Sunday school lesson 2

I've got my next 5 minute Hebrew lesson - here it is. Just became clear in the last 5 minutes. But it has taken longer than 5 minutes to write it out - and I wouldn't normally do this in advance! I wonder what's happening to me.

Last week we learned ki-tov from this one verse.

וירא אלהים את-האור כּי-טוב

And God saw the light, that it was good.

And we read the words va-yira - he saw. And Elohim, God, and the special word 'et' and the word ha-or, the light. So that's a review - and it all sounds and looks so different from English words in the Latin alphabet. But ki-tov - it was good.

This week I have another verse where we see that the LORD is good. So we have from last week a creation that is good. You showed me the image of the light and the darkness that you had made. Now in this verse we have an invitation to know the goodness of the One who is the creator. And here you will hear and see - that we have only read one verse in the Bible in Hebrew - and right away there are two words in this next verse that are the same as words in the verse we read last week.

טעמו וראו כּי-טוב יהוה.

O taste and see that the LORD is good.

Taste - ta-'amu - an invitation, and see ure'u, that is good ki-tov the LORD. It's a little hard to recognize the similarity in the words for seeing but God sees yira - and we see re-u. Something else too - there are two different words, as in English, that are used of the one LORD God who created the heavens and the earth - the special name that you can see in letters but which a reader does not normally say, but substitutes Adonai or Ha-Shem, the name, and the word Elohim in last week's verse.

The special name of the Lord God is not spoken. Hebrew readers substitute ha-shem (the name) or adonai (the Lord) instead of speaking the name. In the Jewish tradition, the name is spoken once a year by the High Priest at the feast of Atonement.

Knowing that this is your first seeing and hearing of a whole new writing system, I am going to give you a handout of all the letters. Some day, we will construct our own alef-bet book too.

Any predictions as to how much I will get through of this in 5 minutes?