Q:
When the daughter of Pharaoh found Moshe, she said, “מילדי העברים זה.” What’s the difference between Ivrim and Yehudim?
A:
The word Yehudim was not in use at that time. When the daughter of Pharaoh found, encountered Moshe floating in the river, she said, “מילדי העברים זה.” She couldn’t have said Yehudim because even the Bnei Yisroel did not call themselves Yehudim at that time. But the question is, why didn’t she say, “מילדי ישראל זה”? That’s a question.
And the answer is, Yisroel was a name that wasn’t known to the gentiles and even had it been known, they wouldn’t use it. Yisroel is a title. It’s the recognition of a chosen people. That’s what Yisroel means. You’re going to win. Yisroel, ki sirisa, you’ll win.
And therefore, even if the goyim would have known about that name, they wouldn’t bother to call us that name. But Ivrim refers to all those who came from ever hanahar, they originated from the other side of the Euphrates. And that’s why the gentiles prefer to call us Ivrim. All the places in Tanach where goyim call us by name, they speak of Ivrim, not Yisroel.
We, however, shouldn’t use the word Ivrim. The word Hebrew was first used in America when the immigrants came over and they wanted to find favor in the eyes of the gentiles, so they identified themselves with the Hebrews of the Bible. But actually, it’s derogatory to us to say Hebrew because Hebrew doesn’t refer to the Jewish people. It refers to all the tribes, all the nations that originated from m’ever nahar Pros.
But Yisroel, that’s what we are, we’re Yisroel and we’re Yehudim. That’s why we don’t use the word Hebrew among frum Jews. You don’t talk Hebrew, you talk Loshon Kodesh. You’re not a Hebrew congregation; you’re a Jewish congregation and so on. The word Hebrew has been dropped by the Orthodox of today.
(March 1979)
