Learning The Hebrew Alef-Bet Video Series

Learning the Hebrew Alef-Bet is a 17 part video series that can be purchased and downloaded from the link below. Each video is between 12-16 minutes long and covers the block script, the handwriting script, and the vowel marks. This video series can be used in conjunction with learning Hebrew as a biblical or modern language. For an example please visit the HebrewHelper youtube channel or click the link below to purchase the download. The download is approximately 800mb and you will need to be able to play .wmv files in order to view the tutorials..

Learning Hebrew - Introduction

So you want to learn Hebrew either as a hobby for reading the scriptures in its native language or to converse with Israelis in modern Israel? Here I have provided a few tutorials on getting started. However, before going any further let me say a few things.

First, I am not a Hebrew or biblical scholar.  What I am, though, is an adult student who found an interest for the Hebrew language. After trying to teach myself Hebrew, then paying for online lessons, and then taking college level Hebrew courses, I think I have at least a good understanding of the best way to get started.

Second, if you can afford it, one of the best ways to learn Hebrew is to take lessons from an actual Hebrew speaking Israeli. That is if you want to read, write, and speak native Hebrew.  Pronunciation is always an important element to learning a foreign language. If you just want to read Hebrew, for the sake of reading the scripture, modern teachers are still a good resource but don't forget the rabbis and biblical scholars who are also knowledgeable in the area. Likewise, you can find many free audio files as well as websites that will help you with pronunciation if you want to go at your own pace. I'll provide more links to resources later as we get started in the tutorials.

Third, Hebrew is a very concrete language that makes it rather easy to learn in my opinion. The hardest part is in the beginning, which includes learning an new alpha-bet, commonly called the aleph-bet in Hebrew, and reading from right to left. After you nail down many of the basics you find that Hebrew has a lot of shortcuts that make learning the language a lot simpler than something like English.

Fourth, the best way I have found to learn Hebrew is by learning the block script, what you will read in, the handwriting script, what you will write in, and the vowel marks, which helps with pronunciation. Learning all three and practicing them in the beginning really saves time latyer on. You don't necessarily need to learn the handwriting script if you are not interested in writing modern Hebrew, or learning the "niqud" vowel marks if you are just wanting to learn biblical Hebrew but I still encourage you to do so.

The image below shows you the Hebrew aleph-bet in block script. You can think of the block script as what you will use when reading Hebrew. It will be used in most printed materials and you can see how it has a calligraphy style appearance to it. Although the scriptures and other materials still use some variation of the block script, it is not as practical for writing in unless you are going to make a living writing Torah scrolls. Remember to read from right to left.

 

After looking at the block script hopefully you can see why the Hebrew came up with an easier way of writing the aleph-bet called the handwriting script. Although the letters are not connected like in cursive English, the handwriting script serves a similar purpose that allows modern speakers to write quickly in Hebrew. In modern Hebrew, you will use the script for writing and reading someone else's writing such as a letter etc.

 

 

 

The vowel marks "niqud" are depicted below. They are a series of dots and dashes that help guide the reader in pronouncing the words correctly. Don't worry. It looks like a lot to learn but many of the vowel marks are shortened forms of longer vowel marks. They are really easy to learn as long as you don't confuse them with English vowels, in the sense they mean anything standing alone like - A or I etc. The vowel mark will appear below, to the left, or to the write of the Hebrew character. The dashed circle in the images below depict where Hebrew a character would normally appear. Do not try to learn these at this point as they are in no particular order.

 וֹ וּ ְ ֲ ֳ ִ ֵ ֶ ַ ָ ֻ

In future tutorials I will show you an easy way of learning all three, the block script, the handwriting script, and the vowel marks all at once. For the blog we can practice learning to read in Hebrew and for the handwriting script I will make a few youtube tutorials. So stay tuned for more tutorials.

Who Were The Ancient Egyptians?

Many of you who follow me on youtube know that I share fascinating dreams sometimes concerning Egypt and a puzzling story of someone or something coming to Earth from the constellation of Orion. While I have personally never been intrigued enough to sit down and study ancient Egypt, it is somewhat interesting when out of the blue you start dreaming a different story of Egypt and find that others out there are speculating the same thing. What I have dreamt concerning Egypt, that seems to contradict mainstream anthropology, is that there was another civilization more ancient the than Pharoah Egyptians that existed in the area long before pyramids became a symbol of the gods, tombs, and magic.

In fact, this Egypt I dream of was much like what I assume many would envision Atlantis looking like. The pyramid structure was not a tomb for an egotistical pharoah but rather a hub to an underground power grid. That is right! The pyramids were part of a power grid similar to what we think of as an an electrical system. But instead it generated power by harnassing energy from the earth and its gravitational interaction with the sun. How they use the power or why they needed it was never revealed in dreams but it seemed all they were trying to create was light as if to illuminate the night sky like a street light. Unfortunately, stories like mine typically get thrown into the other stories concerning UFO's, aliens, and the idea that pyramids were ancient airports for spaceships - none of which I have ever dreamt of or believe in.

The story becomes puzzling as I am told, in dreams that is, a group of something like angels came from the constellation of Orion. They mixed in with this ancient civilization. They were very tall like 30 cubits. Does this start to sound like something from the Bible? Anyways, supposedly, whoever they were, they begqan drawing blood from the animals and eventually became drunk with the blood. Blood became magic. Man became flesh eaters. Their offspring became giants. There was nothing in their law that said they could not take women to be their wives. Earth became unbalanced. The grid was broekn and the knowledge was forever buried. Nakedness became the flesh and the connection between energy and spirit became lost.

Anyways, never believe what I dream to be 100% accurate. Seek the truth for yourself. Below is a link to a documentary that looks at Egypt in way much like what I have dreamt of. Except for the part about others coming from the constellation of Orion, it is quite disturbing that some are beginning to think the ancient past might not have lived entirely in the dark.

Letter Sent to SC Residents After Security Breach

Finally, three months after the incident. SC residents are recieving a notice in the mail with instructions on how to protect our identity and banking information after a savvy overseas hacker broke into our servers and stole approximately 3.6 million tax records. The letter informs the recipient of the recent breach and that their information including social security numbers, credit card information, and banking routing numbers may be at risk. Although I have yet to recieve a letter personally, three of my closest neighbors including my grandmother got the letter in the mail today. So far I am noticing a lot of inconsistencies and potential problems with how the state of SC is handling this. I should say though, I would have expected the federal government to offer more help or show concern since this is supposedly the largest cybersecurity attack on any one single state. First, I don't think the majority of people such as my grandmother, who recently turned 86, understand the nature of the letter. Immediately she thought that me or my uncle had taken one of her credit cards and ran up some bogus charges on the internet leading to a case of stolen identity. Ironically, my neighbor's wife, who is much younger, accused her husband of doing the same with her bank debit card. Although the wording is pretty clear in the letter in my opinion, it seems that many are misinterpreting the content and it appears to invole some sense of guilt or fear as if they have done something wrong. Second, the resolution the state of SC has provided will ultimately cost its tax payers $12 million dollars the last I heard. Although at some point the taxpayers will pick up the bill for this expenditure, in the letter we are told this service is provided free through the state. The service itself is one year free credit monitoring through Experian. The only problem is you have to sign up yourself Apparently the state did not think it would be wise to automatically start monitering peoples credit or protect them from identity theft. That leaves a large population of elderly and those who don't use the internet at the mercy of another misleading government document that they may or may not take seriously. I have a better idea. Why don't we make a law that says you have to encrypt personal information on government computers? Take the $12 million and buy some new servers and train some monkees that know how to password protect files. No wonder the IRS has thousands of fraudulent tax claims a year due to stolen social security numbers. Maybe our next president will have a the social security number of a dead SC resident like the one we have now. Or better yet, just give our private information to Russian and Chinese hackers and save them the trouble.