I want to learn hebrew and biblical hebrew so i can read the torah in it's original language. where is the best place to start? I got a couple of children's books and flashcards, and im also starting with some free learning guides online. so far i am utterly confused, i have never learned another language before. so far ive learned some of the letters, a few words and short sentences. i really can't afford too much at the moment, so i cant do a study course or anything like that. i need free or cheap options.
the best way to learn hebrew
Posts
Total:
37
-->
@janesix
I heard that there are only 4000 words or so to learn. Learning languages are hard for me. I'm better at math.
-->
@RationalMadman
Thanks I appreciate it
-->
@Alec
Ive never tried before, it's an interesting experience
The first words you need to learn are ( bigot, rapists, crystals, all the numbers, and dream catches )
-->
@janesix
Maybe try a youtube search, I found a few things. It might be easier to watch a video on it. And of course youtube is always free.
-->
@janesix
-->
@janesix
According to propaganda the Tanakh (the first 5 books of the bible) were written by Moses. What language did he write them in?
-->
@disgusted
i have no idea
-->
@janesix
Well maybe Hebrew is not what you need to learn?
-->
@disgusted
According to propaganda the Tanakh (the first 5 books of the bible) were written by Moses. What language did he write them in?
Tanakh is only an acronym of the first Hebrew letter of each of the Masoretic Text's three traditional subdivisions: Torah ('Teaching', also known as the Five Books of Moses), Nevi'im ('Prophets') and Ketuvim ('Writings')—hence TaNaKh.
And that is not what is being asked, is it? Why don't you take time to take in the question? say; another 15 years should do it for you
Well maybe Hebrew is not what you need to learn?
Who are you to say either way? . Who are you to say what she/he needs to learn? Look BOLD and UNDERLINED
janesix says >>>>>>>> "I want to learn hebrew <<<<<<<<< and biblical hebrew so i can read the torah in it's original language." The Torah is Hebrew and written in Hebrew. What do you not comprehend about that? Why can you not just be helpful.
Here is the pdf of the HEBREW Torah. Written in HEBREW.
And here is a video on learning the biblical HEBREW
1 Learning Biblical Hebrew Beginners Part 1
-->
@Stephen
Why is everything you post irrelevant?
-->
@disgusted
Why is everything you post irrelevant?
Opinion.
Why aren't you banned you disgusting and vile hypocrite? Can you not, just for once - show a bit of respect for someone else's thread.
-->
@Stephen
You find profound questions disgusting and hypocritical and that says all that needs to be said about you.
-->
@disgusted
You find profound questions disgusting and hypocritical.
Not at all . I do though, find YOU disgusting and hypocritical.
-->
@Stephen
permantly bewildered has responded again., poor thing
-->
@janesix
The masoretic text is not actually the original language that the old testament was written in. It is a translation. The Hebrew that it is written in is not the same ss the hebrew it translates from.
The oldest translation of the old testament is actually in Greek, the septuigant. It is nearly a thousand years older, and up until the split of rabbinic Judaism and Christianity(which was largely political, and I couldd give more details if you sre interested), the septuigant was accepted for hundreds of years as being scripture by the Jews and t ou this day is still accepted in Orthodox Christianity as the definitive Old Testament. In fact, our canon for the Old Testament was determined by what was in the septuigant.
The Masorites when completing the masoretic texts even acknowledged that they were working with corrupted manuscripts. Besides that, they removed many books. The reason why protestant and evangelical churches use the masoretic texts as a base for their old testament has to do with the influence of Martin Luther, who though using the Jewish canon was himself an anti-semite.
But on top of all this, the masoretic canon does not have all the books in it that the septuigant does. It is not a surprise, considered these books contain prophecies such as..
"We are esteemed of him as counterfeits: he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness: he pronounceth the end of the just to be blessed, and maketh his boast that God is his father.
Let us see if his words be true: and let us prove what shall happen in the end of him.
For if the just man be the son of God, he will help him, and deliver him from the hand of his enemies.
Let us examine him with despitefulness and torture, that we may know his meekness, and prove his patience.
Let us condemn him with a shameful death: for by his own saying he shall be respected.
Such things they did imagine, and were deceived: for their own wickedness hath blinded them.
As for the mysteries of God, they knew them not: neither hoped they for the wages of righteousness, nor discerned a reward for blameless souls.
For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity.
Nevertheless through envy of the devil came death into the world: and they that do hold of his side do find it."
For if the just man be the son of God, he will help him, and deliver him from the hand of his enemies.
Let us examine him with despitefulness and torture, that we may know his meekness, and prove his patience.
Let us condemn him with a shameful death: for by his own saying he shall be respected.
Such things they did imagine, and were deceived: for their own wickedness hath blinded them.
As for the mysteries of God, they knew them not: neither hoped they for the wages of righteousness, nor discerned a reward for blameless souls.
For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity.
Nevertheless through envy of the devil came death into the world: and they that do hold of his side do find it."
A few quick notes.
There are a few iterations of Hebrew. There is a modern (conversational) Hebrew, and if you want to learn that (and yet, not move to Israel) then take a local Ulpan class. It is an immersion program. If that doesn't work, I'm sure that there are duolingo or rosetta stone courses, or possinly a private tutoring session or a class at a local college.
There is also biblical Hebrew which is related but not identical to modern Hebrew. The grammars differ. There is something called Mishnaic Hebrew but I wouldn't worry about that right now. For biblical Hebrew, there are courses, books and probably websites. The problem is, biblical Hebrew doesn't exist in a linguistic vacuum. Because it stems from the torah text which is infused with the secondary meanings and divine intent, it means more than a dictionary would list. It is hard to learn outside of the biblical text because there is a lack of other, contemporary texts which to study.
As to the language of the Torah text, tradition holds that while the shape of the letters is not certain, the language was Hebrew and that the Masoretic text is a result of a solid tradition of precision copying of written text superior to texts translated to other languages.
-->
@rosends
As to the language of the Torah text, tradition holds that while the shape of the letters is not certain, the language was Hebrew and that the Masoretic text is a result of a solid tradition of precision copying of written text superior to texts translated to other languages.
Yet in first Samuel(what in the septuigant is 1st Kingdoms), there are strange abberations in the masoretic text that make it appear like Saul met David twice.
There is a pslam that when in Hebrew makes up an acrostic poem. In the masoretic text it is missing a letter that is present in the septuigant.
There are huge chunks of the book of Esther that are missing in the masoretic text that are present in the septuigant.
We Orthodox know that the primary reason Rabbinic Judaism split from The Church of Christ which is truly Israel has a lot to do with the fact that Jews were not allowed to convert others to their religion in the Roman Empire. To distance themselves from Christians, they discarded the septuigant and Rabbinic Judaism was created. All of what people know as Judaism today came from Rabbinic Judaism.
-->
@Mopac
That only reflects the limit of your understanding, relying only on the text and not on the full tradition in which it exists. There is plenty of commentary which complements the written text and explains the full conversation. Claiming this to be an error of the written text is not persuasive.Yet in first Samuel(what in the septuigant is 1st Kingdoms), there are strange abberations in the masoretic text that make it appear like Saul met David twice.
As to the variant text of Psalm 145 with the letter nun, there is much discussion over this. You can start with
https://www.torahmusings.com/2004/11/missing-nun-in-psalm-145/ and https://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/7084/nun-in-ashrei-psalm-145
As for Esther, you might want to read Bickerman's article from 1951 on the matter. (Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research
Vol. 20 (1951), pp. 101-133) -- the bottom line is that just because something exists in the Greek does not invariably signal a deficiency in the Hebrew.
Jews were always allowed to convert others into Judaism. We were then and we still are. We were at the time of the turn of the millennium If you start with an error, you end up with more errors.
-->
@rosends
At the time of Jesus and the apostles, Jews were certainly not allowed to spread their religion to non-Jews. In return, there were certain privileges granted to the Jews. This has to do with Roman law, not religious law.
My tradition is not your tradition. I am an Orthodox Christian. And though what I am saying is not necessarily gleemed from the text alone, the truth of what I am saying is at least witnessed in our gospels when it is written..
"Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many miracles.
If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.
And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all,
Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.
And this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation;
And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.
Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death."
-->
@rosends
Jews were not allowed to convert others to their religion in the Roman Empire.
Jews were always allowed to convert others into Judaism.
Mopac meant it was the Romans that strongly discouraged conversions to Judaism within their empire, not that the Jews or Judaism disallowed it.
-->
@Mopac
At the time of Jesus and the apostles, Jews were certainly not allowed to spread their religion to non-Jews. In return, there were certain privileges granted to the Jews. This has to do with Roman law, not religious law.
That's then an issue that you have with Romans. Jewish law accepted converts. Any claim that rabbinic Judaism split from something because of a Roman law would have to be an artifact claim from the gospels which Judaism flatly rejects.
-->
@keithprosser
The claim that Mopac "knows" something is questionable. The claim was "We Orthodox know that the primary reason Rabbinic Judaism split from The Church of Christ which is truly Israel". The proof for this "knowledge" was "witnessed in our gospels". A flawed conclusion drawn from flawed sources.
It would seem safer to make a faith based claim by prefacing it with a faith based context.
-->
@rosends
I don't believe that all my claims could be drawn from scripture alone. What I am saying is that there are hints of these historical realities in the scriptures.
Which is why protestants mistakenly look apon modern Jews in this idealisitic way that would be a direct refutation of their own religion. Protestants are not really a part of the historical church. They don't have the holy tradition, neither do they often have anything to work with other than scripture. Their Old Testament is the scripture of Rabbinic Judaism, which set itself from the beginning as anti-Christian. Their New Testament is constantly being corrupted through textual critisism.
That all said, we are taught to love you Jews, even if you spit on us whenever we walk through your neighborhoods, and refuse to take money from us directly when we go to your shops.
-->
@keithprosser
Yeah, and the Jews were allowed certain privledges as well like the ability to collect a temple tax. Some of that tax was used to fund pagan temples, which early Christians objected to.
When it comes right down to it, a sword was put to the neck of the Jew and the Christian and they were told "Deny The Truth, or you will be slain!". The Christians refused to do this, and so there were and still are many martyrs. The Jews rejected Christ as a matter of survival.
And I'd like to make it very clear that we Orthodox are still taught to love Jews, even as we are taught to bless those who curse us and pray for those who despitefully use us.
-->
@Mopac
That's ok. We are taught to love you even though you rape our women, destroy our villages and steal our cows whenever we come to your caves.That all said, we are taught to love you Jews, even if you spit on us whenever we walk through your neighborhoods, and refuse to take money from us directly when we go to your shops.
-->
@rosends
The claim that Mopac "knows" something is questionable. The claim was "We Orthodox know that the primary reason Rabbinic Judaism split from The Church of Christ which is truly Israel". The proof for this "knowledge" was "witnessed in our gospels". A flawed conclusion drawn from flawed sources.It would seem safer to make a faith based claim by prefacing it with a faith based context.
I only wanted to point out where I could see you had misconstrued. It seems Mopac has turned into an anti-semite!
-->
@rosends
Orthodox Christians don't do these things. If anyone who calls themselves an Orthodox Christian does do these things, they are at variance with the teaching of The Church. I'm sorry if the Roman Catholics(who broke away from us and have even persecuted us very heavily) and Jew hating protestants like Martin Luther give your Messiah such a bad name.
I'm sure when it comes to learning Hebrew though, you are the resident expert.