Dear J-term Hebrew Students,

Welcome, in advance, to J-term Hebrew and beyond.

I am looking forward to our corporate Hebrew adventure, and I want to invite you, if you wish, to begin the class ahead of the curve.  If you wish to jump start the course, I encourage you to learn the alphabet before class begins.  Learning ahead is certainly not required, simply recommended. 

You can find the alphabet listed on page 1 of our text book:

   Page Kelley, Biblical Hebrew: An Introductory Grammar. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992. 

We will be learning the block form, not the modern script.

If you wish, you can also access the alphabet and learn it on-line:

At http://levsoftware.com/ you can learn to write each letter. At the home page, simply enter the free animated aleph-bet page.  Then begin clicking on letters in the second alphabet, beginning on the far right with `aleph.  We will learn the subtleties when you come to class. 

At http://www.njop.org/jsAlephbet/sound_main.html you can hear each letter pronounced out loud.

You can find a good chart of the letters at http://www.jewfaq.org/alephbet.htm

You can read about the history of the alphabet at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_alphabet

Or you might want to learn the following ditty, sung to the tune of ‘Yankee Doodle’

`Aleph Bet Song

Aleph, bet and gimel, dalet,                               

Hey and vav and zayin,

Chet, tet, yod, kaph, lamed, mem, nun samek, and then ‘ayin,

Peh and tsade, qoph and resh,         

Sin and shin and tav,

Now I know my aleph bet, I’ll tell my ’em and ’av. (i.e. “mom and dad”)

By Monday, you should be able to access the syllabus on-line at my web page.  I will also be providing supplemental materiel that my TA, Eddie Glade, will be selling the first day.  The cost should be somewhere between $15 to $20.

I hope you all have a good end of this semester and a blessed Christmas.  See you in the New Year.