Learning Biblical Hebrew can be frustrating sometimes, especially to those who have previously only learned living languages. Having native speakers to whom you can ask questions might be the most advantageous resource when learning a language. Unfortunately, we do not have native speakers with Biblical Hebrew. We can still, however, use modern language learning to help guide our Biblical Hebrew learning.  There are four main language skills that contribute to language learning: listening, reading, speaking, and writing. The more we practice these four skills in Hebrew the greater our fa ..read more

For those who are curious, I want to update you regarding what we’re doing around here. We’ve started vamping up our YouTube channel ( /@TheHebrewCafe) with the hopes of becoming monetized. With that in mind, we are now doing several live streaming sessions per week that include reading through the Book of Joshua in Hebrew and presenting work on the exercises in Weingreen’s popular Hebrew grammar (A Practical Grammar for Classical Hebrew). In the meantime, we’ve set up a Patreon site for those who would like access to the videos in which we put together the English-to-Hebrew (E→H) exercises ..read more

The second session of the Hebrew Café’s reading group on the 25th of November was a success. We hope the pace and the information was suitable for those joining us.   Some issues that were discussed: V.7. חֲזַ֖ק וֶאֱמַץ. Both forms are imperatives. The root אמ׳׳ץ has two meanings and two different paradigms in modern Hebrew. The biblical meaning, “to take courage” follows the pattern here, אמ׳׳ץ with the meaning to complete or shut has the imperative 2ps form אֱמֹץ though this meaning is usually expressed with Binyan Piꜥel. עצמתי את העינים can also be said אימצתי את העינים but this is ra ..read more

The Hebrew Café began this week a new interactive live stream reading event with the goal of helping Hebrew learners of all levels engage with the Masoretic Text of Joshua. These notes will assist you in reviewing what we covered in the one-hour session in case you missed the livestream, are short on time, or need further clarification on anything mentioned during the session. The reading group is focused upon grammatical and syntactical issues in the Masoretic Text, thus this blog will also serve to provide suggestions for further reading.   The Bible most University and Seminary studen ..read more

Here are some tips for remembering vocabulary in Biblical Hebrew: Use flashcards: Write down new vocabulary on flashcards, including the Hebrew word, transliteration, and English translation. Review them regularly to help commit them to memory. Practice reading in context: Reading Biblical Hebrew in context can help you remember new vocabulary. Try reading passages from the Hebrew Bible and use a dictionary or online resource to look up unfamiliar words. (Daily Dose of Hebrew is an excellent resource for daily short readings of biblical Hebrew.) Study word roots: Many Hebrew words are based ..read more

In the attached video, Dr. Michael Brown tackles the idea addressed back in September here in the blog of Hebrew pictographs (pictograms). He does a very good job of covering the issue, so I thought I would share it here. Enjoy! The post More on Pictograms (from Dr. Michael Brown, YouTube) first appeared on The Hebrew Caf ..read more

Jonathan has been teaching a course in advanced biblical Hebrew recently, in which he is using two textbooks: (1) Gesenius’s Hebrew Grammar; and, (2) Jacob Weingreen’s Classical Hebrew Composition. In this video, I go through the whole of Text III from Weingreen’s textbook and explain why I render it the way that I do in biblical Hebrew. This complements what I wrote up about one of the verses from Text II on The Learners Forum (see here specifically). Let me know what you think and if you enjoy this. The post On Hebrew Composition first appeared on The Hebrew Caf ..read more

The second chapter of the book of Exodus overflows with textual oddities. By chance, Jonathan asked me to read it with him last night, and so we sat down on Zoom and read through it, stopping every once in a while to comment on some textual quirk that leapt off the page. I thought it would be worthwhile to write some of these down and get some feedback, if anyone else is interested. I’ll break it up by verses and comment where I think the text is less than clear. These really are just impressions that I get from the text. I haven’t checked any commentaries at this point beyond that of the St ..read more

And now, back to the basics! The following is a handout that I presented to my students in our last Hebrew 1 session (if you would like to purchase access to the recorded [unlisted] videos, contact me here). Reading Biblical Hebrew is a necessary component for efficient learning, and in order to do that, you need to know how to divide words into syllables, just like we did when we were learning English. Here are the principles used for syllabification/syllable division. Notes on Syllabification – For Reading! It is important that as we are learning to read Hebrew, we think in terms of phonet ..read more

Image: Ruth 1:1 (Masoretic Text) Above is the text of Ruth 1:1, as we look at the introduction to this fantastic book of the Hebrew Bible. In Jewish circles, people tend to call it Megillat Rut (מְגִלַּת רוּת), the “scroll of Ruth,” rather than the “book” of Ruth. This is because Ruth is written on a separate scroll that is publicly read during the holiday of Shavuot (חַג שָׁבוּעוֹת), just as Lamentations (אֵיכָה) is read during the night of Tisha Be’Av (ט׳ בְּאָב) to commemorate the two-time destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. For those who are interested in a linguistic treatment of th ..read more