Hebrew Language Program
| Benefits of Studying Hebrew
Hebrew is the language of the Hebrew Bible, known to Christians as the
Old Testament. The New Testament itself was composed in Aramaic, which
is the nearest
relative of Hebrew and still spoken by Chaldeans, descendants of the pre-Islamic
Christians of the Middle East. The Christian Bible, containing the Old and
New Testaments, remains the world’s “best-seller”. One can
hardly understand any Western literary tradition without an understanding of
its roots in the Bible. Phrases like “Let my people go”, “flesh
and blood”, “Wealth of Nations”; words like sack, map,
abbot, halleluya, amen; and names like Elizabeth, Mary, Rachel, (from Elisheva,
Miriam,
Rahhel) or Jacob, Jack, Jake, James (all from Hebrew Yaaqov) are witness
to the influence of Hebrew on English and other languages.
It is often said that, while the mind of the West is Greek, its soul is Hebrew.
By learning Hebrew, you recapture the original roots of Western Civilization,
and appreciate the original meaning of the world’s best-selling classic.
You also learn the main language of Israel, a renewal of the ancient Kingdom
of Judea after which Jews (“Judeans”) are named, and the only democracy
in the Middle East. While many Israelis speak some English, you will enjoy
your trip to Israel better if you can speak even a little in the language of
the place — a language which blends the newest of the new (Israel is
a leading developer of software) with the oldest of the old.
The Hebrew literature read in the Hebrew program includes readings not only
from the Hebrew Bible, but also from the literature produced during the 2000-year “Diaspora” (Dispersion)
of Jews from their homeland.
Hebrew is a sister-language of Arabic, sharing with this language:
- a large number of words and roots, relating to daily life and
religion;
- similar alphabets, both written from right to left, in which many
vowels are omitted;
- a unique word-structure, in which word-roots consist of consonants
only, for example k-t-v or k-t-b meaning “write”, as
in:
Hebrew Arabic meaning
katav katab ‘he wrote’
kotev yiktib ‘he writes’
mikhtav maktuub ‘a letter’
|
