Direct to Hebrew Mastery

About

The Direct to Hebrew program is a beginning course in reading the Hebrew Bible, but by the end of it you will be able to read the Bible in Hebrew. The Hebrew Bible is called the Tanakh. Only the first five books are the Torah though that word is sometimes used inclusively. We will also teach the Hebrew Gospels, though not in the beginning program.

Contents

The Hebrew Reading program contains the following materials:

• Aleph Bet vowel pointing and consonant cards
• Hebrew Primer for Reading – 70 pages
• Hebrew Grammar Text & Posters
• Direct to Mastery Hebrew Vocabulary w audio disk
• Torah Bible Readings from Genesis w audio disk
• Pronomial Ending Cards for subject & object pronouns, nouns, verbs & prepositions

The Aleph Bet Cards are a great system which includes mnemonics and provides practice for learning Hebrew letter-sounds and syllables. Use them for practice along with the Primer. The Primer is excellent. The lessons are easy, takes only 3-5 minutes or so per page. Do five pages a day and you will be reading Hebrew in two weeks. The Torah readings start with Genesis chapters 1-7 along with the audio.

It is all good but I think the most exemplary part is the Direct to Hebrew Mastery Vocabulary. We cover the most used words in Hebrew in order of frequency. The first lesson is those words occurring more than 1000 times each in the Bible. Each week’s vocabulary is about 50 words upon which you are tested until you master them. After all, which word that occurs more than 1000 times do you not need to master. The seventh lesson out of ten total, covers the Hebrew words that occur more than 100 times each.

We recommend the Zondervan Hebrew Readers’ Bible for your continuing practice, although that book is not included in the price or contents of your program. Every word that occurs less than 100 times in the Hebrew Bible has the definition footnoted at the bottom of each page. So if you learn the ten weekly lessons in Direct to Mastery, then you can read the entire Zondervan Hebrew Readers’ Bible without looking up a single word.

The Direct to Hebrew Mastery Vocabulary uses mnemonic pictures to make memorization of the vocabulary simple and easy. There is a picture, depicting the word meaning, along with a sentence that not only gives the meaning of the word but includes an English word that sounds somewhat like the Hebrew word. 80% of the cortex of the brain is devoted to visual memory. It is our most critical sense. Things that are pictured are remembered easily four times better than abstracts. You will find that remembering the picture and the sentence that explains the picture will come easily and thus will the sound and sense of the Hebrew words.

Although we do have all ten vocabulary lessons and testing exams, we have not finished with the mnemonic pictures of all the vocabulary yet. We have done about 150 words so far. We will continue this same mnemonic method into Advanced Hebrew, the next course. The first 100 most frequently used words account for 50% of all word occurrences, not counting proper nouns like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Coca Cola – many, if not most, of which you know anyway. The first 500 most frequently used words account for 75% of all word occurrences. We cover the first 500 and more.

80% of the verbs used in the Hebrew Bible are in the Past Perfect Tense. The other 20% are in the Imperfect whose endings are similar and easy to learn. Using the Pronomial Cards you will master the Past Perfect verb endings, also the endings for the possessive nouns, subject and object pronouns, and object of prepositions. The grammar is amazingly simple when done using our system. As for other systems, well just crack open a Hebrew Grammar and you will be asleep within minutes. The incredible truth is that most of that, 90% anyway, you don’t need to know to read the Hebrew Bible. They will have you memorizing all the rules for changes in vowel sounds, and much more that is not necessary. All the vowel sounds in Hebrew Scripture are clearly marked. When you get to the point of needing to do serious grammatically correct writing in Hebrew – you will need those rules – but not simply to read and understand Torah.

Blessings, Dr J

Instructions

1. Practice daily with the Aleph Bet Cards until you know all the letters.This should not take more than a week but you can start the Hebrew Primer immediately in any case. Five of the letters have a final form used when they come at the end of a word. The Hebrew Vowel Cards are larger because they are represent the vowel pointing that is added above or below the consonant. Place any consonant in the empty square of the Vowel Card to create and practice syllables in Hebrew.
   There is a Hebrew Vowel Chart that should be on card stock or laminated. Keep this handy as a reference when you read.
2. Use the worksheets for handwritten letters, which should be in your folder.Keep one as a master. It should not take long to be able to handwrite your letters.
3. Do 5 pages of the Hebrew Primer daily.It should only take perhaps 2-3 minutes per page. If you do this every day, in 14 days you will be reading Hebrew and you may begin your Hebrew Torah Readings.
4. Once you learn the alphabet begin the Hebrew Primer, and start doing your Hebrew Vocabulary in the Direct to Hebrew Vocabulary Program.This gives you a mnemonic picture and phrase for each word, memorize them. Instructions are in the workbook. You will test every five pages (50 words).
   A 100% score is needed for mastery.
5. Torah readings: identify and define each word in the reading.Most will be easy because they are in the translation. Some words you will have to look up online. Google Translate is one program you can use but not the only one.
   You can download a Hebrew keyboard program from logos.com. You will need to enter the consonants to get the meaning.
   A chapter a week is reasonable. Go faster if you please. Be as regular as you can.
   Daily practice, even for a relatively short period, will be much more effective than once in a while doing a lot. Keep the ball rolling.
6. Obtain a Zondervan Hebrew Readers Bible

Notice!!!