Originally Posted by
William F. Owen
Jump away. I wish there was more jumping.
Yes, you needed to be literate to study the teachings (and you can study all day, every day for life! It's a job!), but you are reading in Hebrew/"The holy language" -the issues of which are a whole other story.
So yes they were literate but not necessarily in the local language. Having said that, those that could read could probably read most of what was written at the time, so your point is largely correct. Medieval Jews probably had a better command of both written and spoken Latin, than 99% of folks at the time, and when reading the Bible was deliberately limited to just Priests.
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