Lesson 1 | Letters
Our Learning Approach
Children learn languages far better than adults. Conventional wisdom suggests this is a result of possessing more youthful brains. That probably is part of it. But I would suggest a far greater factor is how children typically go about their language learning.
Being an immigrant to Israel (until returning to the US a few years ago) with children, I have first-hand knowledge on this point. Consider one snapshot in time from several years ago. My third child was 4 years old and did not speak Hebrew much at all. While we certainly made efforts to teach her, the fact was that she was still at home during the day where we primarily spoke English. My oldest child was 7 years old at the time and in third grade. He was fluent in Hebrew, though not nearly as comfortable as in English. The reason was that he spoke English with all his closest friends. However, my second child was only in first grade but spoke excellent Hebrew. The reason: she spoke and heard it all the time, both at school and with friends.
Adults rarely learn a language this way. Instead of living in the language, adults typically try to acquire a language through focused study alone. Don’t get me wrong, there is a place for focused study. But the far more significant factor is the time you spend soaking in the language.
But how can you soak in Hebrew if you don’t live in Israel? Answer: worship with those who do.
This answer, of course, is predicated on the assumption you love to worship God in song, and that you love his word. Assuming these things to be true, it is a small and joyful step to learn to love worshipping via songs that use the original language of the Bible. All you need are a few helps. For that reason, this course is dedicated to teaching Hebrew through worship songs whose lyrics are direct quotations from the תנ״ך (OT). And the goal is that you will not only learn from these songs, but that you will love them. And as you do, the Hebrew scriptures will seep into your bones.
Grammar essentials
Yes, you will still need to spend focused time in studying grammar and memorizing vocabulary, but not as grammarians who love grammar for grammar's sake. Our approach will be to learn what is needed to get you reading (and singing), leaving out what can wait until later.
Instead of memorizing endless paradigms, we will bank on the intuitive part of our brains. To illustrate, consider the word “do” in English. How do you decide when is appropriate to use the word “do?” Do you think you could produce a valid set of rules or paradigms that would answer this question? Probably not. Yet, you do use the word “do” quite often and, if you are a native English speaker, you can spot a misuse of it instantly. The reason is that we do not speak, read, and understand language naturally via paradigms and rules, but through extensive exposure.
“But I am not a native Hebrew speaker,” you may contend. True, but non-native English speakers can master “do” as well. They do so by living in English far more than through academic study (though academic study has its place). And the more you surround yourself with Hebrew worship and reading, the more you will master it, with the academic study of grammar essentials as an accompaniment.
This is one of the reasons that we also will be simplifying certain aspects of Biblical Hebrew for this course, much in the way that Modern Hebrew does. This includes vowel distinctions, cantillation marks (except for a few), doubled letters, and more. Doing so, we will be skipping over quite a few pages in your typical Biblical Hebrew grammar book and get to reading the text far more readily. The other reason for this simplification is that all these details are actually not original, but were added centuries later by Masoretic scribes. They can certainly be helpful once you have learned them, but they can also be cumbersome to learn and our priority lies in immersing ourselves in the text itself.
Vocab lessons
We have structured our Hebrew courses to switch between grammar lessons and vocab lessons. Each of these is challenging in its own way—but the challenge is very different between them. Some students will find the grammar lessons easy and memorizing vocabulary difficult. Others will feel the opposite. Either way, switching off will help all students get a break from whichever of the two is hardest for them, and also allow time for previous content to sink in.
No transliteration
Finally, you will not spend much time learning conventions for transliteration in this course. Transliteration is where the pronunciation of words is written in different characters. In our case, it would be writing the Hebrew pronunciation of words in English letters (i.e. using the Latin alphabet). You will do so in Lessons 1-2 before you learn vowels, but not in the remainder of the course, because we want to press you to master the Hebrew script.
Furthermore, English words derived from Hebrew (i.e. names, etc.) will often appear in Hebrew throughout this course. Again, this is for your benefit, so that as you meet them in the text of the תנ״ך, you will know them without hesitation.
That's the plan. Ready to get started?