Here is an introduction to learning Hebrew posted by Roger Eden of the British Community for Humanistic Judaism. ........................................................................ Date: Tue, 9 Jan 1996 18:39:10 GMT From: Roger Eden To: hj@teleport.com Subject: HJ/ Hebrew, unavoidable fun, you can do it Mike! Hi, Mike Prival and others who find it difficult to learn Hebrew; if we could have one a hour a day for two weeks, you'd be holding a conversation at the end. We don't all have to speak it, but we can't avoid the centrality of Hebrew for the Jews, and now, it's ascendancy over other language dialects such as Yiddish and Ladino. It's an amazing language, easy as long as you know some simple concepts. Let me share some with you. Like all Semitic languages, Hebrew is based on root ideas, almost all of which have three letters. So the root for the idea of books is -s-f-r- and all words to do with books come from this root: Sefer Book Sofer Writer Sifriah Library Ani Mesaper.. I tell you... Sippur Story Note five different words in English, but in Hebrew all from the same root. Another example from a similar idea of writing which is based on the root letters of -c-t-v- Ani cotev I write michtav letter michtaviah writing desk or case ktubah contract (i.e. the marriage contract) The second concept is that the sound tells you what sort of word it is, I had never heard of michtaviah, but there is a series of words that end like that which tend to be - the place where that idea happens, so knowing sifriah (where books are) I had a good idea of what michtaviah meant. Hebrew has a lot of meaning in sounds, all words to do with disabilities end with the same sound: ilem dumb iver blind megamgem stammer (this one is onomatopoeic) The word for two is - shtayim, and everything in pairs ends in ayim: ayin eye eynayim eyes ozen ear oznayim ? michnas trouser (in US - pants?) michnasayim ? Its from this that stems the wicked Christian idea that Jews have horns. In Hebrew rays (of light or sunshine) and horns of an animal come from the same root -k-r-n-, but when its a pair (karnayim) it's horns, otherwise it's obviously rays of light. However many early English translations of Exodus (Ch 34 para 30) talk of Moses having horns (of light) - from the Hebrew - keren or panav - which really means light radiated from his face. In summary, Hebrew has a unique cadence, which helps understanding, and it's very concise. Usually English uses twice the number of words to say the same thing- In the beginning God created - Breshit Bara Elohim. Would you want a second lesson, or have I bored you rotten? Roger Eden, British Community for HJ eden@siftac.easynet.co.uk Date: Sat, 13 Jan 1996 10:08:18 GMT From: Roger Eden To: hj@teleport.com Subject: HJ/ Easy anecdotes about Hebrew, No. 2 Thanks for the welcome praise, and Mike (and others) don't work at it, just enjoy. If you remember the anecdotes, you might remember the language. I'll try to keep this up, one lesson every few weeks. In the meantime if you find the Hebrew News pages on the Web from Hebrew University, you can download a font called Web Hebrew, which has English and Hebrew combined in the one font. Then I could print the words in Hebrew and the text in English - our e-mail could then include Hebrew. It would also be useful for Mike's Jinglish, although as a Hebrew speaker, I don't think that Hebrew is really replaceable. Hebrew is not encumbered with lots of little words like is, to, from, the. They are simple additions at the beginning or end of a word. Bits at the beginning of words: Ha The Le to Mi From beh in Bits to tag on the end: ah towards i mine o his The last two are simply the ends of: ani I hoo him A simple example of adding at the front and back: bayit house habayitah (roughly translates as - gee, lets go home!) You may know of some of the Youth Movements: Hashomer Hatzair The Young Watchman (a left wing movement associates with the Mapam Party, and once the largest in Eastern Europe, named after the first Jewish Defence organisation of modern times - Hashomer of 19th Century Palestine) Habonim The Builders (not so left wing, nor so secular) Bnei Akivah Sons of Akivah (a religious-Zionist movement) Note the use of -ha- in the first two. Also if we take Habonim we can also make other words: Ani boneh I build mivneh a building (remember michtav - a letter?) bniah construction work (remember sifriah - a library, michtaviah - a desk?) >From Bnei Akivah I can say: ben son bni my son bno his son We are probably all familiar with -ben- (son), put it in front of a name and it becomes -son of-. The Hebrew for man, gentleman, all of us, is benadam (son of Adam). Interesting that Christianity has also misinterpreted this phrase as -The Son of Man- an unusual phrase, which when we hear it we all know that they refer to a Jewish maverick preacher named Jesus. Aside form the fact that -The- would be very unusual in such a phrase, the original Hebrew literally means son of Adam, something which we all are. So the biblical predictions for a messiah refer to the very opposite of the Christian understanding, i.e. that he would be an ordinary mortal (son of Adam) rather than the mistranslation of Son of Man. The mistranslation is not used by Jesus, nor does it appear in the Synoptic Gospels. So it's a later addition. Prof. Vermez at Cambridge also points out that in the spoken language of the time - Aramaic - one would often use the phrase Bar Nasha - this son of a woman, as a means of humble speech as in -one would think- rather than -I think, e.g. this son of a women thinks. But back to Hebrew! At the end of the last lesson I quoted the Hebrew: Breshit Bara Elohim, the opening words of Genesis, the first book of the bible. All the books and prayers of the bible are known in Hebrew by their opening word or phrase, so Genesis has the Hebrew name of Breshit. Sorry to go on about Christianity, but they also claim as proof of Jesus divinity his dying words -Father why have you forsaken me-, which of course is the name (and therefore opening phrase) of what we call in English Psalm 22. This itself was an ancient Jewish Prayer at the time, and would be in keeping for observant Jews to quote when facing death. Jesus was born, lived and died an observant Jew. Rosh is head (on your shoulders!). Hence a New Moon (and start of the month) is Rosh Chodesh. Chodesh (month) comes from the same root as Chadash (new). Putting beh in front of Rosh (see above, bits you add!) is like adding -in- to any word so it becomes - In the beginning - Breshit. You can't hold a conversation yet, but maybe you can talk meaningfully in English about some aspects of Hebrew, you might also have learnt 2- 3 dozen words, and after only two short lessons! Roger Eden, British Community for HJ eden@siftac.easynet.co.uk