"this Book Tells Two Stories: First, How Hebrew Has Been Used In Jewish Life, From The Israelites To The Ancient Rabbis And Across 2,000 Years Of Nurture, Abandonment, And Renewal, Eventually Given Up By Many For Dead But Improbably Rescued To Become The Everyday Language Of Modern Israel. Second, It Tells The Story Of How Jews-and Christians-have Perceived Hebrew, And Invested It With A Symbolic Power Far Beyond Normal Language"--ecip Introduction.