Endpage Composed in the Ladino of My Hea
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Dreams whisper in Ladino, a Judeo-Spanish language I never actively learned yet cannot forget. Through lyrical introspection and phenomenological analysis, I explore how this "concoction of Spanish and Hebrew" from my childhood manifests in contemporary consciousness, emerging unbidden in nighttime visions and emotional resonance. Imagined dialogues with Maimonides and Joseph Caro serve as methodological anchors, illuminating how historical languages transcend their role as mere communication tools to become vessels of cultural memory and identity. The investigation reveals how dormant linguistic knowledge resurfaces through unconscious processes, creating what I term "the language I don't speak" - a paradoxical yet profound connection to ancestral heritage. This phenomenological journey demonstrates that Ladino functions not only as a historical linguistic system but as a metaphorical bridge spanning diaspora experiences across time and geography. The findings suggest that Sephardic cultural memory, embodied in Ladino, transcends active linguistic competence, connecting modern speakers to ancestral experiences of scholarship, exile, and spiritual questioning even when the language itself lies dormant.

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Published 2001
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Ira Stone