SUMMARY:

• Biblical Hebrew is the primary language that the 39 books of the Tanach are written in.

(The Tanach is the Hebrew Bible, sometimes called the Old Testemant.

• Biblical Hebrew is written and read from right to left.

• Hebrew has its own alphabet.

➢ Hebrew letters do not have uppercase and lowercase forms.

➢ Hebrew letters can be written in different scripts. A script is the way the letters

look. The script used in this course, as well as most mod ern Hebrew Bibles, is

called the Babylonian script.

➢ Hebrew uses vowel points, which are small symbols written underneath of the

letters, to indicate vowel sounds (i.e., the sounds of A, E, I, O, and U).

• Hebrew letters and vowels can be pronounced in different ways. These different ways of

pronouncing Hebrew are called dialects. This course teaches the Modern dialect, also

known as the Israeli dialect. You may hear some of the letters and vowels pronounced

differently from speakers using different dialects.

➢ The Modern dialect is considered the standard way of speaking Hebrew in

Israel today. Since we don’t know exactly how Hebrew was pronounced in

Biblical times and places, we are teaching the most popular modern way to

pronounce it.

• The goal of this course is to provide a good base of knowledge that you can build on if you

take more advanced Hebrew courses in the future. It is intended for beginners only.

➢ This course only teaches words that are used in the Tanach. This course will be

useful for reading the Bible, but not so much for conversing in Hebrew.

➢ This course sometimes oversimplifies the rules of the Hebrew language to make This course sometimes oversimplifies the rules of the Hebrew language to make them easy to remember and use. As we progress through the course, these rules them easy to remember and use. As we progress through the course, these rules will be explained in greater detaiwill be explained in greater detail.

• Every video lesson has a corresponding summary like this one. Future summaries will also Every video lesson has a corresponding summary like this one. Every lesson also have exercises that you can complete, so you can practice the skills you are learning. For have exercises that you can complete, so you can practice the skills you are learning. For the best experience with this course, we strongly encourage you to complthe best experience with this course, we strongly encourage you to complete these excersises.