Last week's Hebrew lesson began our look into the history of the language and the people who spoke it. Today, we'll be exploring where the term "Hebrew" itself originates.
When discussing the term "Hebrew" in reference to the language, there are actually three separate words we need to understand: Hebrew, Yihudit, and Ivrit.
We'll begin with "Yihudit" because the other two terms are much more closely related. "Yihudit" is a word that means, "The language of Yihudah", while the term "Yihudah" refers to the kingdom of Judah. In the ancient territory that we know today as the modern State of Israel, there were actually two presiding kingdoms. In the north was the ancient kingdom of Israel, which had the kingdom of Judah at its southern border. When the Roman Empire came to dominate the region, they latinized the name of the territory into Judea. This is where the terms "Judaism" and "Jewish" come from. The people who lived in Judah would have said they spoke "Yihudit", as naming languages based on the regions in which they were spoken was the linguistic convention of ancient Hebrew speakers.
The terms "Ivrit" and "Hebrew" are related both linguistically and in spirit. "Ivrit" comes from the root word "Avar" which refers to someone who comes from far away. It should be noted that this is distinct from the words referring specifically to foreigners. The Hebrew word "Goi'im" is the most direct translation of "foreign people" and became the modern Yiddish term "Goyim" which refers to all non-Jewish people. In addition, there was an ancient Canaanite slang term for foreigners, "Gidolim" which literally translates as "Big ones". This is where the story of David and Goliath comes from. Goliath originally wasn't a giant, but a foreign leader.
The "far away" to which "Avar" refers is actually closer in spirit of the word "Hebrew". That word can be traced to many similar iterations in various ancient Near and Middle Eastern cultures. Many Near Eastern cultures, like Sumeria, Akkad and Babylon had the term "Ibiru", while the Egyptians adopted the word into their Coptic language as "Ipiru". These words essentially indicate a people who live outside the cities. They often get referenced as the people who live on the other side of the river, which had a similar connotation as the modern colloquial term "People from the wrong side of the tracks". At the time of its regular use, "Ibiru" didn't necessarily refer to a particular ethnic group, but to a certain variety of ancient civilization. People called "Ibiru" weren't really seen as being foreigners because they weren't from a particular kingdom or city-state. Many of them were nomadic and tribal. Those people who would eventually become the dominant ethnic group in Canaan were known as being "Ibiru" in the lands in which they previously dwelt.
Ultimately, this sense of the Jewish people being outsiders without necessarily being foreigners has carried throughout Jewish history. It is, for better or worse, an intrinsic part of the Jewish identity. Perhaps this is why Jews have flourished in the United States. Most of the people who came to live here were not natives of the land, so America became a place of outsiders who were all equally foreign.