The International Book Fair Discusses “The Hebrew Tributary and the Moroccan Identity”
On the 5th of June, Shalleh Hall hosted, within the framework of the International Book Fair’s workshops, a session on “The Hebrew Tributary and the Moroccan Identity”, in which Professors Amin Al-Kohen, Idris Obeiza, Muhammad Barras participated, and moderated by Muhammad Al-Madlawi.
Among the most important points that came in the presentation of Professor Muhammad al-Madlawi, which delved into defining the concept of the Hebrew tributary, and he listed them as follows:
1-A new name for an old concept
The term “Hebrew Tributary” is a term introduced by the text of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Morocco-2011 in its export, which is part of it. However, its concept is older than that, as it gradually crystallized in the paints about four decades ago, thanks to the beginning of the possession of the main instrument necessary to access its aspects and contents, that is, the Hebrew language , language and letter. The pioneer of dusting off oblivion about these aspects and contents was a member of the Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco, the late Haim Zaafrani, through his prolific writings that spanned nearly three decades. Works that paved the way for raising more knowledge questions related to that “tributary” and contributed mainly to the years of their completion in forming a group of academic researchers who mastered the Hebrew language machine and taught it in turn at the Moroccan University.
Thanks to the accumulation of knowledge through the work of these generations, Moroccan thought gradually restored to the realm of awareness the features of a huge stock of knowledge from which the support of science was cut off because of the barrier of its language (the Hebrew language) or because of the barrier of a mere letter of its writing (the Hebrew letter). A huge stock of aspects of science (language sciences and linguistics in particular, as well as history and restrictions on virtues and annals), culture and literature (from prose, poetry, zajal/melody poems, high-level contemporary utopias, and journalism), philosophy, mysticism, customs, and tangible and intangible heritage . I say, “ Just the letter.”“Since a huge amount of this literature is not Hebrew in its pronunciation, but rather it was in different languages, including classical Arabic, and among them is also what is in Judaized colloquial Arabic or Judaized Amazigh, but it is written in the Hebrew letter modified with some appropriate diphthongs according to the phonetic system of each of those languages.
2-The need to expand the concept and the problems of dealing with it
Today, the term “Hebrew Tributary” is in need of expanding its concept to include academic and cognitive care in all aspects of its manifestation. It remained for about three decades as a mere marginal appendix to the literary studies of the northern enemy of the space of the “Islamic West”, that is, Andalusian studies, while its aspects in its main pole and the space of its historical continuity to today, i.e. Morocco, have remained cared for until the last decade, especially on the sidelines. Only in this last decade did he begin to explore aspects of what became known as “ Hebrew-speaking Moroccan literature ”, through translations of a series of contemporary Hebrew-language stories and novels whose structure frames the Moroccan space, personalities, customs (cuisine, colors, dress, events), cities, villages and culture. Morocco in general.
Among the manifestations of what threatens the essence of many aspects of innovation in general , there is the phenomenon of the festive rush (folklorisme) , which rides the wave of various circumstantial slogans . It should be recalled here that what was mentioned a short while ago was accomplished in the chapter on knowledge of the “Hebrew tributary” and its definition was accomplished in hardship and in the narrow and isolated conditions of well-known socio-professional , due to what was predominantly the collective thought in Morocco, to the extent that many Those who were “involved” in that field were forced professionally to wear various colors of the cloaks of taqiyya, whose dangers, for some, are the end of the normalization of initiation by transforming into a final, stable nature.
And if the matter was as mentioned in this last paragraph, the circumstantial change in recent years has resulted in the predominance of willful ceremonialism among other people at all levels and platforms, so socio-communicative frameworks have been developed / improvised , which have been multiplying.
Celebration is a natural and legitimate thing in this section and in others. But it is a delinquency that, by virtue of its logic, involves the scourge of the possibility of substituting for the essence , that is, the essence of knowing and introducing the Hebrew tributary. This potential trend is counterproductive (contre-productive) at all levels in the medium and long term, including the situational level , which is its engine.
The essence of the “Hebrew tributary” cannot be accessed through the gateway to revitalizing the occasional festivities , not even through the accumulation of “academic reports and reviews” (“It was and it was”, “His life and poetry”, “Influence and impact”…). It can only be accessed through the problematic approach of the subject (problématisation du sujet), that is, making the subject at every stage and time arousing new epistemological questions instead of selective flirting with circumstantial appropriate slogans. There are many problems with the subject of “the Hebrew tributary”, and I will limit them, for the sake of concluding, to one aspect, which is the aspect of ownership stakes .. Perhaps everyone notices today the raging wars that own the various aspects of tangible and intangible heritage and even the ownership of history from the premises of modern national entities. The Hebrew-Moroccan tributary is no exception in this regard, and there are many parties to its dispute. Since this presentation began with a statement of the decisive role of possessing linguistic tools in recovering and appropriating this identity dimension, no one is ignorant that there is a blatant imbalance between the parties that dispute the recovery and appropriation of this dimension in terms of possessing the necessary linguistic tools for that. There are parties that possess the necessary languages, foremost of which is the Hebrew language (in addition to international languages) and add to it knowledge of Arabic, Darija, and Amazigh in a way that enables the concerned researcher (writer, semiologist, ethnographer, anthropologist, journalist, political scientist, …) to dive into his field of research like a fish, while remaining Another party is short or no linguistic machine. And in that there is a great imbalance that has its consequences.
3-A relevant previous article (an article in French with a link to a formula in Arabic at the beginning)
“Recovering aspects of the Hebrew tributary in Moroccan culture to awareness” - January 2021
https://orbinah.blog4ever.com/en-francais-avec-un-lien-vers-une-version-en-arabe-de-la-reappropriation-consciente-de-l-affluent-hebraique-de-la- culture-morocco
Muhammad Al-Madlawi
Source : websites