It's All Hebrew to Me!

It’s All Hebrew to Me

One of the classes I am preparing to take is Hebrew. In order to fulfill the requirements of the Ph.D. program, every student has to have already taken both Greek and Hebrew (Fortunately, I took Greek as both an undergrad and in my Masters Degree program and have completed that requirement). In addition, everyone has to take another research language or two. But for now, my focus is Hebrew. Let me tell you a little bit about Hebrew, assuming most who read this have not had their bar mitzvah or chosen to study Hebrew on their own. Here goes:
As with any language study, you begin with the alphabet. The first thing that grabs you is the similarity of some of the letters. For instance, there are at least six different letters that are variations on the letter 7. Depending on how long the top line is or how straight the down stroke is or how long the down stroke is (combined with how long the upper stroke is) you get different letters. Five letters are written differently if they are at the end of the word. Several letters (called Begadkephat Letters) are pronounced differently depending on whether they have a dot in the middle of them or not (Begadkephat is a is a mnemonic device standing for the letters b, g, d, k, p, and t). Hebrew has no numbers so their alphabet stands for their numerical system as well. The first 9 consonants stand for numbers 1-9, the next 9 serve as 10-90, and the final 4 represent numbers 100-400. Sound confusing? By the way, did I mention that Hebrew is written from right to left – not left to right?
How do you learn this kind of stuff? Well, the first thing you have to do is suspend what you know and how you operate in English and realize that things are different in Hebrew. When I write, I have begun writing everything from right to left in my Hebrew studies. I want that to become normal for me. I am adjusting.
Second, don’t panic when things are different. For instance, a and b look a lot alike. So do b, d, g and p; how about n and m; try o and p – it’s just a line different. And in English, we have not 26 letters to memorize but 52. After all, a capital A and a lower case a are not very similar if you think of it. And how does someone tell the difference between a capital I and a lower case i? So, if you have mastered English, Hebrew may not be that hard. It’s all in your approach, in your attitude.
So many people have heard about the language study or going back into the classroom that I am attempting to do and have said things like, “I’m glad it’s you and not me” or “I couldn’t do that”. Such statements are often discouraging rather than uplifting. I have also concluded that language study like anything else is a matter of attitude not aptitude. For years I avoided the issue of language study because I did so poorly at it during my high school years. Well, I did poorly at a lot of things in high school that I have become quite adept at in my adult years (driving, egotism, and wisdom come to mind). I am convinced that learning at whatever level is a matter of attitude. If you are excited about learning, you will learn. If you are unsure about it, you will struggle. It’s like my Little League coach told us, “If you think you are going to strike out, you probably will”.
What challenge are you facing? What struggle do you have to overcome? While it might not solve every problem, remember this – your attitude determines your altitude. How high you go in life is determined by how your attitude is towards the challenge before you. Faith, it is said, is the ability to look at a problem and believe that God is bigger than the problem and that he is willing to help you overcome the challenge. I believe that. By the way, have I mentioned that all the vowels in Hebrew were added later and that, therefore, they are a series of dots rather than characters above or below the consonant? Sounds challenging. How exciting!