diff --git a/engine/pom.xml b/engine/pom.xml
index ccd16e6d46..4a6b79ff55 100644
--- a/engine/pom.xml
+++ b/engine/pom.xml
@@ -52,11 +52,6 @@
         <!--
         Provided dependencies
         -->
-        <dependency>
-            <groupId>org.glassfish</groupId>
-            <artifactId>jakarta.el</artifactId>
-            <scope>provided</scope>
-        </dependency>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>org.jboss.logging</groupId>
             <artifactId>jboss-logging-processor</artifactId>
@@ -79,6 +74,11 @@
         <!--
         Optional dependencies
         -->
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>jakarta.el</groupId>
+            <artifactId>jakarta.el-api</artifactId>
+            <optional>true</optional>
+        </dependency>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>jakarta.persistence</groupId>
             <artifactId>jakarta.persistence-api</artifactId>
@@ -115,6 +115,11 @@
         <!--
         Test dependencies
         -->
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>org.glassfish</groupId>
+            <artifactId>jakarta.el</artifactId>
+            <scope>test</scope>
+        </dependency>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>org.testng</groupId>
             <artifactId>testng</artifactId>
diff --git a/engine/src/main/java/org/hibernate/validator/messageinterpolation/ResourceBundleMessageInterpolator.java b/engine/src/main/java/org/hibernate/validator/messageinterpolation/ResourceBundleMessageInterpolator.java
index b7164aa1a8..9bf4cbba49 100644
--- a/engine/src/main/java/org/hibernate/validator/messageinterpolation/ResourceBundleMessageInterpolator.java
+++ b/engine/src/main/java/org/hibernate/validator/messageinterpolation/ResourceBundleMessageInterpolator.java
@@ -7,6 +7,9 @@
 package org.hibernate.validator.messageinterpolation;
 
 import java.lang.invoke.MethodHandles;
+import java.lang.reflect.Array;
+import java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException;
+import java.lang.reflect.Method;
 import java.security.AccessController;
 import java.security.PrivilegedAction;
 import java.util.Collections;
@@ -24,8 +27,6 @@
 import org.hibernate.validator.spi.messageinterpolation.LocaleResolver;
 import org.hibernate.validator.spi.resourceloading.ResourceBundleLocator;
 
-import com.sun.el.ExpressionFactoryImpl;
-
 import jakarta.el.ELManager;
 import jakarta.el.ExpressionFactory;
 
@@ -200,7 +201,10 @@ private static ExpressionFactory buildExpressionFactory() {
 
 			// Finally we try the CL of the EL implementation itself. This is necessary for OSGi now that the
 			// implementation is separated from the API.
-			run( SetContextClassLoader.action( ExpressionFactoryImpl.class.getClassLoader() ) );
+			// Instead of running this:
+			// run( SetContextClassLoader.action( ExpressionFactoryImpl.class.getClassLoader() ) );
+			// we do some reflection "magic" to not have a dependency on an implementation of the expression language:
+			run( SetContextClassLoader.action( classLoaderForExpressionFactory( originalContextClassLoader ) ) );
 			if ( canLoadExpressionFactory() ) {
 				ExpressionFactory expressionFactory = ELManager.getExpressionFactory();
 				LOG.debug( "Loaded expression factory via com.sun.el classloader" );
@@ -218,6 +222,33 @@ private static ExpressionFactory buildExpressionFactory() {
 		throw LOG.getUnableToInitializeELExpressionFactoryException( null );
 	}
 
+	private static ClassLoader classLoaderForExpressionFactory(ClassLoader cl) throws Exception {
+		try {
+			Class<?> fu = cl.loadClass( "org.osgi.framework.FrameworkUtil" );
+			Method getBundle = fu.getMethod( "getBundle", Class.class );
+			Object currentBundle = getBundle.invoke( null, ResourceBundleMessageInterpolator.class );
+			if ( currentBundle != null ) {
+				Object context = cl.loadClass( "org.osgi.framework.Bundle" ).getMethod( "getBundleContext" ).invoke( currentBundle );
+				Object bundles = cl.loadClass( "org.osgi.framework.BundleContext" ).getMethod( "getBundles" ).invoke( context );
+				Method loadClass = cl.loadClass( "org.osgi.framework.Bundle" ).getMethod( "loadClass", String.class );
+				int n = Array.getLength( bundles );
+				for ( int i = 0; i < n; i++ ) {
+					try {
+						Object bundle = Array.get( bundles, i );
+						return ( (Class<?>) loadClass.invoke( bundle, "com.sun.el.ExpressionFactoryImpl" ) ).getClassLoader();
+					}
+					catch (Exception e) {
+						//
+					}
+				}
+			}
+		}
+		catch (ClassNotFoundException | NoSuchMethodException | IllegalAccessException | InvocationTargetException e) {
+			throw e;
+		}
+		return null;
+	}
+
 	/**
 	 * Instead of testing the different class loaders via {@link ELManager}, we directly access the
 	 * {@link ExpressionFactory}. This avoids issues with loading the {@code ELUtil} class (used by {@code ELManager})
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 01bebc13a4..03df29830e 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -390,6 +390,11 @@
                 <artifactId>jakarta.el</artifactId>
                 <version>${version.org.glassfish.jakarta.el}</version>
             </dependency>
+            <dependency>
+                <groupId>jakarta.el</groupId>
+                <artifactId>jakarta.el-api</artifactId>
+                <version>${version.jakarta.el-api}</version>
+            </dependency>
             <dependency>
                 <groupId>com.fasterxml</groupId>
                 <artifactId>classmate</artifactId>