If you have been keeping up with Jason’s updates here, or on the Patreon, you will notice that he and I have been doing Modern Hebrew together in the 3rd Hour. I thought it might be beneficial for other folks to hear what all we have done and why I started learning modern Hebrew.
The “Why”s and the “Why Not”
First, let’s talk about why I started learning modern Hebrew. The reasons are fourfold.
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- I wanted to know Biblical Hebrew better. I started learning Biblical Hebrew because of my Christian faith. When I started, I took the formal education route (which you can read more about HERE), but was ultimately dissatisfied with my ability. Through different avenues like Biblingo, The Hebrew Cafe YouTube channel, and a slew of other resources I finally made some headway in gaining fluency in Hebrew. Unfortunately, the community of people who are learning Biblical Hebrew with natural language-learning methods is small (but growing). I wanted to have more opportunity to practice, so it seemed natural to jump to the modern dialect of the language to broaden my community.
- It was an easy transition. I had laid all of this ground work learning Biblical Hebrew, and it seemed like an (relatively) easy step to close the gap between the ancient and modern dialects. Looking back from this vantage point, I don’t think I was wrong. I find that the modern dialect is actually easier in some ways. To be clear, the ancient and modern dialects do differ in some substantial ways and there is an initial knowledge gap that I had to bridge. I don’t feel like that bridging process took too long, nor was it too demanding with my Biblical Hebrew background.
- It’s fun! I love learning languages! I have been studying Hebrew (Biblical and Modern), Greek (Ancient), Aramaic (Ancient), German, and most recently Latin. I get a sense of accomplishment from doing it. Plus, it allows me to step into new (or old) places and learn from those contexts. There is also something fun about being able to talk to a particular person or group that others can’t understand. It is like a secret code or an inside joke with your friends.
Background
I started studying biblical Hebrew in my second year of Bible college way back in 1999. So far, it’s been a twenty-seven-year dance with the language and what it presents to us. I’ve loved this language and the texts that have come down to us in it, both from the biblical period and from later periods of history. Almost anyone who sits through one of my live lessons will know that I’m excited about what we find in segolate constructions, in which consonant clusters undergo some type of resolution to create new syllables and to break up the cluster. This is something that I took interest in during that first year of study of BH (Biblical Hebrew) at Ozark Christian College (OCC) under Dr. Larry Pechawer, and every time I get to teach or talk about segolates in class sessions, I might go a bit overboard in my excitement to show just how prevalent this feature of the language’s morphology actually is. It appears everywhere and influences everything in the language. If understanding the use of participles is the key to mastering ancient Greek, then understanding the phenomenon of segolates is the key to unlocking comprehension of Hebrew morphology. I’m convinced of this.
I’ve wondered for a while just how much of the Hebrew Bible (Tanach) I’ve read until now. I’ve started reading programs in the past and read through, perhaps, Leviticus before running out of steam. K’ilu, I’m sure that I’ve read all of the Bible in English several times, but there are definitely parts of the Hebrew text that I’ve never gotten to.
With that in mind, I created a tracker on Excel that I use while reading the Hebrew Bible. Afterwards, I uploaded it to Google Driver and formatted it to match their style. Below is a picture of how it looks for me, with Sefaria on the right and the tracker on the left.
If you’re interested in reading the Bible with this tracker, you can save a copy of your own to Google Drive and begin reading the Hebrew Bible at your pace.
I hope to finish the whole Tanach in 2026. As you can see, I’ve already gotten a good start (21.5% of the chapters in the Bible are done by this point).
Happy reading!
Jason
Jonathan brought to my attention a couple of days ago that we haven’t done any real kind of update about our activities recently. The last post I made about this was back in February. So, I’m going to write really quickly now to let you know what we’ve been doing and working on around here. Also, I’d love it if you gave me some feedback about new things you’d be interested in doing.
It’s been our recent practice to divide our sessions up into “first hour,” “second hour,” and “third hour,” as we do three hours on Monday evenings. These hours are 5:00pm, 6:00pm, and 7:00pm (Eastern US), which correspond to 12:00am, 1:00am, and 2:00am in Israel. I know that this isn’t a convenient time slot for everyone in the world, but I’m not sure what else I can do at this point.
First Hour — Reading Hebrew
Since Simḥaṯ Torah, we’ve been reading through a single aliyah from within Parashat haShavua [פָּרָשַׁת הַשָּׁבוּעַ Pārāšaṯ Haššāḇû(a)ʿ]. Our reading schedule is posted online here.
Second Hour — Translating into Biblical Hebrew
Until now, we’ve been using the second hour to translate from KJV-style English into biblical Hebrew using Weingreen’s Classical Hebrew Composition (Oxford, 1957).
Third Hour — Modern Hebrew (now using Hebrew from Scratch, book 2)
Colton and I have been going through a set of textbooks intended to introduce students to spoken Hebrew. It’s been a great ride, and Colton has made great strides. We’re very willing to review and practice speaking if anyone wants to join us!
Anyone who makes a paid subscription on Patreon can join us on Stream and join the modern Hebrew hour.
To check out our past and upcoming streams, go to The Hebrew Café’s YouTube channel under the Live tab.
Admittedly, I didn’t know the difference between “pictograph” and “pictogram,” so I just asked ChatGPT, and it confirmed to me that I should be using the word “pictograph” throughout my discussion and not “pictogram.” I don’t feel like going back through the posts to change it, so please understand that I mean the use of a written symbol to represent a full word that is supposed to resemble it in drawing. For example, א is supposed to look like an ox head and represent the word אלף elef. I shouldn’t be using the word “pictogram” to describe this.
עִמָּכֶם הַסְּלִיחָה
As we come to the beginning of March, I just wanted to take a few minutes to update you on our YouTube activities and where we are going in the near future.
What’s Staying the Same
We will continue to break up our lessons into “hours” (“First Hour,” “Second Hour,” etc.). I’m not sure on what date the following changes will go into effect, but this is the direction that I’m thinking at this time.
ִApologies for the clickbaity title! I have really enjoyed learning and writing about Second Language Acquisition (SLA) in these blog posts, so I am going to continue to build on one of the concepts from the last one I wrote. One of the language-learning tasks I mentioned in that previous post was fluency development. When we hear the word “fluency,” most of us think of “complete mastery” of some target language. While anyone who has a complete mastery of a language would in fact be fluent, I am not sure such a person exists. Needless to say, there are a few issues I have with this approach to fluency.
The Beginning: 2012-2015
Central to any journey is the motivation to begin. Like many people who study Ancient Hebrew (and Greek), I wanted to learn the scripture better. When I learned that there were other languages behind the English translations, I HAD to find a way to learn them. I loved studying the Bible, and I knew that the languages of the original texts were the gateway to knowing it better. I had taken a particular interest in the Old Testament and then a great fascination with Hebrew was birthed. I am not sure why I preferred the Hebrew Bible, but I definitely did.
College: 2015-2019
Fast Forward to college, I spent my first 2 years of undergrad taking classes about the background and literary features of the Bible, but I still hadn’t learned Hebrew. Then, my academic advisor (Duane Smith) told me he was going to be teaching Hebrew for the first time since I had been a student at the college, I was STOKED. The following three semesters working though Thomas Lambdin’s Introduction to Biblical Hebrew officially began my journey with Hebrew. Though it was frustrating at times, I managed to make it through Lambdin’s exercises. My last semester of college we didn’t have an official class, but I would occasionally get together with Dr. Smith to read Hebrew together, while I tried to keep up on my own.
In our recent YouTube Live session, we delved into the fascinating world of Biblical Hebrew, focusing on two unique types of nouns: segolate and geminate nouns. These concepts are crucial for anyone looking to deepen their understanding of Hebrew grammar.
Segolate Nouns
Segolate nouns are a distinctive category in Biblical Hebrew. They typically have a two-syllable structure with the accent on the first syllable. The name “segolate” comes from the Hebrew word “segol,” which is a vowel sound represented by three dots arranged in a triangle (ֶ). These nouns often undergo vowel changes when they are inflected, making them an interesting study for linguists and language enthusiasts alike.
Geminate Nouns
Geminate nouns, on the other hand, are characterized by having two identical consonants in succession. This doubling of consonants can affect the pronunciation and inflection of the noun. Understanding geminate nouns is essential for proper pronunciation and comprehension of Biblical texts.