:12,160 Speaker 1: that a miracle would happen that day. Estimates of the 119 00:07:12,240 --> 00:07:15,760 Speaker 1: number of people present at the covid Idea fields ranged 120 00:07:15,800 --> 00:07:20,040 Speaker 1: from around thirty thousand up to one hundred thousand. The 121 00:07:20,160 --> 00:07:23,120 Speaker 1: people in the crowd claimed that they saw a miracle 122 00:07:23,200 --> 00:07:26,200 Speaker 1: as they looked at the sun, but what they actually 123 00:07:26,240 --> 00:07:31,040 Speaker 1: reported being varied wildly. Some people said the sun came 124 00:07:31,080 --> 00:07:34,640 Speaker 1: out from behind rain clouds and danced around the sky. 125 00:07:34,800 --> 00:07:38,560 Speaker 1: Some said it changed colors. Others said that the Sun 126 00:07:38,760 --> 00:07:43,280 Speaker 1: moved towards Earth in a zig zag motion. Still, other 127 00:07:43,320 --> 00:07:47,520 Speaker 1: people present said that the sun did not do anything extraordinary. 128 00:07:47,960 --> 00:07:50,440 Speaker 1: The event was said to have lasted for ten minutes. 129 00:07:51,240 --> 00:07:54,760 Speaker 1: Thirteen years later to the day, the Catholic Church recognized 130 00:07:54,800 --> 00:07:57,200 Speaker 1: the event as a miracle that was worthy of belief 131 00:07:57,720 --> 00:08:02,240 Speaker 1: and approved the devotion to Our Lady of Fatima. While 132 00:08:02,320 --> 00:08:05,600 Speaker 1: some people believe in a supernatural explanation for the miracle 133 00:08:05,680 --> 00:08:10,240 Speaker 1: of the Sun, others explained it away with science. Besides 134 00:08:10,280 --> 00:08:14,520 Speaker 1: general disbelief in miracles and skepticism, critics doubted the occurrence 135 00:08:14,600 --> 00:08:18,680 Speaker 1: of any unexplained solar phenomenon because many people did not 136 00:08:18,760 --> 00:08:22,440 Speaker 1: see anything happen, and those who did did not agree 137 00:08:22,480 --> 00:08:26,120 Speaker 1: on what they saw. One explanation of the event was 138 00:08:26,160 --> 00:08:29,080 Speaker 1: that it was an optical illusion caused by staring at 139 00:08:29,080 --> 00:08:32,640 Speaker 1: the sun for too long. Others positive that the pilgrims 140 00:08:32,640 --> 00:08:36,040 Speaker 1: had been expecting a miracle to happen, so they saw one. 141 00:08:37,280 --> 00:08:39,960 Speaker 1: Still others suggested that it had something to do with 142 00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:43,240 Speaker 1: the weather or atmosphere in the area at that particular time. 143 00:08:44,400 --> 00:08:47,600 Speaker 1: The Church claimed that it was a supernatural event, and 144 00:08:47,760 --> 00:08:50,920 Speaker 1: so did many believers, but many skeptics said the event 145 00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:56,720 Speaker 1: is better explained as a psychological phenomenon. Lucia Jesus dos Pantos, 146 00:08:56,760 --> 00:08:59,319 Speaker 1: the girl who saw the visions of the Virgin Mary, 147 00:08:59,679 --> 00:09:02,400 Speaker 1: became a calmer light Nune and stood by her story 148 00:09:02,480 --> 00:09:06,800 Speaker 1: her entire life. Her two younger cousins, who also reported 149 00:09:06,840 --> 00:09:11,120 Speaker 1: seeing the apparitions, just sent To and Francisco Marto died 150 00:09:11,200 --> 00:09:14,440 Speaker 1: of the flu not long after the apparitions began coming 151 00:09:14,520 --> 00:09:18,679 Speaker 1: to them. Decent To and Francisco were canonized in tw 152 00:09:21,120 --> 00:09:23,439 Speaker 1: I'm is Jeff cot and hopefully you know a little 153 00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:27,880 Speaker 1: more about history today than you did yesterday. No, any 154 00:09:27,920 --> 00:09:30,679 Speaker 1: fellow history buffs who would enjoy the show, you can 155 00:09:30,679 --> 00:09:34,160 Speaker 1: share it with them. We're on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram 156 00:09:34,200 --> 00:09:39,040 Speaker 1: at t d I h C podcast or if you 157 00:09:39,080 --> 00:09:41,080 Speaker 1: want to get a little more fancy, you can send 158 00:09:41,160 --> 00:09:44,360 Speaker 1: us an email at this day at i heart media 159 00:09:44,480 --> 00:09:48,000 Speaker 1: dot com. We're here every day so you know where 160 00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:55,559 Speaker 1: to find us by. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, 161 00:09:55,679 --> 00:09:58,280 Speaker 1: visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 162 00:09:58,360 --> 00:09:59,480 Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.