Hebrew Language Expressions, Phrases, and Terms in Ulysses

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• Hebrew Language Expressions, Phrases, and Terms in Ulysses
• Andrei Herzlinger (bio)

James Joyce, born and raised in Ireland, lived and worked for most of his creative life in Austro-Hungary, Switzerland, Italy, and France—all countries where English is not the native language. Knowing this, we are not surprised that Joyce skillfully uses words from other languages in Ulysses.¹ But Hebrew? Leopold Bloom is half-Jewish, and maybe Molly is too, so there is a good reason to assume that Hebrew words appear in the novel. In the end, however, a reader whose mother tongue is modern Hebrew, who was raised in Hebrew, and who has enough knowledge of the English language to read Ulysses from cover to cover will be left wondering how much Hebrew Joyce actually knew.

Modern spoken Hebrew began to be used in Palestine on a large scale between 1904 and 1914, the same period during which Joyce started the work on Ulysses.² Joyce lived in Trieste from 1904, working as an English teacher at a Berlitz School. Trieste was a polyglot port city where Italian, German, Hungarian, Slavic, Yiddish, and many other languages were used. One of Joyce’s English students there from 1912 to 1915 was Moses Dlugacz, an ardent Zionist who was well known for his efforts to promote the teaching of Hebrew. It is possible that Dluglacz was one of the sources for Joyce’s knowledge and understanding of the Hebrew words and expressions embedded in the text of Ulysses. It is also possible that, while being taught religion in Dublin at the end of the nineteenth century, Joyce learned Biblical Hebrew. According to Ira B. Nadel, Joyce “may have also studied Hebrew.”³

The following lexicographic list of Hebrew language expressions, phrases, and terms found in Ulysses may be useful for anyone trying to assess Joyce’s Hebrew language proficiency. A reader of Ulysses who is familiar with the Hebrew language will easily identify many of these words. The aim of this short note is to present only the expressions, phrases, and terms containing more than one word.

The quotations from the Old Testament are copied from the original Hebrew text.⁴ The Hebrew transcript uses Latin characters. Most expressions appear only once in the novel and are generally in [End Page 585] “Circe”; the exception is “Shema Israel” that also appears in “Aeolus,” though in a truncated form (U 7.209, 15.3228). A reader familiar with Hebrew may recognize common words such as Echad, Adonai, ani, Schorach, melek, Israel, Mahar, shalal, harimon, rakatech, and Shira and can make an educated guess about their source. If the reader has a background in religious education and attends Shabbat services, he or she is probably familiar with these expressions.

All the articulations, except for “Mahar shalal hashbaz” (U 15.4618–19), appear in contexts relevant to the Jews. “Shema Israel” is chanted by the circumcised, who cast Dead Sea fruit at Bloom, or is recalled by Bloom as he watches the typesetter reading “backwards first” (U 7.205). Bloom is surprised by the Jewishness of Zoe, the “young whore,” but not by her knowledge of the song, and is fascinated, stating “I thought you were of good stock by your accent” (U 15.1279, 1336). It is therefore not surprising that she is familiar with the words of the Biblical song.

“Shema Israel Adonai Elohenu Adonai Echad”

(U 15.3228)

“Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one.” Deuteronomy 6:04

“All that long business about that brought us out of the land of Egypt and into the house of bondage alleluia. Shema Israel Adonai Elohenu. No, that’s the other”

(U 7.208–10).

THE CIRCUMCISED

“(in dark guttural chant as they cast dead sea fruit upon him, no flowers) Shema Israel Adonai Elohenu Adonai Echad”

(U 15.3226–28).

This is the first line of the Jewish confession of faith in one God. It appears in a truncated way among memories about Bloom’s father as they resurface while watching the typesetter at work. It is also chanted at the wailing wall by eight circumcised, dark-shawled figures bearing Jewish names and led by...