Yod

י
When I highlight yod in the book of Ruth, I get a mass of colour in every verse. Tet occurs a very few times in comparison.Yod is as frequent as vav but where vav begins only one root, itself, yod is the first letter of many roots.

I wonder how many verses we need to explore to get a representative sample of the functions of yod. I have picked one - Ruth 4:4 - let's see where it takes us. I have retained the transcription - just don't depend on it - cover it if you need it and learn to read the block letters. How many yods? How many functions of yod?

	English	Hebrew	Transcription
1	and I myself had said I will disclose in your ear to say	וַאֲנִי אָמַרְתִּי אֶגְלֶה אָזְנְךָ לֵאמֹר	và)any )amàrty )egleh )aznka  lé)mor
2	will you buy before those sitting here	קְנֵה נֶגֶד הַיֹּשְׁבִים	qnéh neged hàyoshbym
3	and before these elders of my people	וְנֶגֶד זִקְנֵי עַמִּי	vneged ziqnéy `àmy
4	if you will redeem, redeem and if he will not redeem,	אִם-תִּגְאַל גְּאָל  וְאִם-לֹא יִגְאַל	)im-tig)àl g)al v)im-lo) yig)àl
5	tell me and I will know	הַגִּידָה לִּי וְאֵדְעָה	hàgydah ly v)éd`ah
6	for there is none except you to redeem	כִּי אֵין זוּלָתְךָ לִגְאוֹל	ky )éyn zvulatka lig)vol
7	and I myself after you	וְאָנֹכִי אַחֲרֶיךָ	v)anoky )àxareyka
8	and he said I myself will redeem	וַיֹּאמֶר אָנֹכִי אֶגְאָל	vàyo)mer )anoky )eg)al

In line 1 we have a yod that is part of אֲנִי the standalone first person singular pronoun. The long form of this pronoun אָנֹכִי appears twice more (lines 7 and 8). I am wondering if, in this context of the meeting at the gate, this word has legal connotations.

In line 1 still there is a yod as the first person suffix of the qal perfect. In line two, those sitting here - or the inhabitants יֹּשְׁבִים from ישב shows the masculine plural (in which yod takes part) and the use of yod as an opening consonant. (Note its very own dagesh also.) In line 3 the two trailing yods of זִקְנֵי עַמִּי have different functions. The one on עַמִּי is a first person possessive pronoun. The other one (find it) is an abbreviated masculine plural which is often shortened or implied in a construct relationship - when two nouns are 'joined' to each other in succession.

In line 4 we have the function of yod in יִגְאַל as the third person singular masculine of the prefix conjugation, the imperfect.

Then in line 5 we have two new functions of yod - whew. The first is its appearance in the conjugation of נגד. This is in the word הַגִּידָה, the hiphil imperative. What's this - grammatical letters inserting themselves into the middle of a word! Perhaps this is an instance of a mater lectionis, a reader's helper.  I can't find the form in Lambdin - but I do see some yods in some of the paradigms and they look like vowels. The second use of yod in this line is its attachment to the preposition לִּי as if he might have said 'say so to me'.

I had conniptions for a moment that tet was going to steal a place on the grammatical team - but I don't think so. But it is not a typo on page 277 of Putnam's online grammar. [Note that ט tet sometimes does replace ת taf after metathesis in the hithpael of verbs whose first letter is the sibilant צ tsade. This is the only case I have found of a true secondment of a letter from team 2 to team 1.] Again I have not found mention of this in other grammars that I have to hand.

In line 5 also, there is a missing yod, for as the first character of a root, it sometimes disappears in the imperfect (ידע is the root of אֵדְעָה). This is a subordinate clause and could be rendered 'so that I may know'.

In line 6 the two yods are just parts of the word - both acting as vowels really.  In line 7, the yod appears to soften the link between the preposition and the pronoun. Line 8 has one yod as part of the preterite (imperfect with vav in the story line).

It seems that one verse was all we needed for this representative sample of the functions of yod. With 14 yods, 15 if you count the missing one, (check my counting), we have yod as a consonant, as a vowel, as a person pronoun, as the ending of the first person imperfect of the verb, as the masculine plural (with mem but also without) and as a smoothing of the sound between a preposition and its pronoun.

Zayin - a non grammatical letter

ז
O how impatient - to think you can do three letters at once, zot! - as if non-grammatical letters are unimportant. You can't. חט will have to have their own posts as well. Why are you so anxious to get to the next letter of the first 11 when you know so little about anything? And ז is the first sibilant. What does grammar surround if not the substance?

Did I learn English grammar at one go? No - it took years and lots of repetition and I used the language with native unconscious feel and without the self-referential absorption of study. Sounds just were - neither spelled, nor analysed,  nor even pondered.

There are some important words in Ruth that begin with these three letters. One at a time, here are some examples. The first usage for ז is the word for old. In this verse too is a form of construct of the infinitive of 'to be'. Besides vav, I think that the construct is another way of connecting words and I wonder to what extent it happens with sounds that are easy to elide.

כִּי זָקַנְתִּי מִהְיוֹת לְאִישׁ

 ky zaqànty mihyvot l)ysh

for I am too old to have a husband

The elders זָקֵן occurs 4 times in chapter 4 balancing this one bitter aged woman in chapter 1. E.g. in this phrase from Ruth 4:4

וְנֶגֶד זִקְנֵי עַמִּי

vneged ziqnéy `àmy

and before the elders of my people

The pointers, demonstrative pronouns, זֹאת and זֶּה occur. There is a collection of these at the end of chapter 1 and the beginning of chapter 2.

וַתֹּאמַרְנָה הֲזֹאת נָעֳמִי

vàto)màrnah hazo)t na`amy

and the women said - is this Naomi?

לְמִי הַנַּעֲרָה הַזֹּאת

 lmy hànà`arah hàzo)t

to whom the lass this one?

זֶה שִׁבְתָּהּ הַבַּיִת מְעָט

zeh shibtah hàbàyit m`a+

this sitting of her in the house a little

וְגַם לֹא תַעֲבוּרִי מִזֶּה

 vgàm lo) tà`abvury mizeh

and even do not stray from this one

In reading the BDB section on this word, we might be tempted to think that in other Semitic languages, ז became a member of the first 11, playing a serious grammatical role even as a relative pronoun! There are other letters one might second to the team as well - like ח heth in order to include all the stand-alone pronouns in the grammatical word group. But I don't want to throw out Saadya's 10th century thesis too soon even if I have identified the wrong teams! Splitting 22 letters evenly into 2 groups has already been too useful a help to the eye and ear to aid understanding of this very foreign force.

The sibilant zayin plays an internal role in several words in this story - notably Bo'az, בֹּעַז, which of course occurs frequently. Is this name related to 'ear'? No - the ear is the slowest to grow, and this word might mean quickness.

וַאֲנִי אָמַרְתִּי אֶגְלֶה אָזְנְךָ

 và)any )amàrty )egleh )aznka

and I myself will disclose in your ear

There are more words with zayin in Ruth related to seed and winnowing. I will leave them for a discourse on the story as a whole some day - perhaps concerning the fruitful harvest that comes from a suitable redemption.

Vav - connector par excellence

ו
Vav is the shortest section
8 columns in BDB
7 taken up with itself.
Of the other 10 words,
all are proper names or
unique textual misfits
except וָו the hook.

Clearly this letter names itself and itself only.  In my Hebrew Latin concordance, listing every textual meme in TNK, Vav occupies 1/2 of a column in 6000 columns - that's about 0.000001 %. It lists 3 words, vav, vzr (?) Proverbs 21:8 and vlk - without definition, thought to be a misprint for ylk, whom we have met already. How errant that word is! (Joke). And vav itself is used only in Exodus for the building of the tabernacle.

Was vav the easiest letter to engrave and so a divider that became a hook? For all its rarity in the beginning of roots, I bet that vav begins more 'words' in Scripture than any other letter! It is everywhere as connector. And it is everywhere in differing roles.

וְהָיָה הַנַּעֲרָ אֲשֶׁר אֹמַר אֵלֶיהָ הַטִּי־נָא כַדֵּךְ וְאֶשְׁתֶּה

vehaya hana`ar 'asher 'omar 'eleyah hati-na kadek v'eshtah

and let it be that the lad! lass to whom I will say - give please your jar that I may drink

Just look at all that grammar going on in this verse! That first word, וְהָיָה some would not divide since the vav defines the verb as preterite. But it is still a vav + a verb that could be recognized on its own as 3rd person masculine singular perfect, and the phrase vav-conversive, as if we are converting perfect to imperfect, is common in the literature. It is clear that it is the backbone of narrative. And here too it is translated in the jussive, like a third person imperative.

It was tricky to find an occurrence of 'I will say' that is not preterite in an English Bible. It occurs in direct speech. (This verse should have been more fully dealt with under aleph). And note that the text has the male form of lad נַּעֲרָ instead of the female form, lass נַעֲרָה - that we have seen so clearly in Ruth. (where is the 'he'?) It is read as lass though writ as lad.  And what about those hooks? - One joins the text to the surrounding narrative and the other acts as a relative pronoun!

BDB lists several meanings for vav - and, or, but, and many more. But vav is not limited to connecting phrases with each other, it also plays significant grammatical roles as suffix - third person singular possessive for instance. So in Ruth we have already seen

וְשֵׁם אִשְׁתּוֹ נָעֳמִי

veshem ishto naomi

and the name of his wife, Naomi.

and for a plural example

אַחַר אֲשֶׁר אֶמְצָא-חֵן בְּעֵינָיו

'axar 'asher 'emtsa-xen be`eynaiv

after the one in whose [his] eyes I will find favor

lit: after the one that I will find favor in eyes of him

And vav is the third person plural ending for verbs - right across the board of all paradigms in all the conjugations. So when Mahlon and Chilion die - it reads

וַיָּמֻתוּ

vayamutu

and they died.

Hey - how do you pronounce this letter - it is all over the map! ve, va, u, o, v! Sometimes it behaves like a pure vowel and sometimes like a consonant. There are rules but I am lousy with rules. I simply can't remember them at my age (about 4). I think they have to be heard rather than visually memorized so that the light dance of the vav is known against the heavier gutturals of the other letters. Vav is like the fool in the Tarot pack - everywhere and yet nowhere - except in the tabernacle.

Besides the third person plural suffix of verbs, it also is in the second person masculine plural suffix of verbs in the imperfect. (I didn't find an example in Ruth - so none given for this exercise.) And with nun (always nu) it is in the first person plural perfect. This form does not occur in Ruth but the pronoun 'our' - with the same form nu occurs in Ruth 2:20

קָרוֹב לָנוּ הָאִישׁ מִגֹּאֲלֵנוּ הוּא

 qarov lanu ha'ish migo'elnu hu

near to us is the man and he our redeemer

Hopefully this will allow me to see and hear more clearly what role vav is playing in the word whether attached in front of or after the root. I think that is enough for a first pass at this complex letter. We will see it again with taf in the formation of the feminine plural of a noun. Here's one from Ruth

עִם-נַעֲרוֹתָיו

im-na`arotaiv 

with his lasses -

vav in two roles. It is a remarkable letter.

He - what the!

ה
Have we got a lot to learn about the fifth letter?  Probably, and I won't go too deep for a first foray. 'He' is first 'the' letter. It has its own word in the interjection הא (The first few do also: Aleph is itself a thousand, bet is almost a house, gml is payback, getting what you deserve, dalet - poor, weak - with a little help from a taf.)

The first use presented of ה in the grammar books is that of the definite article. Right at the beginning of Ruth, it appears in this construct phrase:

  שְׁפֹט הַשֹּׁפְטִים

shpot hashoftim 

 in the judging of the judges

and immediately thereafter

וְשֵׁם הָאִישׁ אֱלִימֶלֶךְ  

ve shem ha'ish 'elimelek -

and the name of the man was Elimelek.

Notice how English requires the definite article twice where Hebrew has it only once. What other uses of ה are in Ruth? Early in Ruth we get the standalone pronouns, hu הוּא for he (Ruth 1:1)

הוּא וְאִשְׁתּו וּשְׁנֵי בָנָיו 

hie ve'ishto ushenei banaiv

he and his wife and his two sons

and hie הִיא for she (Ruth 1:3)

וַתִּשָּׁאֵר הִיא וּשְׁנֵי בָנֶיהָ

vetisher hie ushenei baneah

and she was bereaved and her two sons

In this last phrase we find a new usage of ה as a suffix indicating 'her' rather than the vav ו that is 'his'. With Elimelek's death, the sons have become her sons that were his sons. The trailing ה is very common in this story and very often indicates an aspect of the feminine whether of conjugation - third person singular, or second or third person plural or third person singular possessive pronoun.

In Ruth 1:11 we find the second major use of ה, the interrogative

הַעוֹד-לִי בָנִים בְּמֵעַי וְהָיוּ לָכֶם לַאֲנָשִׁים

ha`od li banaim bima`i lakem l'anoshim?

are there yet to me sons in my body that they might become husbands for you?

Here ה leads the sentence and indicates a question. There are several more questions in chapter 1 ending with this one:

הֲזֹאת נָעֳמִי

hazot na`omi

Is this Naomi?

In chapter 2, besides many definitives and interrogatives, I see this strange spelling of earth -

וַתִּשְׁתַּחוּ אָרְצָה

vetishtahu artzah

and she gave him a bow on her earth

She what! She gave him a curtsy? Well, it must be referring to her in order to get a third person out of it? I see it parsed as if it were a third person feminine singular hithpael form - i.e. reflexive. And hithpael is an interesting usage of ה but in the third person feminine, it disappears and becomes a taf. And why does this verb have that extra vav on the end of it? It doesn't look like hithpael to me - that would require no vav and an additional taf תִּתשְׁתַּח. So! I think it might be 'she gave him a bow on her earth' - or something to that effect. I had hoped Campbell might say something about this word but - not a word. I must be misreading the forms. Maybe someone will answer...

Most of the rest of the uses of ה in Ruth are definite, or feminine markers, or interrogative. BDB lists 13 subdivisions of the definite. I won't list them all - maybe in a deeper, later post, though one (the vocative BDB I.i. p 208) came up in discussion of Psalm 117 here. In Ruth we have at least one instance of 'tonight' (I.c. p207) = 'the night' הַלַּיְלָה and here is another that may fit somewhere:

לְעֵת הָאֹכֶל גֹּשִׁי הֲלֹם

le`et ha'okel gishi halom

at the time of eating draw near

The eating. A generic regular occurrence made specific. As another variation, Ruth 1:17 makes death definite (I h. p208)

כִּי הַמָּוֶת יַפְרִיד בֵּינִי וּבֵינֵךְ

ki hamavet yaphrid beini ubeinek

for only death will separate me and you

In Ruth 2:18 there is a new use of ה asking for recognition

וַתֹּוצֵא וַתִּתֶּן־לָהּ אֵת אֲשֶׁר־הֹותִרָה מִשָּׂבְעָהּ

vatotse vatiten-lah et asher-hotirah misavah

and she brought out and gave to her what she had left over after she was sated

The new one is the hiphil perfect prefix of  יתר to be left over. Hiphil makes the root 'causative'. I have not yet dealt with the form or the grammar of verbs that lose letters when the grammatical ones become attached. This must be the I-yod form - and it looks as if it behaves according to what is expected of such a verb (Lambdin chapter 45). In the Hiphil, the yod becomes a vav! Aren't those grammatical letters something else! We must return to this when we get to yod.

A little tidbit on the bottom of page 222 in Lambdin notes how the hiphil of halek looks as if it were the hiphil of yelek. I already encountered this confusion of two verbs that are treated as one in the Hebrew concordance that I have. See note on Ruth 1:15-18.

And Happy New Year to you all.

Dalet - the second non-grammatical letter

ד
The earliest word I remember that begins with Dalet is דרך. This word is a very good exercise in the distinction of letters. ד dalet, ר resh, and final kaf ך are an early source of confusing shapes for a new learner of the Hebrew written forms. We find this word in Ruth also

וַתֵּלַכְנָה בַדֶּרֶךְ לָשׁוּב אֶל-אֶרֶץ יְהוּדָה

 and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah

 vàtélàknah bàderek lashvub )el-)erec yhvudah

Other words in Ruth beginning with ד:

וְרוּת דָּבְקָה בָּהּ
vrvut dabqah bah

But Ruth stayed close to her -

to anticipate the other two uses of this word in Ruth, I preferred 'stay close' to the emotive 'clung'.

וַתֶּחְדַּל לְדַבֵּר אֵלֶיהָ

 vàtexdàl ldàbér )éleyah

and she ceased speaking to her

(speak here דָּבָר, thing in 3:18)

אִם-דַּל וְאִם-עָשִׁיר
)im-dàl v)im-`ashyr

whether poor or wealthy

וְעֹבֵד הוֹלִיד אֶת-יִשָׁי וְיִשַׁי הוֹלִיד אֶת-דָּוִד

 v`obéd hvolyd )et-yishay  vyishày hvolyd )et-david

Ruth 4:22 hiphil perfect for bearing. This genealogy is referenced almost as is in Matthew.
Lots of dalet's in the middle of words - but few at the beginning. On to the grammatical ה 'he'.

Gimel, the first of the non-grammatical letters

ג
What can one say about a non-grammatical letter by itself? If we were singing, I would advise some to unvoice the consonant in order to keep the singing line 'forward'. G, especially Glo at this time of the year, is a difficult sound to sing on one accurate pitch. So the advice is think G, sing K or vice versa. But this is Hebrew and these are letters and I am not giving instruction but exploring sounds and function.

When one is reading a dictionary, besides its being a tiring exercise, one concentrates on the first few words at the beginning of a letter's dominance. For aleph, there was fresh (from which the month of אָבִיב and Passover) and then perish אָבַד! For bet, the preposition dominates the first few pages. For gimel, the words are all of pride and boasting (גָּאוֺן from גָּאָה to triumph). Another dominant G word in Ruth is for the kinsman redeemer גְּאָל.and we must deal with this at some point - I am still thinking of how that system 'worked' or not.

Here are some more of the words beginning with gimel in the book of Ruth:

לָגוּר בִּשְׂדֵי מוֹאָב

לָגוּר - to stay (preceded by the preposition in this case)

וַיָּמֻתוּ גַם-שְׁנֵיהֶם

גַם - even (a frequent word in Ruth - a story teller's word for emphasis) - and they died - even the two of them.

הֲלָהֵן תְּשַׂבֵּרְנָה עַד אֲשֶׁר יִגְדָּלוּ

יִגְדָּלוּ - gadol to grow, increase, magnify - in this case third person plural imperfect. Could you wait till they had grown up? The word doesn't begin with gimel, but the root does.

אִישׁ גִּבּוֹר חַיִל

גִּבּוֹר - strong (2:1) a man of strength and valor

לְעֵת הָאֹכֶל גֹּשִׁי הֲלֹם

גֹּשִׁי - draw near (second person feminine imperative) - aha but this root doesn't begin with gimel! The root is נגש but the nun drops out - being of a weak disposition

וְלֹא תִגְעֲרוּ-בָהּ

an example I used in the prior post also, the middle word is second person masculine plural imperfect - why is it translated as imperative? and do not rebuke her. Perhaps it could be read as in English as a future prohibition: and you will not rebuke her.

הִנֵּה-הוּא זֹרֶה אֶת-גֹּרֶן

גרן the threshing floor where Boaz winnows

וּבָאת וְגִלִּית מַרְגְּלֹתָיו

גלה to uncover - and you come and uncover his feet

וּפָרַשְׂתָּ כְנָפֶךָ עַל-אֲמָתְךָ כִּי גֹאֵל אָתָּה

גֹאֵל the redeemer - in this case the one redeeming, participle form. The one redeeming is you yourself.

Not very many words but a few (8) whose lead sound is G in the book of Ruth.

On each of the Hebrew letters - Bet

The first in the series is here.

ב
Bet has an enormity of meanings. BDB lists all of these: in, among, within, into, on, at, by, against, down to, upon, with, and others. How can one approach such flexibility in a single initial letter!

The grammar books all introduce בּ simply, with a single word, usually in a house בבית or in the house בָבית. I admit it has taken me three years to dare to read the pages on in BDB. It was a cure for insomnia a few nights ago. Fascinating examples to be drawn out but let's see a few of the uses of ב in Ruth.

The traditional meaning 'in' occurs frequently, especially in the phrase בִּשְׂדֵי מוֹאָב in the fields of Moab. A rendering of 'against' is required for Naomi's statement: כִּי-יָצְאָה בִי יַד-יְהוָה for the hand of יְהוָה has come out against me. 'To' is needed for the very next verse: וְרוּת דָּבְקָה בָּהּ but Ruth stayed close to her.

Here is one related to field where rather than 'in', 'on' is intended: עֵינַיִךְ בַּשָּׂדֶה אֲשֶׁר-יִקְצֹרוּן your eyes on the field where they reap. And here a spot where it is demanded by the verb but would not be rendered in English: וְלֹא תִגְעֲרוּ-בָהּ and do not rebuke her. Altogether, a 'sounds like' or concordant translation is clearly impossible for this preposition.

BDB speaks of three broad classifications: beth vasculi, beth coniunctionis et viciniae, and beth auxilii but the 22 subsequent subclassifications in four major groups (I. In, II Denoting proximity, III With, IV with certain classes of verbs) do not use these divisions.

Exodus 6:3
appearing as 'as'

וָאֵרָא אֶל־אַבְרָהָם אֶל־יִצְחָק וְאֶֽל־יַעֲקֹב בְּאֵל שַׁדָּי וּשְׁמִי יְהוָה לֹא נֹודַעְתִּי לָהֶם

 and I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as El Shaddai, but the name יְהוָה I was not known to them

Examples are everywhere - so no more multiplication. Bet keeps its place in the letters that act grammatically.

On each of the Hebrew letters, individually - Aleph

How are the letters used? This is an open question and one that does not need to be answered by metaphorical interpretation. With the division of the 22 letters into two distinct subsets of 11 (here and here), I think it appropriate that I attempt to specify their individual grammatical roles. So when I see such and such a letter, what might I recognize as its role? This series will annotate the roles that I can identify from aleph to taf with examples.

א
א is a guttural and will therefore behave differently in some verbal paradigms - just how strangely, I do not yet know. א also may signal the first person singular imperfect (either masculine or feminine). It seems that with verbs beginning with א the consonant is not 'doubled'. So here is an example of this use of א with both types of verb - one beginning with aleph and one not. This is an example with several of the grammatical letters.

וְהָיָה הַנַּעֲרָ אֲשֶׁר אֹמַר אֵלֶיהָ הַטִּי־נָא כַדֵּךְ וְאֶשְׁתֶּה

 and let it be that the lass to whom I will say, give me please your pitcher that I may drink

Which of the four highlighted aleph's that 'begin' a word signals the first person imperfect? Not the first - that's part of the word asher, the relative pronoun. Not the third, that's a preposition with a third person feminine pronoun. Yes to the second, and note this is the same three consonants that we would see if the word was in the perfect 3rd person masculine singular אמר or with the vowels אָמַר. So without vowel markings we need to hear the 'future' rather than the past from the context.

And the fourth וְאֶשְׁתֶּה though itself preceded by a vav is also 'imperfect'. Here it seems that the imperfect covers potential future, and conditional or modal usage (as well as preterite - which might be translated as past or even continuous present). That verb 'drink' שתה has three of the grammatical consonants acting in non-grammatical ways. The form is first person imperfect. The verb type is III-ה. The name of this class of verbs including the numeral III means that the third consonant of the root - or the third 'radical' is ה.

Just for fun, this phrase has 6 consonants from group 2 out of a total of 31 (<20%). Of the remaining 27, I count 9 or 11 in grammatical roles (11 if I include prepositions and exclude 'please'). Including prepositions will eventually drag some consonants from group 2 to do duty in group 1.

וְהָיָה הַנַּעֲרָ אֲשֶׁר אֹמַר אֵלֶיהָ הַטִּי־נָא כַדֵּךְ וְאֶשְׁתה

Update:
As I have continued this series, I have concentrated more and more on reading Ruth 'letter by letter'. So Here are a few examples of aleph from Ruth (excluding the ones already covered here):

An obvious example of the grammatical use of this letter and taf also is in the direct object marker, e.g. in Ruth 1:6

כִּי-פָקַד יְהוָה אֶת-עַמּוֹ

that יְהוָה had visited his people

The imperfect appears first in Ruth 1:16, the famous lines that join Ruth to Naomi in spite of the 10 years of barrenness after having been 'taken' as a wife by foreigners (to her)

 כִּי אֶל-אֲשֶׁר תֵּלְכִי אֵלֵךְ
וּבַאֲשֶׁר תָּלִינִי אָלִין

for wherever you go I go
and in whatever you stop over I stop over

In Ruth 1:18, here are two uses that illustrate aleph-taf when they are not the object marker and aleph as part of a common preposition. (I have not included stand-alone prepositions or stand-alone pronouns in my 'grammatical use' list since they stand alone and also include a few other stray non first 11 letters. Only 'tet' is allowed the privilege of acting as scorekeeper for the first 11 and that rarely.)

וַתֵּרֶא כִּי-מִתְאַמֶּצֶת הִיא

לָלֶכֶת אִתָּהּ
וַתֶּחְדַּל לְדַבֵּר אֵלֶיהָ

and she saw that she was determined
to go with her
and she ceased to speak with her

The remaining 11 letters

It's always tough on the remainder when the first team is picked. But perhaps the first 11 cannot do their job without the second team. For example lift up נָשָׂא uses letters from the first 11, but life חָיָה and salvation יְשׁוּעָה require help from the deeper gutturals, chet ח and ayin ע.

What are these remaining letters? And how do they divide? There is a nice page on the morphology of Hebrew verbs here. The first clues as to how the first 11 letters behave when they are not doing their grammatical work is in these two definitions that are perplexing to the student on first reading Hebrew verb paradigm charts.

Roots that contain a ו vav or a י yod as the 2nd letters are called hollow roots. 

Roots that contain at least one of the weak letters, י yod, נ nun, ח ħet, ע ʻáyin, א álef, and ה hey, are called weak roots.

These six letters contain the four 'vowels' or 'reading helpers' matres lectiones all of which are in the first 11, and four of the gutturals with only ר resh missing.

What's left? ג gimel, ד dalet, ז zayin, ט tet, ס samech, צ tsade, פ peh, ק qoph, and ש sin (already implicit with shin - though I suppose we could give team 2 an extra player). [Note that ט tet sometimes does replace ת taf after metathesis in the hithpael of verbs whose first letter is the sibilant צ tsade. This is the only case I have found of a true secondment of a letter from team 2 to team 1.]

What can we tell about this second team and how it interacts with the first? Is there a sample set of code where we can observe the workings on the playing field? Perhaps Zephaniah 3:8 would be a good grammatical test... So first 11 are the letters that play a role in grammatical forms (G) and the consonant-only (C) team are the letters that do not. Where a G letter is acting as Consonant only, I will designate it as X, a G in C's clothing.

לָכֵן - GGG a preposition
חַכּוּ־לִי - CXG-GG a weak consonant and 4 grammatical letters with one acting as consonant
נְאֻם - GXX
יְהוָה - XXXX (Proper name)
לְיֹום - GXXX
קוּמִי - CXXG
לְעַד - GCC finally a word that uses more than one non-grammatical letter
כִּי - GG a preposition
מִשְׁפָּטִי - GXCCG
לֶאֱסֹף - GXCX
גֹּויִם - CXXG
לְקָבְצִי - GCXCG
מַמְלָכֹות - GXXXGG
לִשְׁפֹּךְ - GXCX
עֲלֵיהֶם - CGGGG - while ayin is not on the grammatical team, it is almost playing grammar here with its role in the preposition.
זַעְמִי - CCXG
כֹּל - GG
חֲרֹון - CCXX
אַפִּי - XCG
כִּי - GG
בְּאֵשׁ - GXX
קִנְאָתִי - CXXXG
תֵּאָכֵל - GXXX
כָּל־ - GG
הָאָֽרֶץ -GXCC

So for this verse that uses all the letters of the alef-bet we have 38 letters playing grammatical roles, 20 from the consonantal-only set, and 36 grammatical letters acting as consonants including 4 at my count that are matres lectiones.  40 percent (roughly) of the 94 letters in this verse are acting as grammatical clues and 79% of the letters used are those of the 'first 11', the set of letters that are used in prefixes and suffixes. I may have mistyped a G X or C but hopefully not.

A quick experiment on my poetry corpus shows that 75% of the letters in some 20,000 words are in the grammatical group!

From aleph to taf - my constitution

Who speaks me into life? Who convicts me that I should die? Who revives me and gives life to my mortal body?

Let me divide the world in 2 - into two sets of eleven. Under aleph I am constituted. Aleph gives me a future as it is written: wherever you go, I will go - כִּי אֶל־אֲשֶׁר תֵּלְכִי אֵלֵךְ

Aleph has beginning but no ending and I am in it since I am first person imperfect and of common gender.

And I acknowledge the same by my mark - ת - my mark. Taf is also a continuing of my imperfection - so all imperfect verbs lead with taf when I take myself in the second person both individually and collectively or severally. Yod  י and nun נ continue me, י in my female aspect and נ in the first person plural.

So letters 1, 10, 14, and 22 are singled out as grammatical markers. What others can we rope into the first 11? Vav ו (letter 6) is a natural - it is the universal connector. (Vav means hook in Hebrew and is used as a hook both in the construction of the tabernacle and in the construction of sentences and stories!) Taf and yod also connect: infinitives, nouns and pronouns and yod for me and thee has its own person.  ה (letter 5) begins the reflexive (hitpael) as נ allows the passive (nifal). These two conspire into the feminine plural and so drag in ם mem (letter 13) as pluralizer of nouns and mem and caf  כ (letter 11) as male second plural persons.

Now we have 8 of the first 11 - what are the others that Saadya chose that will reveal or let us hear his division of the alef-bet into two?

Two remaining candidates are ב bet (letter 2), and ל lamed (letter 12), who must join the already captured מ mem, נ nun, and ה he as common prefixes. And the third is שׁ shin (letter 21) in its abbreviating of asher אֲשֶׁר, a relative pronoun that evokes the assonance of Psalm 1. These are the 11 letters that form themselves and the other letters into their grammatical space. They comprise the full set of all prefixes and suffixes in Hebrew. Do they really speak me or constitute my assembly?

Note this - אִישׁ ish and אִשָּׁה ishah and their plurals אֲנָשִׁים and נָּשִׁים are all composed of these letters only! Could we divide all the words of Hebrew into piles - those that use the first 11, those that are used by the first eleven, those that are independent of them? How do the first 11 behave in their roots and stems?

And what of my being - if I chose to be הָיָה and share the becoming of יְהֹוָה Hashem, or what of my death מוּתי and my harvest יְבוּלי?

(I had to work to spell life, death and resurrection with my first 11 only. Yes, I used to play cricket too. Stimulus for this post here and here.)

I can read

Yesterday my keyboard broke - too many cooties. So I turned off the computer. (This morning I am using the portable 's built in keyboard and have turned off the mouse to avoid the accidental deleting of large portions of text due to my thumb hitting the mouse. I have such warm thumbs they set off the highlight and delete on a whim.)


While the machine was turned off, I decided to begin reading the first few verses of every book of the TNK and writing them beginning at the back of my note book. I started with the other writings first (Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles), then began the end of the 12. Thus I discovered that - after three years of daily slogging and still refusing to learn grammar - I can read. I did it out loud - and practiced writing in the big square letters that are so hard to make. The brain still works - if you persist, you will be able to do it too.

אהבתי אתכם אמר יהוה

I have loved you-all says יהוה

Huh?

במה אהבתנו

what's this about your loving us?

Dreaming in Hebrew

Here's a post about how we must stand before God. Yes indeed we must and we do but it is not to say 'ולומר עשיתי כל מה שאני יכול' I have done all that I can.

There is much more that is done in me for me. As I noted there "To be called to faith is to wrestle - even if it is on behalf of others who are different. To stand before God with a clean heart is to stand cleansed not by one's own doing."

I dreamed these words in English and Hebrew - struggling in my sleep to translate. It is a very hard exercise and it woke me up at 4:30 am - and I have not done this before.

Not that I did all that I can

בַל־אֲשֶׁר עָשִׂיתִי יָכֹלְתִּי לַעֲשֹׂות

but that under your rebuke or under your mercy
in covenant with you I was known

וּבְחַסְדְּךָ וּבְחַסְדְּךָ בִּבְרִיתֶךָ אִוָּדַע

Wherever I go, East or West, North or South, heaven or hell
let it be that I find you there

בְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר־הִתְהַלַּכְתִּי יָמָּה וָקֵדְמָה וְצָפֹנָה וָנֶגְבָּה וּשָׁמַיִם וּשְּׁאֹול
וְהָיָה אִם־אִמְצְאךָ שָׁם

and he will answer
I made you for myself
I will go with you and will not leave you

וְאָמַר עָשִׂיתִי אֹתָם לִי וְהָלַכְתִּי אִתְּךְ וְלֹא אֶעֶזְבֶךָּ

It is not morality but mercy, the learning of faith
It is not a rule of words but endurance, the learning of hope
It is not sentiment but will, the learning of love

לֹא בְצִדְקָ כִּי אִם־בְּחֶסֶד סֵפֶר הָאֵמֻן
לֹא אִמְרֵי־יֹשֶׁר בְ כִּי אִם־בְּעֳמָד סֵפֶר הָתִקְוָה
לֹא בְמַשְׂכִּיֹּות כִּי אִם־בְּרְצֹונֹ סֵפֶר הָאַהֲבָה

So was I made for this my friend Ha-Shem?
I was made for him and desire is for me

הָעֻשֵּׂיתִי לזֶה רֵעִי יְהוָה
עֻשֵּׂיתִי לְנֶגְדֹּֽו וְעָלַי תְּשׁוּקָתֹֽו

Habakkuk 3

Just for fun, I thought I would try a reading of Habakkuk 3. I have kept Hebrew word order somewhat slavishly. What strikes me is the potential for reading a more positive theophany than some translations imply, a reading that does not limit itself to a local battle. I mention this because of

• the heading which uses the same word as Psalm 7,
• some of the rarer words for indignation (see this post),
• the poetic repetition of salvation,
• the strong linkages to the language of Psalm 110.

א תְּפִלָּה
לַחֲבַקּוּק הַנָּבִיא
עַל שִׁגְיֹנוֹת

1 A prayer
of Habakkuk the prophet
For the reels

ב יְהוָה שָׁמַעְתִּי שִׁמְעֲךָ יָרֵאתִי
יְהוָה פָּעָלְךָ בְּקֶרֶב שָׁנִים חַיֵּיהוּ
בְּקֶרֶב שָׁנִים תּוֹדִיעַ
בְּרֹגֶז רַחֵם תִּזְכּוֹר

2 יְהוָה, I have heard your report and I am afraid
יְהוָה, your work in the midst of the years, revive
in the midst of the years make it known
in wrath remember compassion

ג אֱלוֹהַּ מִתֵּימָן יָבוֹא
וְקָדוֹשׁ מֵהַר-פָּארָן
סֶלָה
כִּסָּה שָׁמַיִם הוֹדוֹ
וּתְהִלָּתוֹ מָלְאָה הָאָרֶץ

3 God comes from Teman
and the Holy One from mount Paran
Selah
His glory covers the heavens
and his praise fills the earth

ד וְנֹגַהּ כָּאוֹר תִּהְיֶה
קַרְנַיִם מִיָּדוֹ לוֹ
וְשָׁם חֶבְיוֹן עֻזֹּה

4 And a brightness as the light appears
Horns from his right hand he has
and therein lies the concealment of her strength

ה לְפָנָיו יֵלֶךְ דָּבֶר
וְיֵצֵא רֶשֶׁף לְרַגְלָיו

5 Before him goes correction
and burning coals emerge at his feet

ו עָמַד וַיְמֹדֶד אֶרֶץ
רָאָה וַיַּתֵּר גּוֹיִם
וַיִּתְפֹּצְצוּ הַרְרֵי-עַד
שַׁחוּ גִּבְעוֹת עוֹלָם
הֲלִיכוֹת עוֹלָם לוֹ

6 He stood and earth moved
he saw and set nations free
and the ancient mountains scattered
the everlasting hills bowed down
his walkabouts are everlasting

ז תַּחַת אָוֶן
רָאִיתִי אָהֳלֵי כוּשָׁן
יִרְגְּזוּן יְרִיעוֹת
אֶרֶץ מִדְיָן

7 under iniquity
I see the tents of Cushan
the curtains tremble
of the land of Midian

ח הֲבִנְהָרִים חָרָה יְהוָה
אִם בַּנְּהָרִים אַפֶּךָ
אִם-בַּיָּם עֶבְרָתֶךָ
כִּי תִרְכַּב עַל-סוּסֶיךָ
מַרְכְּבֹתֶיךָ יְשׁוּעָה

8 Against the rivers does יְהוָה burn?
Is your anger against the rivers
or your fury against the sea
that you ride upon your horses
upon your chariots of salvation?

ט עֶרְיָה תֵעוֹר קַשְׁתֶּךָ
שְׁבֻעוֹת מַטּוֹת אֹמֶר
סֶלָה
נְהָרוֹת
תְּבַקַּע-אָרֶץ

9 Bare exposed is your bow
oaths staves a word
Selah
Rivers
You divide earth

י רָאוּךָ יָחִילוּ הָרִים
זֶרֶם מַיִם עָבָר
נָתַן תְּהוֹם קוֹלוֹ
רוֹם יָדֵיהוּ נָשָׂא

10 Mountains saw you and birthed
a downpour of water passed over
the deep gives its voice
and its hands it lifts up on high

יא שֶׁמֶשׁ יָרֵחַ
עָמַד זְבֻלָה
לְאוֹר חִצֶּיךָ יְהַלֵּכוּ
לְנֹגַהּ בְּרַק חֲנִיתֶךָ

11 Sun and moon
stand exalted
to the light of your arrows they go
to the brightness of your shining spear

יב בְּזַעַם תִּצְעַד-אָרֶץ
בְּאַף תָּדוּשׁ גּוֹיִם

12 In indignation you tread earth
in anger you thresh nations

יג יָצָאתָ לְיֵשַׁע עַמֶּךָ
לְיֵשַׁע אֶת-מְשִׁיחֶךָ
מָחַצְתָּ רֹּאשׁ מִבֵּית רָשָׁע
עָרוֹת יְסוֹד עַד-צַוָּאר
סֶלָה

13 You emerge for the salvation of your people
for the salvation of your anointed
You wound the head from the house of the wicked
baring the foundation to the neck
Selah

יד נָקַבְתָּ בְמַטָּיו
רֹאשׁ פְּרָזָיו
יִסְעֲרוּ לַהֲפִיצֵנִי
עֲלִיצֻתָם כְּמוֹ-לֶאֱכֹל עָנִי בַּמִּסְתָּר

14 You have stricken through with his own staves
the head of his rulers
they stormed to scatter me
their joy is as if to devour the poor in secret

טו דָּרַכְתָּ בַיָּם סוּסֶיךָ
חֹמֶר מַיִם רַבִּים

15 You strode your horses in the sea
the heap of great waters

טז שָׁמַעְתִּי וַתִּרְגַּז בִּטְנִי
לְקוֹל צָלְלוּ שְׂפָתַי
יָבוֹא רָקָב בַּעֲצָמַי
וְתַחְתַּי אֶרְגָּז
אֲשֶׁר אָנוּחַ לְיוֹם צָרָה
לַעֲלוֹת לְעַם יְגוּדֶנּוּ

16 I heard and my belly trembled
at the voice my lips quivered
rottenness entered my bones
and under me I tremble
that I should rest in the day of trouble
when in his comings to the people he attacks them

יז כִּי-תְאֵנָה לֹא-תִפְרָח
וְאֵין יְבוּל בַּגְּפָנִים
כִּחֵשׁ מַעֲשֵׂה-זַיִת
וּשְׁדֵמוֹת לֹא-עָשָׂה אֹכֶל
גָּזַר מִמִּכְלָה צֹאן
וְאֵין בָּקָר בָּרְפָתִים

17 For though the fig not blossom
and there be no increase in the vines
fail the work of the olive
and the fields work no food
flock from the fold be cut off
and there be no herd in the stalls

יח וַאֲנִי בַּיהוָה אֶעְלוֹזָה
אָגִילָה בֵּאלֹהֵי יִשְׁעִי

18 yet I in יְהוָה will rejoice
I will exult in the God of my salvation

Ruth - pure story

Imagine you are sitting in the cool of the evening around a campfire and the voice begins

Vayehi bimei shepot hashoptim
- or if you prefer וַיְהִי בִּימֵי שְׁפֹט הַשֹּׁפְטִים

Now there was in the days of the judgment of the judges

What was? Have I got your attention? This is a chain of nouns - read slowly. Cover the transcription and sound out the Hebrew. The definite article is on the third noun so the other leading nouns inherit it. But time works backwards. When we hear bimei, בִּימֵי in days, we don't yet know if the days are specific or not. When we hear shepot, שְׁפֹט we don't yet know if judgment is specific, but when we here ha הַ - then hashoptim הַשֹּׁפְטִים, we place the story in the days of the judges. The specific is established but there is tension in the telling. The tension is built into the language. The end of the phrase is like a musical cadence, in this case, a half-close.

I rendered va וַ as now - but it is as if this is part of a continuing narrative. It is one of the many aspects of vav, in this case pronouced va because of the yod which follows it. The vav is used as a textual connector. Vav means hook as in the hooks that join the curtains to their places in the tabernacle. So vav hooks together words into a narrative. The vav walks like an upright human - are we all hooks to each other that we might make a holy temple for the dwelling place of Ha-Shem?

All this goes through your mind unconsciously as the storyteller begins. You shift a little on the log to taste the cool air and balance your limbs

vayehi ra`av ba-aretz
- notice the repeated word וַיְהִי רָעָב בָּאָרֶץ

and there was a famine in the land.

You note that this is a story - there are two invocations of 'once upon a time'. The identified time also has a curious name - the judgment of the judges - or when the judges were judging. Here we can see the 'root' שפט of a word and a plural form with the suffix ים.

וַיְהִי בִּימֵי שְׁפֹט הַשֹּׁפְטִים
וַיְהִי רָעָב בָּאָרֶץ

Who is the story about?

vayelek ish mibeyitlexem yehudah
וַיֵּלֶךְ אִישׁ מִבֵּית לֶחֶם יְהוּדָה
and he went a man from the house of bread (Bethlehem) of Judah

It's important, don't you think, to know that there was famine in the house of bread! It takes longer to say this fragment than the first two. Note how it begins with a va again and we don't know 'who' went quite yet nor where he went.

lagur bisdei mo-av

לָגוּר בִּשְׂדֵי מֹואָב
to stay in the fields of Moab

You slip from your perch on the log, relaxing into the desert sand behind, your back burrowing into its grainy touch. You're not going to stay in this sand for ever, but you make yourself a bit comfortable. Moab is a specific place so the chain of nouns is again specific. You think the storyteller is quite lilting with the poesy of the raconteur.

hu, ve-ishto, ushenei vanaiv
הוּא וְאִשְׁתֹּו וּשְׁנֵי בָנָֽיו
he, his wife, and his two sons

Must translate as his two sons in this case. [A different word for child will appear in verse 5 and in chapter 4 at the end of the story as we will see.] Note the flexibility of that hook - at the beginning of the first two sentences is preceded a yod and so was pronounced va. Now it precedes an alef and is pronounced ve and a shin where it becomes -u-. But it is all the same connector.

veshem ha-ish elimelek
וְשֵׁם הָאִישׁ אֱֽלִימֶלֶךְ
and the name of the man was Elimelek

Now for introductions by name. Each name has a story and a hope. The name of the man, God is king.

veshem ishto na`ami
וְשֵׁם אִשְׁתֹּו נָעֳמִי
and the name of his wife Naomi

The name of his wife, Pleasant

veshem shenei-vanaiv maxlon vechilion
וְשֵׁם שְׁנֵֽי־בָנָיו מַחְלֹון וְכִלְיֹון
and the name of his sons, Maxlon and Chilion

and the name of his sons, Mild, and Pining

Ephratim mibeyitlexem yehudah
אֶפְרָתִים מִבֵּית לֶחֶם יְהוּדָה
Ephratites from Bethlehem of Judah

In case you were asleep, the storyteller repeats where they were from with a little more information as to their tribe

vayabo-u sdei mo-av
וַיָּבֹאוּ שְׂדֵי־מֹואָב
and they came to the fields of Moab

and closes the bracket with where they were going to

vayiheyu sham
וַיִּֽהְיוּ־שָֽׁם
and they were there

and where they stayed.

vayamat elimelek ish na`ami
וַיָּמָת אֱלִימֶלֶךְ אִישׁ נָעֳמִי
and he died Elimelek the husband of Naomi

Whoa - wake up - something has happened. Notice the form of man אִישׁ (ish) and woman אשה (ishah) but with the vav suffix for 'his', it is אִשְׁתֹּו, (ishto) his wife.

vatisher hi ushenei vaneiah
וַתִּשָּׁאֵר הִיא וּשְׁנֵי בָנֶיהָ
and she was bereft and her two sons

She was bereft - passive voice - Niphal conjugation. The sons are her sons now that were earlier stated as his. Note the he הוּא (hu) and the she הִיא (hi) and the masculine בָנָיו and feminine בָנֶיהָ pronouns indicating this as part of the word for the children בן. That ב could have a dagesh (dot) in it when it stands alone. In this story, one would hear a 'v' but the word might also sound with a 'b' if it began a phrase. It depends on the preceding noises and stresses whether b or v is easier to say.

to be continued ...

Update: just found this resource on Ruth

Judaism and Hebrew Prayer (2)

This is a most difficult book to summarize even in reading the first 10 pages. But Reif reveals that he is very familiar with the scholarship of the last 200 years, with its biases (more on poetry piyyut), conflicts (philological versus form criticism) and omissions (no major study for 75 years). The first 10 pages are thick and complex in their allusions. I know of almost none of the scholars (Only Lawrence Hoffman). Does this mean that such a book is simply too far beyond a layman in the field? Too bad - I am more stubborn that that.

A couple of points he makes on the serious lack in traditional work on the history of Christian liturgy: NT scholars isolated from Jewish scholars, and both from liturgical scholars - so no findings in one area are sufficiently related to those in another. He lays the same criticism against Jewish researchers. He lays down the gauntlet on page 10:

It is often claimed that the earliest Christian liturgy was based on Jewish forms of prayer as preserved in rabbinic tradition; and yet serious questions are now being raised about the basic and relative natures of Jewish and Christian worship that may ultimately lead to a complete reappraisal of this particular sacred cow, and a consequent revision of an important aspect of Jewish and Christian religious history. A good example is Arnold Goldberg's brief but important article in which he argues that rabbinic and synagogal worship is not liturgy in the Christian sense. It is a substitute for the suspended Temple liturgy which 'shows liturgical aspects, but it is ... not a liturgy but rather a worship of the heart.' ... even the most basic facts about the early liturgical relationship between Jews and Christians must be rethought.

Goldberg's critique does not strike a note with me. What is a liturgy if not 'a worship of the heart'? Quite apart from my own ignorance of the available Qumran fragments, and armed only with experience in Sabbath worship and the Christian Eucharist, can I make sense of his challenge? Liturgy - particularly the liturgy of the Eucharist - is a drama depicting the entry of Christ into the Holy place and our approach and entry in him and with him and to him to eat of him at his own table. This is itself a temple liturgy - not a substitute for it. Goldberg's objection falls. Rief's question stands is starkest contrast - how indeed could Christian liturgy evolve from a substitute for a suspended Temple liturgy? It is a radical replacement.

I am not advocating supercessionism with this statement, just the same replacement of the altar that Hebrews advocates. The children of Korah would approve.

[update] and I should add that as a student of Hebrew, the first place to learn Biblical Hebrew is on the Sabbath at the local synagogue. Here, whenever I go, I see the Lord in the praises of his people. As a substitute for the suspended Temple liturgy, it does very well.

Judaism and Hebrew Prayer - Stefan Reif

This book has been in my library - a present from my son-in-law - for some years. I got stuck the first time through - now it is time to take it up again from the beginning, to see what we know or not.

Are the origins of the synagogue to be sought in a reaction to the centralization of worship in Judaism, or in a wider context? When did prayer become central to Jews and how are the conflicts and tensions of the Talmudic period reflected in the history of its liturgy?

These are two questions that professor Reif addresses.

How, in this context, did we learn to pray? Several times in the last two weeks, I have noted posts on the Lord's Prayer. Where does this prayer come from and how do we approach, appropriate, or pray or not such a prayer?

Jeffrey Gibson of Cross-talk particularly intends, if I read him correctly, to question the traditional rationale of the origin of the Lord's Prayer - so in obedience to the call to discipline my reading, I intend to read Reif and post what I find in his inferences about the origins of Hebrew Prayer.

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?

Reading vertically did I miss any?

I think this makes as much sense as Sesame Street's abcdefk, jklmnop, qrstuvxyz (if you are young enough to remember that song.) Can you make a sentence or two with the following words - father, great, save me, gold, wheat, all, king, sign, dust, righteousness, horn, oil of gladness, instruction.

This challenge can go beyond the Hebraists to English speakers. The letters in red below - if they don't get messed up in publication - are the letters of the Hebrew Alef-Bet in sequence. I bet I could have chosen a little better to make the sentence easier or more meaningful.

Father, in your great mercy, save me.
With golden wheat, feed us all.
Your king, a sign in the dust of righteousness,
raises our horn with the oil of gladness,
making present your instruction.

אַב
גָּדֹל
הוֹשִׁיעֵנִי
זָהָב
חִטִּים
כָּל
מֶלֶךְ
נֵּס
ָעָפר
צֶדֶק
קֶרֶן
שֶׁמֶן
שָׂשׂוֹן
תּוֹרַת

Alef is for apple and opple, and epple, and oopple

[Update: continuing the challenge here.]
My first draft of an alef-bet book is advanced from my last post. I am thinking it might also inform a sentence (or maybe a paragraph) which would help remember the sequence of the alef-bet. That and grammar are still the bane of my memory!

If any care to comment - please help me correct any typos or other errors of judgment (even).

Here is (most of) the text extracted from the image:

A first draft of an alef-bet book סֵפֶר אָלֶף-בֵּית עִבְרִי‎ Sepher alef-beit Ivri אלף Alef is for אַבְרָהָם Abraham, pronounced Avraham The first part of the word, אַב, is father בּית Bet is for בַּת שָׁבַע Bathsheba, pronounced Batshava The first part of the word, בַּת, is daughter גימל Gimel is for גָּדוֹל Great, gadol, Psalm 96 כִּי גָדוֹל יְהוָה For great is the LORD דלת Daleth is for דָּוִד David. The vav and the bet (vet) can both make the v sound הא He is for הוֹשִׁיעֵנִי Save me, hoshieini, Psalm 3:8 קוּמָה יְהוָה הוֹשִׁיעֵנִי אֱלֹהַי Arise LORD, save me, my God וו Vav is for וַשׁתִּי Vashti. Esther 1:9 גַּם וַשְׁתִּי הַמַּלְכָּה Also, Vashti, the queen... זין Zayin is for זָהָב Gold, zahav, Psalm 19:11 הַנֶּחֱמָדִים מִזָּהָב More to be desired than gold חית Chet is for חִטִּים Wheat, chittim, Psalm 147:14 חֵלֶב חִטִּים, יַשְׂבִּיעֵךְ A fatness of wheat he gives you טית Tet is for טַעַם Taste, ta`am, Psalm 34:9 טַעֲמוּ וּרְאוּ, כִּי-טוֹב יְהוָה Taste and see that the LORD is good יוד Yod is for יָדְךָ Your hand, yadeka, Psalm 139:10 גַּם-שָׁם, יָדְךָ תַנְחֵנִי Even there your hand would lead me כף Kaf is for כָּל All, kol, Psalm 65:3 עָדֶיךָ, כָּל-בָּשָׂר יָבֹאוּ To you all flesh will come. למד Lamed is for לָמָה Why, lamah, Psalm 22:1 אֵלִי אֵלִי, לָמָה עֲזַבְתָּנִי My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? מם Mem is for מֶלֶךְ King, melek, Psalm 24:10 הוּא מֶלֶךְ הַכָּבוֹד He is the King of glory נון Nun is for נֵּס Sign, nes, Psalm 60:6 נָתַתָּה לִּירֵאֶיךָ נֵּס You give to those fearing you a sign סמך Samech is for סְעָרָה Sustain me, S'arah. Psalm 119:117 סְעָדֵנִי וְאִוָּשֵׁעָה Sustain me and I will be saved עין Ayin is for עָפָר Dust, 'apar, Psalm 103:14 זָכוּר, כִּי-עָפָר אֲנָחְנוּ He remembers that we are but dust פא Peh is for פְּצֵנִי Rescue me, petsani, Psalm 103:11 פְּצֵנִי וְהַצִּילֵנִי Rescue me and deliver me צדי Tsadi is for צֶדֶק Right, tsedek, Psalm 23:3 יַנְחֵנִי בְמַעְגְּלֵי-צֶדֶק He guides me in paths of righteousness קוף Qof is for קֶרֶן Horn, qeren, Psalm 132:17 אַצְמִיחַ קֶרֶן לְדָוִד I will cause to sprout a horn of David רישׁ Resh is for רְשָׁעִים Wicked, rashaim, Psalm 1:6 וְדֶרֶךְ רְשָׁעִים תֹּאבֵד but the way of the wicked will perish שׁין / שׂין Shin / Sin is for שֹׁשַׁנִּים and שָׂשׂוֹן gladness and lilies, Psalm 45:1 and 7 עַל-שֹׁשַׁנִּים At the place of the lilies שֶׁמֶן שָׂשׂוֹן the oil of gladness תף Taf is for תּוֹרַתָוֹרַת Teaching, Torah, Psalm 19:8 תּוֹרַת יְהוָה תְּמִימָה The teaching of the LORD is complete