ABSTRACT
The surviving Jewish population mounted a second unsuccessful revolt led by Simeon Bar Kokhba in the years 132-136 CE, with further disastrous consequences. The decimation of the Jewish population that came as a result of these wars with Rome dealt a serious blow to the existence of Hebrew as a spoken language. The era of the great rabbinic works had passed, but Jews began to compose texts on a much more varied range of subjects than had been the case in the rabbinic period. As the memory of Hebrew as an everyday language faded further and further into the past, writers began to compose Hebrew texts using a mixture of linguistic features from both Biblical and Rabbinic Hebrew, combined with influences from their own native languages. A large number of texts were also translated into Hebrew in the medieval period, from languages like Spanish, Italian, Latin, and, especially, Arabic. Jews were especially important as translators in the field of medicine.
