יָצָ֫אנוּ לַדֶּ֫רֶךְ!
Jonathan and I sat down this morning to begin to lay out a new site for the Hebrew Café. It’s been a while since the last major site update, and with the COVID-19 pandemic having put me out of work and having some extra time on my hands, I figured it was as good a time as any to build a new site and to have Jonathan work with me so that it isn’t a solo project.
What can you expect from the new site?
We will be using the site as a springboard to connect you with everything that the Hebrew Café has going on. You might not know it, but over the past several months we’ve been doing a college-level study of biblical Hebrew using the brand new textbook set Learning Biblical Hebrew by Karl Kutz & Rebekah Josberger (here are the grammar and workbook on Amazon). We’ve had a core group of three students who have stuck it out with me over about twenty weeks of lessons, which we have recorded and uploaded to the new YouTube channel (@thehebrewcafe). As I make this post, our students are studying for their final exam and getting ready to start their second course, which will bring them to the end of the textbooks!
When I announced the course, I invited people to join my last free Hebrew course. Hence, the need for a rebuilt and better functioning website for the Hebrew Café. On this site, you will find our blog (which we’re just beginning) that will contain nuggets of information about the Hebrew text that we’re reading together online. Jonathan and I have been reading through books of the Bible together, and sometimes we come across things that we’d like to share or look further into, and this blog will give us the space to do that in. Additionally, we will use the site to give information about current and upcoming courses, as well as pricing information.
Lessons for Pay? Mah pit’om!
As much as I enjoy teaching and love spreading the knowledge of the Hebrew language, the realities of life are what they are, and the Coronavirus has put us all in an awkward position. I believe in what we are doing here at the Hebrew Café, and I know that people pay lots of money to learn Hebrew—and we have given our lessons out for free for a long time. We’ve come to the point where we are offering our last set of lessons for free. The students who are currently enrolled in HE101 Beginning Biblical Hebrew will be asked to continue to HE102 without payment, but from this point on lessons will be given at a fee.
Jonathan and I are still talking about the details of the site and our intentions/hopes for it. We’ll keep you updated as we move forward with further plans.