Brief Intro to Hebrew
A Brief Introduction to Hebrew
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Preface .......................................................................................................... 1
The Hebrew Alphabet.................................................................................... 2
A Simple Vocabulary .................................................................................... 6
Deeper Meanings......................................................................................... 11
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Preface
To be clear, this lesson is not intended to make you an expert in Conversational Hebrew.
The goal of this lesson is to bring you up to the level I'm at (which I assure you is still
very minimal), and to help you develop an appreciation of -- and desire for -- the original
language of the Old Testament.
Before going any further, I will admit I am having difficulty with Hebrew, for three main
reasons:
1) Several letters look alike.
Look at these Hebrew letters:
Clearly, these are four distinct letters. But for myself, if the text is printed very small, or
not drawn clearly when hand-printed (block letters), I find it very difficult to recognize
and distinguish certain letters.
2) Hebrew has no true vowels.
In Hebrew, a two-syllable word can be formed by as few as three letters which an
English-speaker would consider consonants. Such a word is not merely guttural, nor is it
an acronym (such as NATO). Such a word has distinct vowel sounds in its syllables.
Also, those Hebrew letters which can be used as vowels -- including those which to us
would seem to be true vowels -- can vary widely in such usage.
3) Several letters have more than one distinct sound.
An easy example is the letter Bet, which generally equates to our letter B. However, it
can also be used for the V sound.
(Modern Hebrew uses various "dots" or marks around the letters to differentiate the
various sounds a given letter may have. You may have seen examples of this on such
A Brief Introduction to Hebrew – Zero Faith Saint
things as signs or posters. However, this is far beyond the scope of this lesson, and will
not be addressed here.)
Now, this is not to say that Hebrew is a language that is full of errors. Considering that
this is the language God gave to His chosen people, probably the smartest thing to say is
that Hebrew functions as designed.
After all, every language has its variations and eccentricities. I don't know if it's true, but
I've often heard that (American) English is the most difficult foreign language to learn.
And our language certainly has its oddities, as illustrated by this smart(-alecky) title from
Dr. Seuss:
The Tough coughs as he ploughs the Dough
If you're like me, you probably had to work that title around a bit before you finally
figured it out.
So, having gotten all these "cautions", as it were, out of the way, let's proceed with the
first lesson…
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The Hebrew alphabet
An important note: Hebrew is read right-to-left. I'll remind you of that when we get to
Part 2, which will present a simple vocabulary.
The Hebrew alphabet contains twenty-two (22) letters. The first two letters are Alef and
Bet. Just as our word alphabet comes from the first two Greek letters, Alpha and Beta, so
too the Hebrew alphabet is called the alefbet. That name shall be used from this point on
throughout the lessons. The Alef generally performs as a vowel like our letter A. The Bet,
as mentioned, generally is used for the B sound, but can also be used for the V sound.
The third letter is Gimel, which equates to the "hard" pronunciation of our letter G, as in
God.
The fourth letter in the alefbet is Dalet, which equates to our letter D.
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A Brief Introduction to Hebrew – Zero Faith Saint
(If you have a basic familiarity with the Greek alphabet, you'll note that the alefbet starts
with the same ABGD pattern.)
The fifth letter is Hey, which generally behaves like our letter H, but can also provide an
ah or ha vowel/syllable sound.
The sixth letter of the alefbet is Vav. This letter can act like our consonant V, or it can act
like a vowel.
The seventh letter is Zayin, which is similar to our letter Z.
The eighth letter of the alefbet is Chet, which has an unusual sound for English-speakers.
The Chet is guttural, sounding like the "ch" sound in the German ach.
The ninth letter is Tet, which equates to our T.
The tenth letter is Yood, which approximates our letter Y.
The eleventh letter in the Hebrew alefbet is Kaf. This letter can have two sounds: It can
sound like our K, or it can be guttural like the Chet.
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A Brief Introduction to Hebrew – Zero Faith Saint
Lamed is the twelfth letter, and equates to our L.
Mem is the thirteenth letter, and equates to our M.
Noon is the fourteenth letter of the alefbet, and equates to our N.
The fifteenth letter of the alefbet is Samech, which equates to our S.
The sixteenth letter of the alefbet is Ayin. It is very unusual, in that it has no true sound
of its own. It's often used as a vowel. However, in certain Arabic, Yiddish and other
"non-traditional Hebrew" words (my description only, for convenience here), it can have
other sounds. When we get to the vocabulary lesson, I'll try to phoneticize it (and the
other letters, for that matter) as accurately as I can figure out.
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A Brief Introduction to Hebrew – Zero Faith Saint
The seventeenth letter of the alefbet is Pey. This letter can sound like P as in pan, but is
can also sound like F as fan.
The eighteenth letter of the alefbet is Tsadik. This is an interesting letter. Let me
approach it this way: The Russian word which in previous decades had been
transliterated as "czar" has in more recent years been transliterated as "tsar". That initial
"ts" sound, which for us obviously takes two letters, is in Hebrew represented by this
single letter, the Tsadik.
The nineteenth letter of the alefbet is Qof. It has a sound like K, but for clarification I will
follow the academic approach of Hebrew4Christians.com, phoneticizing it as Q to
distinguish it from Kaf.
Reysh is the twentieth letter, and equates to our R.
Sheen is the twenty-first letter of the alefbet, and like several other letters it can be used
for two sounds: "Sh" as in its own name, or "S" as in seen.
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A Brief Introduction to Hebrew – Zero Faith Saint
The twenty-second and final letter of the Hebrew alefbet is Tav. This letter equates to our
T.
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A Simple Vocabulary
In this part of the lesson, I will present to you several Hebrew words using the actual
modern alefbet, along with phoneticized pronunciations. The goal here is simply to give
you basic examples of how the letters work together, which is quite different from
(American) English.
The first word we will start with in this
vocabulary lesson is the Hebrew word
most people are familiar with already:
Shalom. The sheen presents its standard
sh sound (remember, Hebrew reads rightto-left), and the lamed its l sound. Note
that there is no letter between the sheen
and the lamed; yet there is a distinct
syllable, which presents an ah sound, as
in father. After the lamed is the vav,
which in this word presents a long o
sound, as in home, followed by mem (m).
So in this word we have in the first
syllable a vowel sound where this no
vowel -- or any other letter -- between
two letters we would consider
consonants, and in the second syllable a
letter we would consider a consonant
acting as a vowel.
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A Brief Introduction to Hebrew – Zero Faith Saint
As more and more Christians are
becoming interested in the Jewish roots of
Christianity, more and more Hebrew
words are being added to their
vocabularies. For example, many
Christians now know that the original
Hebrew name for Passover is Pesach.
If you've ever shopped in a grocery store
during Passover, you've probably seen
free Haggadah booklets displayed with
the other Passover products. I've used one
as a source for several of the words in this
lesson. Here is Haggadah in its Hebrew
spelling.
You're probably familiar with the
Passover dinner also being referred to by
its Hebrew name, Seder.
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A Brief Introduction to Hebrew – Zero Faith Saint
The prayers recited during Passover,
consisting of Psalm 113 through Psalm
118, are collectively the Hallel.
If you've ever participated in a Passover
Seder (and you're very blessed if you
have!), you probably remember the sweet
treat, Charoset. This fruit-and-nut paste
has, as do all Seder elements, a symbolic
meaning. Moreover, at the Seders I've
been to, when the symbolic meal is over,
the charoset quickly becomes a readilyconsumed desert.
Again, if you've attended a Passover
Seder, you may recall the Dayenu, the
song in which the accomplishments of
God in freeing the Children of Israel are
listed successively, each one responded to
with the phrase, "It would have been
enough!"
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A Brief Introduction to Hebrew – Zero Faith Saint
Hamotzi is the blessing said over the two
loaves of bread eaten during Shabbat
meals.
Here is an example of a proper name in
Hebrew: Aaron, the brother of Moses. (So
why don't I have Moses' name here also?
Very simple: a lack of planning.)
From a brother, let's go to children now.
Along with shalom, several other Hebrew
words have long been incorporated into
our English lexicon, transliterated into
reasonably accurate pronunciations. Two
such examples are bar mitzvah and bat
mitzvah, the names of the Jewish comingof-age ceremonies. These terms translate
into "Son of the Commandment”…
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A Brief Introduction to Hebrew – Zero Faith Saint
… and "Daughter of the Commandment"
respectively.
And from a brother and children, let's
visit father. You're no doubt familiar with
the cry, "Abba, Father!" (Mark 14:36).
Here is Abba in its Hebrew spelling.
Zion is one of the most important
placenames in our Bible. Here is Zion in
its Hebrew spelling and pronunciation.
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A Brief Introduction to Hebrew – Zero Faith Saint
In Genesis 32:27-28, we see Jacob
renamed Israel by the Man with whom he
wrestled. These are two of the most
significant names in Scripture.
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Deeper Meanings
Although I describe this lesson as “a brief introduction to Hebrew”, in this third and final
part we're actually going to go deeper into the meanings of some words, and indeed
deeper into the meanings of the individual letters. This is to not only show you the value
of learning about the Hebrew language, but also to impart to you the importance of
getting into a good teaching church or Bible-study group.
If you've ever searched through an encyclopedia, or even a higher-grade dictionary, no
doubt you've seen that each alphabetical section starts with not just a large-type image of
an upper- and lower-case letter in our modern English alphabet; it usually includes
illustrations of forms of that letter from various older alphabets which over time became
the letters we use today.
It's the same with Hebrew. The oldest written form, known as Paleo-Hebrew, is a
collection of simple pictures of everyday objects, each one used to represent a particular
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A Brief Introduction to Hebrew – Zero Faith Saint
sound. Over time those images were modified, eventually becoming the modern Hebrew
alefbet.
However, unlike most other alphabets, the Hebrew letters retain their illustrative
meanings. It is these symbolic meanings, applied with a spiritual perspective, which
makes Hebrew such a fascinating and powerful language.
Here is a general listing of the letters' meanings:
ALEF
BET
GIMEL
DALET
HEY
VAV
ZAYIN
CHET
TET
YOOD
KAF
LAMED
MEM
NOON
SAMECH
AYIN
PEY
TSADIK
QOF
REYSH
SHEE
TAV
Strength, leader, first, ox, bull
Household, house, tent, in, into
Camel, to lift up, pride, animal
Door, pathway, to enter
Behold, spirit, breath, air, to reveal, grace, "the"
Nail, peg, to add, secure, "and"
Weapon, cut, to cut off
Fence, inner room, private, to separate
Snake, surround
Hand, work, a deed, to make
Palm (of the hand), to cover, to open, allow
Cattle goad, shepherd's crook, control, authority, the tongue
Water, liquid, massive, chaos
Fish, activity, life
Prop, support, twist slowly, turn
Eye, to see, know, experience
Mouth, to speak, a word, to open
Fish hook, catch, desire, need
Back of the head, behind, the last, the least
Head of a man, a person, the head, the highest
Teeth, to consume, to destroy
Sign, mark, to seal, to covenant
Here are two very simple examples of how the ancient pictures became the modern letters
while still retaining their symbolic meanings. We'll start with alef, which means "ox". So,
imagine an ancient sketch of an ox's head (I'm presenting a more detailed image here for
clarity). Eventually, the ox's head is shown lying down, because the ox is now pictured as
dead (that is, killed, or more specifically, sacrificed). Over time, the sketch is reduced to
a few lines (shown in red). This eventually becomes the modern alef:
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A Brief Introduction to Hebrew – Zero Faith Saint
Now, here is dalet, which means "door". This one is even easier to see. Picture a sketch of
door or doorway, shown as two doorposts topped by a lintel. Again, over time this is
reduced to simple lines, and then becomes the modern letter:
This I think at least partly explains why some letters have more than one sound, and why
some sounds are shared among letters. It is not the sound, but rather the symbolic
meaning of a given letter which is the real strength of Hebrew.
Now we will see what these symbolic meanings will teach us. We
will once again start with the Hebrew word most people know:
Shalom. However, here we will be concentrating on the deeper
spiritual meaning of the word as revealed by the symbolism of its
letters. The meaning of each individual letter (taken from the list
above, and reading from right to left) is applied thusly: sheen = "to
destroy"; lamed = "authority."; vav functions as a connector; and
mem = "chaos". So, shalom means "to destroy the authority of
chaos". Saying "Shalom!" to someone is not merely wishing
"peace" or "good health"; it's actually invoking God to destroy the
chaos in that person's life.
Let's put this into practice with a certain phrase. You no doubt know that Jesus is
described as the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). In Hebrew, that phrase is "Sar Shalom":
Applying the symbolic meanings of these
letters, we see that Jesus is "the powerful
Leader who destroys the authority of chaos"
in a person's life. While "Prince of peace" is a
beautiful title in English, clearly the deeper
Hebrew meaning is much more impactful.
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A Brief Introduction to Hebrew – Zero Faith Saint
Let's look at the Hebrew spelling of the letter noon. It may surprise you that the letters'
names are actually spelled out. In American English, we just write A B C, not "ay, bee,
cee". Similarly, we write N, not "en". Noon, however, is noon vav noon in Hebrew.
You will also note that the second noon is different from the first. In the
Hebrew alefbet, five letters -- kaf, mem, noon, pey and tsadik -- each have
a second form known as the final form, which as the name implies is used
only when that particular letter is at the end of a word. I cannot give you an
etymological reason for these final forms (and such is beyond the scope of
this lesson anyway). However, I can show you how these forms are used in
symbolic interpretation.
As stated, the noon represents a fish, and the vav represents a nail. Note the
standard noon is bent, while the final noon is straight. Now, consider that
when Jesus saw Simon and Andrew fishing, He invited them to follow Him
and become "fishers of men" (Matthew 4:19). So, the noon can also be
seen as representing man.
We have a bent man, a nail and a straight man. The Holy Spirit has revealed to me that in
this small word, in these three letters, we have the story of salvation: a man is bent under
the weight of sin and worry; however, because of the nail(s), he can now stand upright
and righteous.
In Genesis 32:27-28, Jesus changes Jacob's name to Israel, telling him, "[F]or you have
struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed." That actually is the definition of
Israel; it can also be translated as "the prince who wrestles (or contends) with God".
Now let's look at the Hebrew spelling. We have a yood, which
means hand; sheen and reysh, which as in Sar Shalom above
means prince; and alef and lamed, which spell El, one of the
Hebrew names of God (as in El-Shaddai). So, symbolically,
we have hand prince God.
So you see (and the Holy Spirit helped me see), in the name
Israel itself is the very phrase, "The hand of the prince who
contends with God".
Let's look at the word Torah. A preacher whose church I attended years ago once said
that "Torah" means "what comes from the Man on the tree." So, let's see if we can find
that. In applying the symbolism to the Hebrew letters, we find two possible
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A Brief Introduction to Hebrew – Zero Faith Saint
interpretations: 1) the tav is "covenant", the vav is a connector, the reysh is "leader" and
the hey is "grace"; 2) the tav means "mark", the vav means "nail", and the reysh and hey
again respectively mean "leader" and "grace".
So, when we're talking about the Torah, we're speaking of "the
covenant of the Leader which brings grace", or "the marks of the
nails upon the Leader which bring grace". While "what comes
from the Man on the tree" is not entirely correct, it's not an
unreasonable reinterpretation, with only a minor loss of accuracy.
At this point we're going to examine a very interesting word: Leviathan. Yes, that name is
in fact in our Bible. Now, a disbeliever could use this word as an attack: "You ask people
to take the Bible seriously, when it contains the name of a mythological beast out of some
pagan fairy tale?" To be honest, I cannot tell you how the name Leviathan came into the
ancient Hebrew language, nor can I tell you what it meant back then. What I can tell you
is that according to a friend of mine, who was an Israeli-born citizen (he has since
become a naturalized American), in modern Hebrew leviathan simply means "great fish"
or "large fish". More importantly, I can show you what leviathan means when the
symbolic interpretation is applied. I think you'll find it quite astonishing.
From right to left, the symbolism of the letters is thus: lamed is
"authority", vav is "nail", yood is "hand", tav is "covenant" and
the (final form) noon is the "upright fish" (i.e., "upright man"). So,
we read it as "the Authority who suffers nails in His hands seals
the covenant which makes a man upright (i.e., righteous)".
Another equally fascinating meaning can be drawn from leviathan
by using alternative symbolism for some of the letters.
For context, let's look at John 3:14, which reads "And as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of
man be lifted up…”. This refers back to Numbers 21:9: "And
Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came
to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the
serpent of brass, he lived." In our Bible, brass (or bronze)
symbolizes judgment. The bronze serpent, which had the form of a natural serpent, was
lifted up in judgment. Jesus (Yeshua), who had the form of mortal man, also was lifted up
in judgment.
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A Brief Introduction to Hebrew – Zero Faith Saint
In this context, the lamed is seen as an ox goad, that is, a spear. Tav in Paleo-Hebrew
looks like an X, which is a cross form; thus, it's interpreted as crucifix. The final-form
noon can be interpreted as a snake or serpent. Vav and yood retain their meanings of
"nail" and "hand". So symbolically, we have spear nail hand crucifix serpent.
This is read as "The spear in His side, and the nails in His hands, He will be lifted up on
a crucifix, as the serpent was lifted up." Thus in the letters of the Hebrew name for
leviathan, we see a type of prophecy of the crucifixion of Jesus.
This is amazing. Regardless of how "leviathan" came to be part of the ancient Hebrew
vocabulary, God has used the name of this pagan mythological beast, in its Hebrew
spelling, to paint for us yet another word-picture of the story of salvation.
Finally, we will look at one of God's names. The God of Israel has many names: ElShaddai, El-Roi, El-Elyon, Jehovah-Sabaoth, Adonai, etc. Each of these reflects a
specific aspect of His character. Jehovah-Jireh, for example, means "God provides";
Jehovah-Rapha means "God heals".
Here we will focus on what is specifically His covenant name, Jehovah (Yehovah) or
YHVH. This is called His covenant name because this is the name by which He
guarantees to address a particular need. "Are you lacking, in want of something? I am
YHVH-Yireh, the God who provides" "Are you in need of healing? I am YHVH-Rapha,
the God who heals."
Aside from these specific names, very broadly speaking God is generally addressed in the
Bible as either Lord or LORD. "Lord" is a translation of "Adonai". "LORD", while not
really a translation, is used for "YHVH", which itself is a transliteration of the Hebrew
spelling:
As to the deeper meaning of this name contained in the symbolism
of its letters, it is my sincere hope that the Holy Spirit imparts to
you at least a little of the excitement and astonishment I felt when I
first learned this. Several years ago some friends and I were
watching a DVD on this very subject, the deeper meanings of the
Hebrew letters. When the teacher on-screen explained the meaning
of YHVH -- and I do not exaggerate here -- we all experienced a
stunned "Wow!!" moment.
The symbolisms of yood and vav, as you will recall from the earlier
examples, are "hand" and "nail" respectively. The hey can mean
either "grace" or, in the imperative sense, "behold!" So, the spiritual
meaning in the symbolism can be read as "the hand of grace,
nailed in (or for) grace". More emphatically, it can be read as "The hand, behold! The
nail, behold!"
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A Brief Introduction to Hebrew – Zero Faith Saint
I truly hope you find this as moving as I. Consider that this name, YHVH, originates in
the Old Testament; that is, centuries before Jesus was even born, much less finally
crucified. Yet from almost the very beginning, God uses the name which not only is a
guarantee of His promises, but which also directly ties those promises to the Crucifixion.
This concludes this lesson. If you are a Christian, God bless you for reading this lesson. If
you are not already in a teaching church or Bible-study group, I urge you to seek one.
There is so much more to our God and our Bible than most American Christians realize.
If you are not a Christian, again God bless you very much for reading. I hope you have
been intrigued enough by this lesson to consider entrusting your soul to Jesus. If so,
fantastic!; please see Acts 16:30-31* for the simple steps to do this. And again, I
emphasize the need to find a good teaching church or Bible-study group, because you'll
be amazed by just how rich God's word really is.
*(I recommend the Amplified Bible, Classic Edition for the clearest version of this
passage.)
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All verses presented in the public-domain King James Version.
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