Hebrew language debate the degree to which Hebrew was a spoken vernacular in ancient times following the Babylonian exile, when the predominant international language in the region was Old Aramaic. Hebrew was extinct as a colloquial language by Late Antiquity, but it continued to be used as a literary language and as the liturgical language of Judaism, evolving various dialects of literary Medieval Hebrew, until its revival as a spoken language in the late 19th century. In July 2008 Israeli archaeologist Yossi Garfinkel discovered a ceramic shard at Khirbet Qeiyafa which he claimed may be the earliest Hebrew writing yet discovered, dating
The Talmud: The Steinsaltz Edition the page. The margins contain the standard Rashi and tosafot commentaries, as well as Steinsaltz's own translation of the Talmud text into modern Hebrew with his elucidation. Steinsaltz has also recently published an electronic version of the Hebrew edition on DVD. Jacob Neusner's "How Adin Steinsaltz Misrepresents the Talmud. Four False Propositions from his "Reference Guide"" (1998) displays strong disagreement. Talmudic researcher and lecturer Aharon Feldman penned a lengthy critical review of the Steinsaltz Talmud. Among many criticisms, he writes "Specifically, the work is marred by an extraordinary number of inaccuracies stemming primarily from misreadings of the sources; it fails