How accurate is this film?

I may be wrong, but in the diaspora, before Hebrew was modernized, it was considered too holy to speak as a vernacular, so instead Yiddish was spoken. However, now that there are large Chassidic communities in Israel, where Modern Hebrew is an official language, I am sure that it is permitted to be spoken at any time, in addition to Yiddish.

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a lot of Chasidim speak Yiddish, but these people were just v. orthodox, not necessarily ultra orthodox, i dont think

I think it is pretty accurate. Your Mum raises an interesting point - when I was growing up and attended a fairly ultra-orthodox school people would say that Hebrew is "the holy language" and it was inappropriate to speak Hebrew in a secular context. The sub-text here was ultra-orthodox reservations about the zionist project, specifically the remarkable re-introduction of Hebrew in the modern State of Israel as a spoken language, through the efforts of people such as Ben Yehuda. The move from Yiddish to Hebrew was seen as part of a wider programme to introduce a secular rather than "religious" identity and to reject the values of the ghetto where Yiddish was the primary language

However in my experience this whole issue simply went away over the past 20-30 years and in practice even the ultra-orthodox in Israel increasingly speak modern Hebrew

I am not sure I know exactly why this is - suspect it is a number of factors from pragmatism (it is difficult to live in a country and not speak the language and their Biblical/rabbinic Hebrew will generally be good enough to have a conversation anyway) to softening of the views on zionism (again I think a complicated issue in its own right).

Also bear in mind the main characters of the film are newly orthodox Israeli Jews - their first language is modern Hebrew, and they won't know Yiddish

FYI, some bits of the film are in Yiddish e.g. the early scene where the people are valuing the etrog (citrus fruit) at 1000 shekels

Anyway, just to re-iterate - this film was accurate as far as it goes, which is a small part of the ultra-orthodox world, specifically the views of newly orthodox Breslav Hasidim - this is not representative of ultra-orthodoxy or orthodox Judaism in its entirety

onegilliamfan wrote that his/her "mom says that Orthodox Jews can only speak Hebrew at certain times, and have to speak Yiddish the rest of the time, even though that doesn't happen in the movie. "


Hebrew was revived as a modern, spoken, day-to-day language beginning at the end of the 19th century, primarily through the efforts of a linguist and activist named Eliezer ben Yehuda. Prior to that, it was only used as a language of prayer and study by Jews throughout the world, for about 2000 years and was not the language of daily discourse. Most Jews in Central and Eastern Europe spoke Yiddish (Judaeo-German) , Sephardic Jews in the Balkans spoke Ladiono, (Jewish-Spanish) other groups of Jews in the Middle East spoke various dialects of Arabic, or Jewish-Arabic, or Jewish-Persian, etc. Or Jews simply spoke the dominant language of the countries in which they lived, if they were well-integrated, such as German, French, English, etc. When Ben Yehuda started his project to revive Hebrew as a modern, spoken language, he saw the need to have one common language uniting all these diverse Jewish communities, and the natural choice was Hebrew, because all the Jewish communities the world over had some connection to the ancient Hebrew language. However, many Orthodox Jews were opposed to making what for them was the sacred language of study and prayer into a modern language, saying that it debased and profaned the "holy tongue" by using it to talk about such things as shopping or whatever instead of "spiritual matters". (Ignoring the fact that Bible and Mishna is replete with examples of secular discussions). However, almost all Orthodox Jews living in israel today have dropped their objection to spoken, modern Hebrew. Some in their community preserve their insularity by continuing to speak Yiddish, and this is the case in many Hassidic communities in places like New York, Antwerp or London. One group, the Satmar hassidim,(also known for their extreme anti-Israel views) are known for continuing to insist that it is a sin to use the "holy tongue" as a regular, day-to-day language. They call Israeli Hebrew "chilul lashon kodesh"--descration of the holy language". Also, other very Orthodox Jews draw a distinction between the modern, spoken Israeli Hebrew, and the holy tongue of the Bible(Torah) and prayer, saying that they are in fact two completely separate and different languages.

Thanks for all the enlightening explanations. I'm not Jewish, but I have a long connection to it. I speak just a little Hebrew.

When I've watched Israeli films, the characters playing the Haredim often have an accent that sounds to me like it's tinged with Yiddish.

For instance, "Adonai" was pronounced by at least one or more characters as "Adonoy."

My rabbi calls this the "Ashkenazic" pronounciation implying that the Ashkenazim were primarily Yiddish speakers who make the "ai" or "ay" into "oi." Another example is whether the end of certain words are pronounced with a "t" or an "s." An example would be "tallit" versus "tallis." I didn't catch whether they did the t or s thing in the film.

So is that true that a lot of Haredis speak Hebrew with a Yiddish accent?

One character that I really liked in the film was the man with the money. His Hebrew sounded funny. So did his English. In following the Abraham/Sarah motif, the 2 cons were obviously symbolic angels sent to test them. But I loved the part this angel had to play.

He looked and dressed like a gangster delivery/hit man. "The old man's dead." "What am I going to do with this envelope of money?" He reports to an old man counting money as if that were Meyer Lansky, financier to the old Mob.

The Money man/angel does a secret money drop. And his English language...hmmm...to make him seem like he's out of an American gangster movie? This angel is in a rush because he's going on vacation. But not before he runs a little numbers racket.

By the way, the number he picked was 35. In numerology, which is said to have Jewish roots, adds up to the number 8 which is the number of prosperity and wealth. Of course, basic numerology will tell you that wealth does not necessarily just mean money.

Todah raba, chaverim.

Shmuel