Hebrew-Russian?

Is Hebrew the root of all languages? There are those who say it is.

Did everyone speak Hebrew before the world was punished when the Tower of Babel was built early in the Biblical narrative? The punishment was that everyone would speak a different language and be unable to conspire.

Linguists discuss and debate the various linguistic similarities in languages that have nothing in common.

A few weeks ago, I paid a "shiva call"* to a neighbor whose father had just passed away. This neighbor immigrated to Israel from the former USSR around 15 years ago and moved to Shiloh a short time later. Most of us in the living room were either native Russian or English speakers who had moved to Israel as adults. One of the Americans told of his great-uncle, a family legend, who had been a Cossack in his native Russia. That became the topic of interest for a few minutes, and I changed the subject when I noticed something very interesting.

The Russian speakers pronounced "Cossack" as "chazzak," the Hebrew word for strong. I asked if anyone knew if the words were related, and we began a little linguistic discussion. They admitted at never thinking about it and didn't know.

Does anyone know?

*condolence call