This channel is devoted to videos related to teaching Biblical Hebrew at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, MI. Some of the videos you will find here are explanations of Hebrew grammar that serve the distance-learning Hebrew course at WTS. Some of the videos are recordings of Hebrew songs we use in our Hebrew program at the seminary, others are playful mnemonic devices intended to help students remember their vocab words; some are theological reflections on words or passages from the Hebrew Bible, while others are of performances of narratives and Psalms from the Hebrew Bible that my classes have developed over the years.
The channel is run by Rev. Dr. Travis West, Associate Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament at Western Theological Seminary. This channel is not an official representation of WTS. The views presented here do not necessarily reflect that of Western Theological Seminary, its Board of Trustees, or the seminary's administration or faculty.
Thank you very much for this explanation. I have a question. When a dagash forte can be used MUST it be used? For some reason I’m still having trouble discerning the pattern.
That is more the case for the dagesh lene. It will appear whenever it can, which is when it follows silence-either a closed syllable, the start of a word, or following a pause (as a subtle indication of punctuation). The dagesh forte is an indication of some sort of grammatical aspect of the word. Its essential function is to double the letter it appears in (hence the forte “strong”). The dagesh lene mostly is a pronunciation guide for the BeGeDKePheT letters. The dagesh forte is a grammatical indicator of various sorts. Is that helpful?
As someone who writes my Hebrew very carefully, I cannot read this man’s handwriting 😂 Actually looking more carefully, it’s mostly just the lack of the upper stem on the nun that confuses me
Yes, that’s not surprising! Ha! I write my nuns in the style of modern Hebrew script, which makes them much quicker to write, and differentiates them absolutely from the kaph.
The only critique I have is that because of the rule of sqnmlwy you would lose the Dagesh Forte on the Yod because of the Vocal Shewa in the Vav Consecutive. Other than that, I'm impressed that you can write inverted. Good job.
Thanks for engaging! The inversion happens in post, actually. We’re writing “backwards” to the camera, and we flip the screen in post so you can read it on video. I’m actually right-handed, not left-handed!
That’s pretty neat. It’s very attractive for your learners. I appreciate you and your team’s Spirit of excellence. Your page is a welcome find brother. Thanks.
Aww, thank you so much! I’m glad you’re finding them helpful! I have lots of them on my channel, so please feel free to watch them all and share them with your friends! I hope they help you learn Biblical Hebrew!
In a sense that’s right. With hollow verbs, if you aren’t already familiar with the verb, you just need to refer to the lexicon to see if it’s missing a yod or vav.
The final stanza comes from Leviticus 19.18. In the New Testament, Jesus combines that verse with the Shema (something other rabbis had previously done) in response to the lawyer’s question “what is the greatest to commandment?” Love of God and love of neighbor was Jesus’ reply.
In Genesis 19:24 what would the direct marker be pointing to, is there two YEHOVAH's (THE LORD) people? is Yehovah (the LORD) the direct object or is the heavens where he is the object?
This word would be pronounced “mee-pa-DAN.” The first dagesh makes the pe’ pronounced with a “hard” P sound (instead of a “ph”), but the dalet’s pronunciation is not affected by the dagesh.
I am still teaching, yes. At Western Theological Seminary, in Holland, MI. I am no longer using the textbook I used in these videos. I now use the textbook I wrote, published with GlossaHouse. You can find it here: www.glossahouse.com/product-page/biblical-hebrew-an-interactive-approach. And there’s also A/V materials that go along with it as well!
I appreciate what you're theorizing there, but what if it points to God's knowledge and foresight of the events before creation? In modern Hebrew, without the vav, the Yiktol aka imperfect is simply future tense. We know the imperfect is both tense and aspect, but what if the Vav Consecutive is implying foresight from God predetermined and foreknowledge and foresight as Paul describes in Acts 17:25-26?
