Well, it took a while, but here is my first post. Jonah 1:1!!
1:1 וַיְהִי דְּבַר־יְהוָה אֶל־יוֹנָה בֶן־אֲמִתַּי לֵאמֹר׃
For today, I will only address the first word ... וַיְהִי
My this one was a hard one to figure out how to do. I hope that this will do it justice... take a look... and listen at the end.
**** The video has been updated (3 1 09) ****
Alright, alright. Cheesy, i know, but i hope it got the contextual meaning across.
Just for some background information, this word comes from the root היה and is a פָּעַל or קַל form.
What are the different forms of this one as it progresses through the tenses? It is a tough one. I'll let that be a bit of homework for you if you will. : ) I'll give the answers next time. (haha... I hope I can figure out how!)
Bye for now!
From what I have heard about traditional studies in Biblical Hebrew the emphasis is mainly placed upon learning grammar and the English equivalents of the words. While there is a time and place for grammar in the study of Hebrew, I have learned through my courses in Hebrew that one of the best ways to learn is to emphasize on learning the language more than the grammar. The grammar will come later, but the language should come first. This of course is debatable, but what I wish to do with this post is not to start a debate. Rather, I want to give a kind of preface to this blog by stating that my main focus in this blog, at least at first, will not be grammar, but rather correlating vocabulary to the correct meaning of a word. This will not be done through English equivalents most of the time, however. Instead I will use pictures and other Biblical contexts to bring out the correct meaning of the words, that way our spheres of inference upon definition in Hebrew and English are distinct.
I learned the basics of this type of method while taking part in a Hebrew course that used several books written by Randall Buth. (An excellent set of books which I would deeply recommend. It is well worth the time and money. It is called Living Biblical Hebrew. If you are interested, you can find more about it - as well as order it - at http://www.biblicalulpan.org/) I will try deeply not to copy anything from the course. Such would be plagiarism and a violate of copyright law no doubt. Instead, I will try to synthesize my own pictures and helps. If at any time I do violate such a law I would ask to be notified and it shall be rectified.
So, basically, if you are expecting a lot of grammar, this is probably not the blog for you. I will probably touch on grammar here and there, but not deeply. I am more interested in being able to read the language before learning a ton of grammar. If that sounds fun and interesting to you, join me! We’ll hopefully have some fun together!
!שַׁלוֹם
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