Biblical Hebrew: Learning a Sacred Language
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Episodes
S1 E1 - Studying Biblical Hebrew
June 21, 201830minUse the word "hallelujah" as a gateway to exploring the three different components of the Biblical Hebrew writing system: letters, vowels, and diacriticals. Then, start learning Hebrew the natural way with a look at Genesis 1:3 and the first thing God does in creating heaven and Earth.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E2 - Learning the Aleph Bet
June 21, 201830minGet to know the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and how Biblical Hebrew is pronounced. Surprises include the silent letter aleph (the first letter of "God"), the tricky letter samekh, which resembles an "o" but sounds like an "s," and nearly identical pairs of letters such as gimel and nun.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E3 - The Tiberian Vowel System
June 21, 201833minThe Tiberian system of marking vowels in Hebrew has been used exclusively for more than 1,000 years. In this episode, discover the signs that mark short and long vowels, and learn how vowels can change their spelling (and, slightly, their sound) without changing their meaning.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E4 - Roots of Semitic Verbs
June 21, 201835minEvery Hebrew verb, and almost every noun and adjective, is based on a root, a group of three (or sometimes two) consonants. Here, Professor Carasik teaches you how to begin recognizing the roots of verbs in Biblical Hebrew, then he discusses how God is referred to in the Hebrew Bible.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E5 - Hebrew Verb Forms and the Definite Article
June 21, 201836minGet an introduction to the five different Hebrew verb forms: finite, infinitive, adjective, participle, and imperative. Plus, learn three ways of identifying something as definite (rather than indefinite): by using the definite article (ha), by labeling it with a personal pronoun, and by naming it.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E6 - Hebrew's Attached Prepositions
June 21, 201831minExplore three Hebrew letters that attach to the beginning of other words to create a new word. Then, armed with this new knowledge, read your first complete paragraph in Biblical Hebrew from start to finish: the story of the first day of creation in Genesis 1:1-5.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E7 - Adjective Forms and Agreement in Hebrew
June 21, 201833minUnlike English, Hebrew adjectives have four forms (not one), and they must agree with their nouns based on whether they're singular or plural, and masculine or feminine. Learn the four forms of adjectives (tov, tovah, tovim, tovot), several adjectives, and two ways to put nouns and adjectives together.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E8 - Irregular Hebrew Nouns and Adjectives
June 21, 201833minSometimes it's the simpler nouns that are the most likely to surprise you. Examine several of the most common non-obvious nouns (irregular nouns) and adjectives (demonstratives) in Biblical Hebrew. These include family names (daughter, son, brother), as well as "this" (zeh, zot) and "these" (eleh).Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E9 - Hebrew Pronouns and Pronominal Suffixes
June 21, 201832minHebrew has a ton of different pronouns. In this episode, get an introduction to pronouns like "I" (ani, anokhi) and "we" (anahnu), as well as three different flavors of pronominal suffixes. Then, practice your new skills with a Bible verse describing the fourth day of creation.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E10 - How Hebrew Letters Behave
June 21, 201835minWhat do different letters do differently? Here, take a comprehensive look at the different ways Hebrew letters behave and start deciphering words in Biblical Hebrew that you don't already recognize. Topics include guttural letters (the orneriest consonants in the Hebrew language) and roots that start with yud.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E11 - Perfect and Imperfect Hebrew Verbs
June 21, 201838minFocus on two of the five forms of Biblical Hebrew verbs: the perfect and the imperfect, both of which have person, gender, and number. The perfect, as you'll learn, is always marked by endings. The imperfect, however, is marked by prefix letters as well: aleph, nun, tav, and yud.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E12 - Segholate Nouns and Pausal Forms
June 21, 201835minTurn now to segholate nouns: nouns that feature seghols ("-eh" vowels). By looking at segholate nouns in real Hebrew phrases from the Bible, you'll start to get more comfortable with what Professor Carasik calls the "EH-eh rhythm" and the various grammatical forms that use the pattern.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E13 - The Construct Form: Hebrew's Trailer Hitch
June 21, 201831minBy allowing you to attach another noun to your first noun, the construct form acts as a sort of trailer hitch in Biblical Hebrew. Once attached, the first noun in construct "belongs" to the second. Here, learn construct forms by revisiting the first and fourth day of creation.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E14 - Forming Hebrew Construct Chains
June 21, 201832minContinue your study of construct forms with prepositions in Biblical Hebrew that are combinations of simple prepositions you've already learned (example: lifnei, or "before"). Then, look at irregular nouns with unusual construct forms whose frequent occurrence makes them critical to understanding Biblical Hebrew.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E15 - Hebrew Verb Classifications: Binyanim
June 21, 201833minIn Biblical Hebrew, the binyan acts as a sort of stem or conjugation for verbs. Get a re-introduction to verbs with their binyan identification, learn how the binyanim got their names, and focus on a single root in different binyanim to get a feel for what the binyanim do to a verb's meaning.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E16 - Question Words in Hebrew
June 21, 201836minFrom mi ("Who?") and lama lo ("Why not?") to eikh ("How?") and matai ("When?"), discover how to recognize the words that tell you when a question is coming up in Biblical Hebrew. Why is this so important? Because there's no such thing as a question mark in Biblical Hebrew.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E17 - Hebrew Participles
June 21, 201836minReturn to the verbal system with Professor Carasik's helpful explanation of the third of the five Hebrew verb forms: the participle. One of the ways you'll master the verbal adjective in Biblical Hebrew is by working your way through Genesis 22:7.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E18 - Counting in Hebrew
June 21, 201831minIn this fun episode, start to count in Hebrew, from one to 10,000. You'll learn a children's rhyme for counting from one to four, the construct form of numbers, the ordinal numbers, some helpful shortcuts such as how to refer to a "pair" of something, and more.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E19 - Hebrew Roots with Guttural Letters
June 21, 201833minFocus your attention here on categories of verbs from the Qal binyan with roots whose guttural letters (hey, het, and ayin) tend to "misbehave." Central to this episode are three rules about how gutturals behave, as well as relevant examples in passages from the Hebrew Bible.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E20 - Hebrew's Lamed-Hey Roots
June 21, 201834minLamed-hey roots are those roots where, in the dictionary, the third radical of a verb (the lamed) is a hey. Here, learn how to work with some of the most common lamed-hey roots, including banah ("build"), hayah ("live"), anah ("answer"), panah ("turn"), and kalah ("be over").Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E21 - Hebrew's Roots Beginning with Yud
June 21, 201835minRoots that begin with yud are plentiful in Hebrew, and very common. Professor Carasik walks you through a list of some of the most common first-yud verbs, including yada ("know"), yatza ("go out"), yarash ("take possession"), and yashav ("settle").Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E22 - Irregular Hebrew Verbs
June 21, 201835minVery few verbs in Hebrew are irregular. Those that are, as you'll learn here, are not very difficult, but they do work a little differently than what you're used to seeing. In this episode, learn how to master irregular Hebrew verbs by focusing on them individually.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E23 - Hebrew's Hollow Verbs
June 21, 201836minWelcome to what may be the strangest verb roots of all: those that have only two consonants, not three. Here, explore the general rules about these hollow verbs, and build a list of commonly used hollow verbs you can refer to when reading Biblical Hebrew.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E24 - The Infinitive in Hebrew
June 21, 201832minThe infinitive verb form is used to describe the action of a verb (as in "There's a time to rend ... and a time to mend."). Professor Carasik walks you through the different infinitive forms, then guides you through Ecclesiastes 3: what he calls the "mother lode" of the Hebrew infinitive.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buyS1 E25 - Jussives, Cohortatives, and "Hava Nagila"
June 21, 201838minExplore how Biblical Hebrew expresses intention (as in phrases like yehi or, or "Let there be light."). You'll encounter jussives, which are only found in lamed-hey, hollow, and Hiphil verbs; and cohortatives, which invite collective action (as in the famous song, "Hava Nagila").Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
Extras
Bonus
Biblical Hebrew: Learning a Sacred Language
Professor Michael Carasik has designed these 36 episodes as your authoritative primer on everything from the Hebrew alphabet and punctuation marks to essential vocabulary and advanced grammatical rules. Whether you’re just starting out on a study of Hebrew or you already know the basics, these lectures are a helpful resource that include line-by-line readings of passages from the Hebrew Bible. .
Professor Michael Carasik has designed these 36 episodes as your authoritative primer on everything from the Hebrew alphabet and punctuation marks to essential vocabulary and advanced grammatical rules. Whether you’re just starting out on a study of Hebrew or you already know the basics, these lectures are a helpful resource that include line-by-line readings of passages from the Hebrew Bible. .
Professor Michael Carasik has designed these 36 episodes as your authoritative primer on everything from the Hebrew alphabet and punctuation marks to essential vocabulary and advanced grammatical rules. Whether you’re just starting out on a study of Hebrew or you already know the basics, these lectures are a helpful resource that include line-by-line readings of passages from the Hebrew Bible. .
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