Biblical Hebrew: Learning a Sacred Language

Using the word "hallelujah" as a gateway to exploring the three different components of the Biblical Hebrew writing system; starting to learn Hebrew the natural way with a look at Genesis 1:3 and the first thing God does in creating heaven and Earth.

Getting to know the letters of the Hebrew alphabet; how Biblical Hebrew is pronounced; surprises include the silent letter aleph, the tricky letter samekh that resembles an "o" but sounds like an "s", and nearly identical pairs of letters.

The Tiberian system of marking vowels in Hebrew is used exclusively for more than 1,000 years; discovering the signs that mark short and long vowels; learning how vowels can change their spelling without changing their meaning.

Every Hebrew verb, and almost every noun and adjective, is based on a root of a group of consonants; Professor Carasik teaches how to begin recognizing the roots of verbs in Biblical Hebrew; discussing how God is referred to in the Hebrew Bible.

An introduction to the five different Hebrew verb forms, which include finite and infinitive; three ways of identifying something as definite, which are by using the definite article ha, by labeling it with a personal pronoun and by naming it.

Exploring three Hebrew letters that attach to the beginning of other words to create a new word; reading one's first complete paragraph in Biblical Hebrew from start to finish, which is the story of the first day of creation in Genesis 1:1-5.

Hebrew adjectives have four forms; they must agree with their nouns based on whether they are singular, plural, masculine or feminine; the four forms of adjectives; learning several adjectives; two ways to put nouns and adjectives together.

Sometimes, it is the simpler nouns that are the most surprising; examining several of the most common non-obvious nouns and adjectives in Biblical Hebrew; these include family names as well as "this" and "these".

Hebrew has a ton of different pronouns; getting an introduction to pronouns like "I" and "we"; three different flavors of pronominal suffixes; practicing one's new skills with a Bible verse describing the fourth day of creation.

What different letters do differently; a comprehensive look at the different ways Hebrew letters behave; deciphering words in Biblical Hebrew that one does not already recognize; guttural letters in the Hebrew language; roots that start with yud.

Focusing on two of the five forms of Biblical Hebrew verbs, which are the perfect and the imperfect; the perfect is always marked by endings; the imperfect, however, is marked by prefix letters of aleph, nun, tav and yud.

Turning to segholate nouns, which feature seghols; looking at segholate nouns in real Hebrew phrases from the Bible; getting more comfortable with what Professor Carasik calls the "EH-eh rhythm"; the various grammatical forms that use the pattern.

How the construct form acts as a sort of trailer hitch in Biblical Hebrew; once attached, the first noun in construct "belongs" to the second; learning construct forms by revisiting the first and fourth day of creation.

Studying prepositions in Biblical Hebrew that are combinations of simple prepositions one has already learned; looking at irregular nouns with unusual construct forms whose frequent occurrence makes them critical to understanding Biblical Hebrew.

The function of the binyan in Biblical Hebrew; a reintroduction to verbs with their binyan identification; how the binyanim get their names; focusing on a single root in different binyanim to get a feel for what the binyanim do to a verb's meaning.

How to recognize the words that show when a question is coming up in Biblical Hebrew, from mi and lama lo to eikh and matai; this is important because there is no such thing as a question mark in Biblical Hebrew.

Returning to the verbal system with Professor Carasik's helpful explanation of the participle, which is the third of the five Hebrew verb forms; one of the ways to master the verbal adjective in Biblical Hebrew is by going through Genesis 22:7.

Starting to count in Hebrew from one to 10,000; learning a children's rhyme for counting from one to four; the construct form of numbers; the ordinal numbers; looking at some helpful shortcuts, such as how to refer to a "pair" of something.

Focusing on categories of verbs from the Qal binyan with roots whose guttural letters tend to "misbehave"; studying three rules about how gutturals behave; looking at relevant examples in passages from the Hebrew Bible.

Lamed-hey roots are those roots where, in the dictionary, the third radical of a verb is a hey; learning how to work with some of the most common lamed-hey roots, including banah, hayah, anah, panah and kalah.

Roots that begin with yud are plentiful and very common in Hebrew; Professor Carasik goes through a list of some of the most common first-yud verbs, which include yada, yatza, yarash and yashav.

Very few verbs in Hebrew are irregular; verbs that are irregular are not very difficult, but they do work a little differently than what one is used to seeing; learning how to master irregular Hebrew verbs by focusing on them individually.

Looking at what may be the strangest verb roots of all, which are those that have only two consonants and not three; exploring general rules about hollow verbs; building a list of commonly used hollow verbs to refer to when reading Biblical Hebrew.

The infinitive verb form is used to describe the action of a verb; Professor Carasik goes through the different infinitive forms; he guides one through Ecclesiastes 3, which he calls the "mother lode" of the Hebrew infinitive.

Exploring how Biblical Hebrew expresses intention, as in phrases like yehi; encountering jussives, which are only found in lamed-hey, hollow and Hiphil verbs; studying cohortatives, which invite collective action such as in the song "Hava Nagila".

Turning to the imperative form in Hebrew; the simplest way to think of it in the Qal, which is by taking off the tav prefix from second-person imperfect verbs; learning imperatives from weak and strong verbs; working through several biblical verses.

Focusing on the Hiphil binyan, which can be thought of as the causative binyan; going back to Genesis; collecting a list of Hiphil infinitives; what the different root categories do when they are put into a Hiphil shape.

Taking a closer look at another major binyan, the Piel; learning the skills to distinguish this binyan when one needs to so they can learn the verbs as they come along; examining two more binyanim, which are the passives Pu'al and Hophal.

Concluding the survey of the seven different binyanim by taking a closer look at two reflexive patterns, which are the Niphal and the Hitpa'el; Professor Carasik introduces an important root that appears only in the two binyanim.

Starting to read longer passages in the Bible in Hebrew; following Professor Carasik in a reading of Joshua 1:1-9; translating the text; talking about the passage's meaning; spending time parsing every single verb it contains.

Exploring geminates, which are roots where radicals two and three are the same; how to spot these common two-letter combinations; considering an example from Ezekiel's vision of the messianic future Temple; reading Numbers 22 from start to finish.

Focusing on object suffixes; learning some obvious and not-so-obvious combinations of verbs and object suffixes; pondering some questions about phrases and sentences in the Bible that appear more than once, but with slight variations.

Studying idioms that are common in Biblical Hebrew, but sound strange when translated into English; exploring different ways to take an oath in Biblical Hebrew; the customary way to state someone's age; the danger of "crossing the mouth" of the Lord.

The three functions of punctuation marks in the Hebrew Bible; telling one where the accent falls; indicating how to chant the text musically; showing one how to group words in a sensible way; moving forward in the reading of Numbers 22.

Professor Carasik offers insights and recommendations on four printed Bibles as well as several electronic sources; how to navigate one's way to a specific chapter and verse in an all-Hebrew Bible; resuming the reading of Numbers 22.

Looking at some essential Hebrew reference books, besides biblical translations and commentaries, which include reference grammars and three major Biblical Hebrew dictionaries; completing a line-by-line reading of Numbers 22.