St Barnabas Victoria, BC - Sunday School Blog

Hiney Ma Tov

2011-10-23T13:33:00.000-07:00

The first words of Psalm 133 are a great song and I introduced it to the two younger classes today. It is rhythmic and repetitive and they caught on quickly. The class could work up a dance as well. Even one in the youngest class recognized the Roman Numerals in my Hebrew Bible - a curiosity, CXXXIII, equivalent to the Hebrew numbering symbols קלג qof-lamedh-gimel.

שִׁיר הַמַּעֲלוֹת
לְדָוִד
הִנֵּה
מַה טּוֹב
וּמַה נָּעִים
שֶׁבֶת אַחִים
גַּם יָחַד

A song of the ascents
of David
Hey!
How fine
and how pleasant
it is for kin to sit
as one

The words of the first verse relate to both verses we have looked at recently - Genesis 1 and Psalm 136 about the good, and also the Shema, where the word one occurs.

The word I translated as hey! is the traditional behold! - It can mean - look at me! The very thing that youngsters sometimes sing. I told them the story of the 15 rising steps of the temple and the Songs of Ascent of which this is one (Psalms 120-134).

An example of the sound of the music and a full translation for the psalm is here. (I did not have full orchestra available.)

Hard work for the older students.

2011-10-09T13:44:00.000-07:00

I had two in the older class today and I had several things up my sleeve as possible lessons: continuing Acts, working a little on the Spirit in the Old Testament, and learning how to read a psalm. I chose to present to them from my presentation on three tools for reading a psalm. See the post here for a brief summary. We talked a bit about gardening tools and the three tools for 'seeing' a psalm and therefore learning to 'hear' also. I used some of the slides from my presentation (PDF here)that I will give at the University this week (Wednesday at 10:30 at the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society - if anyone is interested.)

What struck me about 'teaching' was how critical it is to learn how to hear and how to see (think Isaiah 35:5 which strikingly uses the same language as Genesis 3:7) before one is into teens and twenties. Being a slow learner myself, or else too much running on momentum all my life to stop and think, it took me till age (somewhere between 40 and 66) to get this lesson clear. (Of course, such obedience of faith is a lifelong process.)

Anyway - my two students stayed awake and were very polite. They answered the questions I asked them during class, and after my call from the choir leader (to whom many of the psalms are dedicated) to come back for the anthem, they both remembered the big words for three tools... parallelism, prosody, and recurrence. They likely thought this was more like school than usual for Sunday morning!

New year in Sunday School

2011-10-02T13:46:00.000-07:00

It has been some time since I have done regular posting on this blog. But perhaps the time has come again. After 5 years of learning Hebrew, it is a joy to share a bit of it with the students. I think this model could be followed elsewhere also. Compared to the first year and the first word I taught to a class in age range from 4 to 13, today I taught the first word to a class of 7 in a very much more focused age group - 7 to 9 (or 10), and also I was able to teach something of the Spirit's work in Creation to the older class (11-14) learning the Acts of the Apostles.

The first word was again ki-tov, for it is good. The original lesson is in the archives here. I used a new handout, but the content is very similar. Some of the children remember earlier lessons and I can build on them. So I included another use of the phrase from Psalm 136:1.

Psalm 136 is roughly To-dah le'adonai ki-tov, ki le'olam chesedo and the Genesis verse vayareh elohim et-ha'or ki-tov.

After introducing this word and the sound of the Hebrew, we sang the alef-bet song. It was the first time for many of the children, but they caught on quickly.

In the older class, one student had just read Peter's defense in Acts 4:8. To begin at the beginning we read the first two verses of Genesis and the role of the Spirit / Breath of God in Creation brooding over turbulent waters, even as Peter and all of us have to deal with turbulence in our lives. There were some very attentive faces in the older class. Some of them are completely new to Hebrew, so there was some mystification also. But they too will learn quickly how much fun this is.

Psalm 34 in Hebrew planned for tomorrow

2011-07-23T18:14:00.000-07:00

Last week we had a full class and 50 solid minutes of Hebrew. At the end of the class, every child and young adult was able to write his or her own name using Hebrew letters. After our opening prayer, we sat around the table and worked through the first three exercises in my 22 page Hebrew workbook. I had 7 copies printed and they all got used - one being given away during coffee. The workbook is full of exercises and little tidbits of strange sounds that seemed to capture everyone's attention for the whole class - from age 6 to 15 + two adults.

I hope to build on it tomorrow. I have two extra workbooks printed in case someone new shows up. But it's summer, so who knows. The psalm 34 text that I will use is available here. We will use it for 'teaching' - the first letters of verses 2, 12, and 23 spell aleph. אֲבָרְכָה לְכוּ פֹּדֶה I will bless, walk, ransom. So perhaps it was written for teaching.

The Seven Swords, Easter and Pentecost

2011-05-05T17:25:00.000-07:00

Some weeks ago I asked if anyone knew the identity of the seven swords of the Dawn Treader. Here's one possible suggestion.

We are in the period known as counting the Omer, the 50 days between Passover and Pentecost, the Jewish feast of the first-fruits of the harvest. From this week's excellent commentary here on current events in this context, I noted this paragraph

The counting of seven weeks came to reflect seven character attributes associated with key divine qualities, each of which we emulate in fulfilling our creation in God's image: Chesed (Love/Grace); Gevurah (Discipline/Rigor); Tiferet (Beauty/Compassion);Netzach (Victory); Hod (Glory); Yesod (Foundation/Righteous Loyalty); and Malkhut(Majesty/Leadership). All seven weeks and all seven days of the week each correspond to a different attribute. This results in a seven-by-seven grid of virtue-pairs, traits we must cultivate in preparation for reliving our ancestors' spiritual elevation as freed slaves receiving the Torah and becoming both "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Exod. 19:6).

On the question of the origin of the name Easter, I came across this article showing several possibilities. There's a cute story about the venerable Bede who may not have been so venerable in his surmise on this question. Finally the article suggests this:

Scholars who study the history of languages have established that the roots of the word "Easter" are found in the Proto-Indo-European language, the prehistoric language that is the common ancestor of nearly all European and Southeast Asian languages. The Proto-Indo-European word "aus," meaning "to shine," gave birth to the Proto-Germanic word "austra," which, in turn, gave life to the Old English word "Easterdæg," the predecessor of our modern English "Easter." In short, the origins of the word are found in a verb meaning "to shine."

Salt Sunday

2011-03-23T11:22:00.001-07:00

I regret that I myself will not be available Palm Sunday in the afternoon, but the whole idea of salt I have spun into a post at my Dust blog here. You may find it of interest.

Lenten ideas for the three to five minutes of Hebrew

2011-03-14T12:07:00.000-07:00

Scripture in blocks of wood

This first Sunday in Lent, at Jasmine's request, I prepared a brief lesson on the bitter herbs. (My lessons and songs are never as complex as this post implies, but the realities are always under the surface of the play, the singing and the movements.)

In response to Jasmine, I picked Exodus 12:8 and realized that one could focus on this one verse for the entire period of lent.

The Pascal feast will point us directly to Christ our Passover who was sacrificed for us (1 Corinthians 5:7). This one verse of Exodus has innumerable lessons and like a fractal reflects the patterns of the whole of Scripture.

The institution of the Passover meal – Exodus 12:8

וְאָכְלוּ	And they shall eat [perfect]
אֶת־הַבָּשָׂר	the flesh [of the lamb]
בַּלַּיְלָה הַזֶּה	that night [in the night - that one]
צְלִי־אֵשׁ	roasted with fire
וּמַצֹּות	and the unleavened bread
עַל־מְרֹרִים	with bitter [herbs]
יֹאכְלֻֽהוּ׃	they shall eat it [imperfect – 'story' tense]

Roughly, the Hebrew reads: ve-akalu et-habasar balylah hasah tsly-esh umatsot al-mrorim yokluhu

Notice how it begins and ends with the same sound. This is typical of the poetic structures of Hebrew (and even in this case in prose instructions - Our Lord loves poetry.)

Eating – psalm 22, together with worship - see this post and the accompanying links here and here for the place of eating in worship in this psalm. It is quite surprising.

the flesh – of the lamb who in his own body bore our sins. See also (or perhaps first) John 6. Especially John 6:51.

that night – not to be delayed, in that same night it is to be done, the night in which the blood is put on the lintels of the door. (verse 7)

roasted with fire – there is one fire, of love and of judgement. The fire forms one of the themes of the Davidic psalms - see e.g. psalms 7, 21, 140.

and the matsot – the bread that has no time to rise. Unleavened bread also reminds us of the Eucharist. But here it reminds us of the haste with which we are delivered. The psalmist often prays that the Lord should hurry to help. And so it was done.

with bitter things – all our bitterness absorbed. This was the word we took for the first lesson yesterday. It reminds us of Naomi's change of name from Naomi (pleasant) to Mara (bitter). See also Psalm 90 for a lovely play on words between dwelling place (Mo-an) in verse 1 and pleasant (Na-om) in verse 17. The whole poem is framed by a palindrome.

Eating – encloses the verse – the different tense means that it goes on and on. So it is that in our worship we eat every week.

Postscript: for those I was asking, the Shema is in the New Testament only in Mark 12:29. Perhaps he is the first gospel after all. We cannot fail in this unity per the prayer of John 17.

The Sunday school was very full and besides Hebrew, we had a lovely interaction in the language of Vanu-atu also thanks to the returning Nelson who with the younger class spontaneously moved us with this different tongue and interpreted for us.

Some pictures from the family service

2011-01-15T19:53:00.000-08:00

Saturday afternoon and the church is decorated and set up beautifully. Here are some pictures of the stations before and during the service and of our dinner afterwards.

Now this is a target fluency

2010-09-01T07:28:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of Dr Platypus

Pictures of the picnic

2010-06-20T14:12:00.000-07:00

From Collages

Here are some pictures of our morning. Enjoy. Also a set of individual ones.

From 2010-06-20

Catch the foxes - a new game for children

2010-06-18T16:44:00.000-07:00

I have created a game for Sunday - description here. I will bring the props. If anyone has any cuddly stuffed foxes - bring them along too.

Music for the Shema

2010-05-08T23:42:00.000-07:00

In case anyone needs it, the music for the shema is here. I will be back to Sunday School next week.

Holy Spittle Batman

2010-04-18T13:09:00.000-07:00

There - does that get your attention! We began a study of Mark's gospel today with the Dawn Treaders. Bob set out an outline in Latin as a game to note how many sections there might be in a gospel. Mark has about 118 out of 365 total divisions of the fourfold gospel as note by Kurt Aland in his parallel gospels. You can see all the breakdowns of the texts here. Our lesson of course did not go that far this morning but the children did see a far distant horizon and a rich set of possibilities.

We concentrated for 20-25 minutes on the healing of the deaf man with a speech impediment. Jesus takes 7 actions in this story and each action is visible - as they would have to be for a deaf man to hear them. So not Latin, not Hebrew, not Greek, not Aramaic, but sign language - seven significant actions

taking him aside from the multitude privately, - personal, one to one
he put his fingers into his ears, easy to see - pointing to the problem
and he spat - easy to see
and touched his tongue; - perhaps he spit into his own hand and touched the tongue with the spittle
and looking up to heaven, - here is the source
he sighed, - pray and listen to God's sigh also
and said to him, "Eph'phatha," that is, "Be opened." - a visible language - say it EF-PHA-THA lip readable

I encouraged the children to look for the ways that Our Lord will speak to them in their own personal language this week. I told them also to ask him for a hint.

We also discussed briefly the Messianic secret that is evident in the first half of the Gospel. Summary: personal prayer, real healing, and mystery. I told them we could from this first lesson spend much more time than 20 minutes examining the relationship of this short passage to the whole Scripture. I encouraged them to read the whole Gospel. Next week Ella will prepare chapter 1.

Reference: Synopsis of the Four Gospels, Greek-English Edition of the Synopsis Quattuor Evangelium, Edited by Kurt Aland (6th edition) - available in the UVIC library.

Ten choices from the Gospel of Mark

2010-04-16T14:10:00.000-07:00

Here are 10 of the sections of Mark - a set of suggestions. Each student will prepare one for one selected week. (Note you can see all the parallel passages for the section in the other gospels by finding your chosen section on this post).

Ten choices in the Gospel of Mark

Healing the deaf mute, Mark 7:31
Preparation for ministry, Mark 1:1 – 1:13
Calling disciples, Mark 1:16
Jesus and Family, Mark 3:19
Herod’s opinion and the death of John, Mark 6:14
Walking Trees, Mark 8.22
Peter’s confession and the transfiguration, Mark 8:27
The Rich Young Man, Mark 10:17
The fig tree, Mark 11:11
The Son of David, Mark 12:28, 12:35

A focus on Mark for the next 10 weeks

2010-04-16T14:00:00.000-07:00

Here is an outline of Mark's gospel. After reading Hebrew, Latin should be a cinch for you all. The links will take you to my Gospel Parallels pages. Fun to look at and puzzle over.

Section	Title	Mark	Luke	Matthew	John
I	PRAEFATIO
1	Prologus	1.1	1.1	1.1	1.1
III	PRAEPARATIO
13	Ioannes Baptista praecursor Domini (Autumn 27)	1.2	3.1	3.1	1.19
16	Ioannes Christum evangelizat	1.7	3.15	3.11	1.24
18	Baptismus Jesu (March 28)	1.9	3.21	3.13	1.29
20	Tentatio	1.12	4.1	4.1
V	MINISTERIUM IN GALILAEA
30	Iter in Galilaeam (May 28)	1.14a	4.14a	4.1	4.1
32	Ministerium in Galilaea	1.14b	4.14b	4.13	4.43
34	Vocatio discipulorum	1.16		4.18
35	In synagoga Capharnaum docet	1.21	4.31
36	Daimoniacus in synagoga	1.23	4.33
37	Socrus Petri	1.29	4.38
38	Sanationes sub vesperum	1.32	4.40
39	Jesus Capharnaum relinquit	1.35	4.42
40	Per Galilaeam praedicat	1.39	4.44	4.23
42	Sanatio leprosi	1.40	5.12
43	Sanatio paralytici	2.1	5.17
44	Vocatio Levi publicani	2.13	5.27
45	Quaestio ieiunii	2.18	5.33
46	Spicae sabbato vulsae (June 28 - Galilee)	2.23	6.1
47	Manus arida	3.1	6.6
48	Sanationes ad mare	3.7
49	Electio apostolorum	3.13	6.12
VIII	MINISTERIUM IN GALILAEA
116	Incredulitas suorum	3.19
117	In quo eiiciat daemonia	3.22		12.22
118	Peccatum in Spiritum Sanctum	3.28		12.31
121	Mater et fratres Jesu	3.31		12.46
122	Parabola seminantis (December 28)	4.1	8.4	13.1
123	Quare in parabolis loquantor	4.10	8.9	13.10
124	Parabola seminantis explicatur	4.13	8.11	13.18
125	Qui habet aures audiente, audiat	4.21	8.16
126	Ultro semen fructificat	4.26
128	Parabola grani sinapis	4.30		13.31
130	Sine parabola non loquebatur	4.33		13.34
136	Tempestas sedata (December 28)	4.35	8.22
137	Daemoniaci Geraseni	5.1	8.26
138	Haemorrhoissa et filia Iairi	5.21	8.40
139	Propheta in patria	6.1		13.53
142	Missio apostolorum	6.6	9.1
143	Opinio Herodis et fama Jesu	6.14	9.7	14.1
144	Mors Baptistae (January/February 29)	6.17		14.3
145	Apostolorum reversio	6.30	9.10
146	Quinque milia saturantur (Passover April 18, 29)	6.32	9.10	14.13	6.1
147	Super mare ambulat	6.45		14.22	6.16
148	Sanationes in terra Genesar	6.53		14.34	6.22
150	Manibus non lotis manducare	7.1		15.1
151	Syrophoenissa	7.24		15.21
152	Epheththa: multi aegroti	7.31		15.29
153	Quattuor milia saturantur	8.1		15.32
154	Signum de caelo	8.11		16.1
155	Fermentum Pharisaeorum	8.14	12.1	16.5
156	Caecus paulatim sanatur	8.22
Section	Title	Mark	Luke	Matthew	John
IX	PASSIO IMMINET
158	Confessio Petri	8.27	9.18	16.13	6.67
159	Prima passionis predictio	8.31	9.22	16.21
160	Qui vult venire post me	8.34	9.23	16.24
161	Transfiguratio	9.2	9.28	17.1
162	De Elia venturo	9.11		17.10
163	Puer lunaticus	9.14	9.37	17.14
164	Altera passionis predictio	9.30	9.43	17.22
166	Discipulorum ambitio	9.33	9.46	18.1
167	Monitio tolerantiae	9.38	9.49
168	De scandalis	9.42		18.6
XII	MINISTERIUM IN IUDAEA
251	Iter in Iudaeam	10.1		19.1
252	De matrimonio et virginitate	10.2		19.3
253	Benedictio parvulorum	10.13	18.15	19.13
254	Adulescens dives	10.17	18.18	19.16
255	Foramen acus; centuplum accipiet	10.23	18.24	19.23
262	Terti passionis praedictio (in via)	10.32	18.31	20.17
263	Mater filiorum Zebedaei	10.35		20.20
264	Bartimaeus vel duo caeci	10.46	18.35	20.29
XIII	ULTIMUM MINISTERIUM IN JERUSALEM
269	Ingressus triumphalis in Jerusalem (Monday)	11.1	19.28	21.1	12.12
271	Jesus in Jerusalem, Bethaniam redit	11.11		21.10
272	Ficulnea maledicta	11.12		21.18
273	Purgatio templi	11.15	19.45
274	Insidiae pontificum et scribarum	11.18	19.47
275	Filculnea arefacta	11.20		21.20
276	De potestate Jesu et baptismo Ioannis	11.27	20.1	21.23
278	Vinitores mali	12.1	20.9	21.33
280	De censu Caesaris	12.13	20.20	22.15
281	De resurrectione mortuorum	12.18	20.27	22.23
282	Maximum et primum mandatum	12.28		22.34
283	Filius David?	12.35	20.41	22.41
284	Vae Pharisaeis et scribis	12.37	20.45	23.1
286	Quadrans viduae	12.41	21.1
XIV	SERMO ESCHATALOGICUS
287	Templum evertetur	13.1	21.5	24.1
288	Signa adventus Jesu et consummationis saeculi	13.3	21.7	24.3
289	Persecutiones futurae	13.9	21.12	24.9
290	Excidium Iudaeae	13.14	21.20	24.15
291	Pseudochristi et pseudoprophetae	13.21		24.23
292	Filii hominus adventus	13.24	21.25	24.29
293	Tempus adventus: parabola fici	13.28	21.29	24.32
294	Vigilate	13.33
XVI	PASSIO
305	Decretum mortis	14.1	22.1	26.1
306	Unctio Bethaniae	14.3		26.6
307	A Iuda proditur	14.10	22.7	26.14
308	Cena paschalis praeparatur	14.12	22.7	26.17
310	Proditorum indicat	14.18		26.21	13.21
311	Eucharistiam instituit (Thursday April 6)	14.22	22.15	26.26
315	Iter in montem Olivarum	14.26	22.31	26.30	13.36
330	Gethsemani	14.32	22.39	26.36	18.1
331	Tenetur	14.43	22.47	26.47	18.2
332	Coram synedrio	14.53	22.54	26.57	18.13
333	Negatio Petri	14.66		26.69	18.25
334	Pontio Pilato traditur	15.1	23.1	27.1	18.28
336	A Pilato interrogatur	15.2	23.2	27.11	18.29
339	Jesus an Barabbas	15.6	23.17	27.15	18.39
341	Condemnatur	15.15	23.24	27.24	19.16
342	Spinis coronatur	15.16		27.27
343	Via ad Golgotha	15.20	23.26	27.31	19.17
344	Crucifigitur (Friday, April 7, 30)	15.22	23.33	27.33	19.17
345	In cruce blasphematur	15.27	23.35	27.38
346	Duo latrones	15.32	23.39	27.44
347	Moritur	15.27	23.44	27.45	19.28
348	Stabant iuxta crucem	15.40	23.49	27.55
350	Sepelitur	15.42	23.50	27.57	19.38
XVII	RESURRECTIO
352	Mulieres ad sepulchrum	16.1	24.1	28.1	20.1
358	Recumbentibus apparet	16.14
Section	Title	Mark	Luke	Matthew	John
XVIII	EPILOGUS
362	Marci conclusio brevior	[brevior]
363	Marci conclusio longior	16.9

Number of Pericopae = 118

Sources: Synopsis of the Four Gospels, Greek-English Edition of the Synopsis Quattuor Evangelium, Edited by Kurt Aland (6th edition).

The unforgiving servant

2010-03-07T17:05:00.000-08:00

Today I took the older class. I was not well prepared because I did not know I was to teach till 2 minutes prior to class. But fortunately, the older students are each preparing the lessons so most of what I had to do was listen and enable. One thing I notice about Christians - they are largely unaware of the Old Testament and don't notice if it used in the Service in passages they have learned to 'take for granted'. So I asked - how many of you heard the shema in church this morning that we have sung many times before (with this group not so many but a few times)?

None.

But we read the summary of the law as part of the service order - and it is plain and simple a full quotation of Deuteronomy 6:4-5. So with these more inhibited older kids, I started with three blind mice to get them to sing a major third and then we sang the shema and pondered a little the instructions in Deuteronomy.

Following this we heard the reading of the parable of the unforgiving servant - it's a parable. The questions the student had prepared were difficult. Does the master give unconditional forgiveness? The other students were not so sure what unconditional meant. And I realized that such an abstraction misses the point of the action-consequence in the story. Well - much to learn from this. And it was good to see their own preparation.

I will teach again in two weeks - listening this morning was good preparation for me.

Parables and stuff

2010-02-28T14:47:00.000-08:00

As the children learn parables, we adults sometimes ask about whether this is a new form with Jesus. It isn't. Not only is it frequent in the 'Old Testament' but it is especially frequent in teaching from the Talmud. These two posts on Genesis Rabbah are particularly helpful in beginning to hear the voice of Jesus within the Jewish tradition.

A snippet of his interpretation:

In this kind of midrash, the close reader oscillates between the two narratives, coupling a sense that she is gaining an increasingly coherent grasp of the midrash with a continued awareness that there are loose ends that may resist all attempts to be tied up.

Note that it is a close reading that allows grasp. To achieve a close reading we must give up our preconceived understandings and stand with the teacher and text. There is then one Spirit who will form us inwardly.

Prodigal - week 2

2010-01-31T17:56:00.000-08:00

This morning was quite special - with lovely coincidences and beautiful resolutions of what could be difficult deliberations. The younger group was very small - two drawers and painters - but the older group was busy doing stage settings of the prodigal son so I waited. Then two more students who had no introduction to Hebrew turned up for the younger group, so I went to their class and we sang the shema and I wrote the new children's names in Hebrew and gave them a beginning handout (they were aged 7 to 8).

Then the older group were doing the older brother bit - and I had chosen to do psalm 133 with them. The scenes being over, I went to that class and we sang hineh ma tov. There are some very fine musicians in the older group quite uninhibited on trumpet or violin but not used to singing - so I asked them to dance as well and eventually got a little music and movement out of them.

The teacher told me that after I had left she had read the psalm with them in English and talked a little about the oil on Aaron's beard. She would like me to talk to them about the oil... Perhaps there will be more on this later as we learn the song. They learn the song, and we will explore the anointing in TNK.

And as for beautiful resolutions, see these posts on two powers and Psalms 90-91. Look particularly at the words dwelling place or habitation and beauty - palindromes in the Hebrew. Listen, do it, wait, hope, be. As the Lord says - I will be with him in trouble. One day I will share some of these psalms with the children.

Prodigal

2010-01-24T14:35:00.000-08:00

One class was doing the good Samaritan this morning and the older class the prodigal son. I began the class by asking the children aged 9 to 14 if any of them knew the meaning of prodigal. One answer came back 'bad'. When I suggested prodigious as related, I was able to coax from them a sense of large, even recklessly overflowing. We then applied this 'definition' to the natural world with its abundant fruitfulness, even waste, in its prodigality.

The Hebrew I chose to illustrate prodigality of love (see the libretto for Britten's St Nicholas by Crozier) is Isaiah 49:15. My printer was not available so I handwrote the verse in reverse interlinear last night. It was colourful but a bit crooked. Handwriting Hebrew is a good exercise. Here it is - Hashem is like a mother. (Green is for grammatical letters and the background brown showing the repeated word).

התשכח אשה עולה מרחם
hatishkàx )ishah `vulah méràxém
Does a woman forget her nursling from the womb
בן־בטנה
benbi+nah
the child of her belly
גם־אלה תשכחנה
gàm)éleh tishkàxnah
even these may forget
ואנכי לא אשכחך
v)anoky lo) )eshkaxék
but I, I will not forget you

There is a Hebrew parallel difficult to express in English because of the use of the infinitive for having compassion = the noun for womb. Salt for ever sacrifice! Don't believe rigidly any of my translations. I didn't point this out, but it seems to me that עולה מרחם is parallel to בן־בטנה. I did not get into the place of this promise in detail (the time of the exile - the complaint that God had abandoned his people) since I had but 5 minutes. That would apply to a different lesson - this is just on prodigality.

I did not go to the other class since they were already in session. Perhaps one class a week is all I can manage.

I could not find the libretto online but here is the critical verse: "O! he was the prodigal of love! a spendthrift in devotion to us all"

The Dawn Treaders are launched

2010-01-17T16:09:00.000-08:00

This morning we had two classes up and running both with a goodly quorum. Can one do five minutes a week with two classes?

The older class are doing parables for the next several weeks. Several of them have never had a lesson in Hebrew, so to give them just a little digging into the Old Testament, I chose Proverbs 1:6 as a verse to frame the sayings and I spelled out the word משלים (moshalim). Next week I will do more with Psalms - maybe psalm 78. The OT is full of parables, stories as parable, proverbs and dark sayings. Job, for example, is parable. Parable is not new in the NT.

In the younger class - aged 3 to 9 we sang the shema and they sang it beautifully. I am really impressed with these young voices.

Epiphany delayed

2010-01-10T13:19:00.000-08:00

Today we did Epiphany and I got back to Sunday school after a six-week hiatus for a five minute Hebrew lesson. With several new children there I introduced the word Hallelujah as one Hebrew word that everyone would know. After my very short talk, the leader invited us to sing a Hallelujah to the tune and descant of 'Seek ye First'.

I used Psalm 117 as the introduction to this word because Psalm 117 invites all the world into the praises of the Psalter. See this post for the whole psalm. Our little wooden block book of the Psalter shows its name as תְהִלִּים Tehillim, prayers and praises. It is the largest book at 150 chapters but it contains the shortest chapter - Psalm 117.

Numbers in Biblical Hebrew

2009-12-18T07:44:00.000-08:00

Flash cards here are so much fun - Go to the link, press a link on the left to get going then set your standards higher and do multiple choice.

Star Sunday

2009-12-13T19:14:00.000-08:00

It was a full afternoon today. My wife and I staffed the candle-decorating stand. A complex of children aged 1 to 14 decorated candles - at least 50! So there were a lot of people there - maybe as many as 70. Chaotic at times. The Sanctuary was in the church where there was a pot of bees wax boiling and each child was to take a wick and dip it, then walk the stations of the nativity and ring the bell, then return for another dip, circling till the new candle was fat enough to use.

Flute in the church, and carols by two violinists and a piano in the hall where the other stations were. Lovely music. There were stations for woodwork, making decorations, needlework, making chocolate, paper stars, oranges and cloves and golden walnuts, and present wrapping.

It has been quiet on this blog since the Sunday school have been preparing for pageant so I have not done any lessons for a few weeks.

New Comic arrives

2009-11-26T21:27:00.000-08:00

Og the Terrible found his way into my house today thanks to Karyn at Boulders2bits.

This looks delightful and will be a great aid in teaching.

More information on this and related products can be found here.

Splitting by age group

2009-11-22T18:12:00.000-08:00

In the New Year we will likely split the Sunday School class in two groups. How will the younger group do a few minutes of letters and the older group also continue to learn Hebrew? What curriculum will we use for the older group? These questions are in our thoughts as the New Year approaches.

One thought on curriculum is to do a series of portraits of Jesus.

I scratched a few thoughts about overall themes during the sermon today. We have already approached the role of Prophet. I wonder if this spokesperson and mediation role could find expression in a study of the presence of the High Priest on our behalf at the Mercy Seat. This is a full subject for exploration and would encompass the ancient sacrifices and the self-giving of Jesus. - Portrait 1: Prophet-Priest

A primary role of the prophet is as servant. Christ as servant to the circumcision and Jesus as embodying the suffering servant. Servant is used as an early title in Acts. Mark, Acts, and Isaiah would provide study here. Portrait 2: Servant

The Lamb and the Bridegroom. The book of Revelation provides a third portrait. The Shepherd King, son of David a fourth. His humanity is perhaps foremost in the role of son of Abraham. This humanity includes walking by faith (Habakkuk) and the temptation and will focus on how Jesus used the Scripture. Portrait 5: the human Jesus. This can include the origin and use of the phrase son of man.

A sixth portrait could encompass the aspects of Judge and Redeemer, the teacher and preacher. Again in the role of prophet, the one who rebukes and builds up. Temple Builder? - the role of the Spirit - Is the Lord, the Spirit open to a portrait - perhaps a theological one?

And seventh - the Son of God. Such a portrait would likely take much of its focus from John's Gospel, summed up in the word made flesh and the seven I am statements. This too should not focus exclusively on the NT but also include the Hebraic roots of the imagery and the anointing of the Law, the Prophets and the Writings for our learning as well as all who have loved these words both in old times and now.

Each portrait merges into the other - a study in itself.

Any thoughts?

Nov 15 - restart alef-bet teaching

2009-11-15T17:23:00.000-08:00

Today - 5 minutes only - I handed out some exercises for the two new older students and workwheets for all who wanted to do the exercise of finding each letter of the alef-bet in Zephaniah 3:8. See worksheet image here.

One of the younger students sang the shema for all of us as a solo this morning. (no prompts needed) Quite moving.

Side bar update

2009-11-12T12:55:00.000-08:00

With new students in class, there is a tug of war within me as to where to restart teaching the alef-bet. The sidebar has a link to another teacher of Hebrew to children and adults. The alef-bet rock song may be appreciated by some. Quite different from my low-tech imitation of the one we were raised with in English.

The Prophets - postlude

2009-11-08T18:15:00.000-08:00

It is not easy to summarize this morning's lesson. We started with the shema and rehearsed it phrase by phrase, note by note, with me getting a bit mixed up but it is coming along. Then we sang it together especially for our new students. Then we calmed the heart with a prayer. I pointed to Zephaniah 3:8 and promised we would do more alef-bet for the new students in the future. We searched out a few letters, but I noticed that the circle was not large enough for all heads to be searching so I will make up an individual game for this.

In the lesson proper, after our 5 minutes of Hebrew, I was much more interactive than usual, but I had several older children there and they were happy to search out the question 'what is a prophet'. We went round the class getting various answers like - 'a good person', 'I don't know'. Even the young Korean who could not speak a word of English 6 months ago said clearly 'I don't know'. This is a very good place to start. I am not sure what order we did the following things in, but I had the attention of all some of the time and of most except the youngest most of the time.

We defined prophet as a servant and read some of Deuteronomy 34 and the beginning of Isaiah 42.

So Moses the servant of the LORD

died there in the land of Moab,

according to the word of the LORD.

And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab,

over against Bethpeor: but no man knoweth

of his sepulchre unto this day.

I added something about - not even those who pick mushrooms (just to see if anyone was listening and to get the attention of the one who had picked mushrooms the prior week.) Then I read to verse 10.

Then we read 1 Samuel 3 depicting in full Samuel's service, and the call of Hashem to him. (I read this as a story with appropriate low key dramatic voice - all ears were present to the story.) We related Samuel's name to the Shema as one who hears. So we had from Moses and Samuel two indications that a prophet is a servant and one who hears the voice of the Lord. Then I called for three volunteers - one to play God, one to be the prophet, and one to represent the people. I chose the older students and though I did not chose one rambunctious youngster, he participated in quite an unusual way. Here is the dialogue.

In each case I prompted the actor since they did not know their part (and neither did I till we started). I had been wondering whether to use props but I think the action is a far better teacher.

Teacher: Prophet - face God; God - say something
silence
Teacher: God say hello to the prophet
God: Hello
Teacher: Prophet - turn and face the people and tell them God's word to you
Prophet: God says hello
Teacher: suppose the people have done something bad
People: no comment
Prophet turns to God
God: tell the people to stop
(They caught on quickly)
Rambunctious voice - tell God to say kill the people
Teacher: OK - God, tell the prophet you are going to destroy the people
God: I am going to destroy this people
Prophet: about to turn
Teacher: no, prophet - don't tell the people, remind God of his promises and his reputation - What would the Egyptians say? Talk back to God, and by doing so suggest that God can't do this.

We stopped here - but recognized how many sides there are to communication and how the prophet also has the role of intercession for the people. This talking back to God is of course not making God's mind up for him but the pattern is clearly seen with both Abraham and Moses, as I am sure all who are reading this will be aware.

So we summarized the roles of a prophet and I mentioned Ezekiel's problem (Ezekiel 3:26) of his tongue stuck to his palate so he is unable to warn a rebellious people but we did not have time to explore this in detail.

We looked at some other one word roles of the prophet: I had several Bibles open and two of the students had brought their own, so we read some of the prepared verses and I noted briefly the role of the prophet in each whether rebuke (Nathan), sarcasm (Micaiah), hope (Isaiah), and so on. I also pointed out the books of the prophets and pulled Obadiah from the shelf to read the first verse of his call - so with the eyes and ears of Isaiah 35:5 still in our heads, we read that visions are also part of the prophet's receiving apparatus. I handed out to each of the older students a page (here) with several verses which I hope they will be able to look up on their own. (I have not assumed this sort of 'homework' in the classes before, but some of them are definitely old enough to read on their own or with parental help.)

Then I asked a student to read Ezekiel 3:1 and I opened the tin of edible scroll pastries that I had made last night. They didn't eat too many each but there were none left after - the parish ate the rest at our light lunch. The instruction on the tin was in Hebrew אכול את־המגלה (ekol et-hamegillah). It will be useful when we come to look at the five scrolls. They will remember the word for scroll and we will use it as a lesson in Hebrew plural formation.

Finally we turned to Hebrews 1:1 (I did not read it in Greek - it is too early for that move but the pieces are all in place) and we thought for a moment on Jesus as our prophet - with whom we can speak and who intercedes for us.

The prophets

2009-11-07T19:24:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow I will present something on the prophets. We have already introduced them through the book blocks. I have prepared several scrolls here, here, here, and here. We will probably start with the Shema - sung and then go to finding letters one at a time in the image of Zephaniah 3:8 - it depends on who comes. Zephaniah 3:8 contains all the letters of the alef-bet. Who knows we may sing that song too.

I expect to approach the prophet as mediator, go-between for God and his people. Then each of the prophetic calls and chosen verses will reveal something of how God approached his people. I think also I will start with Samuel and Jeremiah both of whom are 'lads' - likely not older than my students. Then we will see how each prophet's call and perhaps selected verses tell us something about what a prophet is. I am not sure how long this will take - likely I have more material than I should have. I think I will make some rolled pastry that the children can eat in imitation of Ezekiel (but I will not make Ezekiel bread). My sweet will not be bitter in the stomach.

I got me flowers to strew thy way;
I got me boughs off many a tree:
But thou wast up by break of day,
And brought'st thy sweets along with thee.

The Shema

2009-10-25T14:18:00.000-07:00

Today, O joy - one of the children reminded me before I had sat down that we were to sing the Shema and so I asked them to tell me the words. They correctly repeated to me all the words with one or two questions to prompt them. It was a group effort. It showed me that repetition is critical to learning. And it showed me that they have learned. This is the fourth week in a row that we have sung the Shema and taken apart its words.

I had prepared 5 of the letter blocks with the word Elohim, אלהים for God which produces ha'eyalim האילים by simply moving one letter (and adding a yod!) - but with or without the Yod there is a 'sounds like' relationship. In the Song, God finds a way in (three times) even when not mentioned. (If I prepare letter blocks again, I hope it can be with mirrors and glass so that the chosen letter appears on all sides to avoid people reading random numbers, letters and signs!)

This morning's lesson was on the Tabernacle, and Alix had prepared a brilliant tabernacle constructed with popsicle sticks. I did not stay for the whole lesson - too much singing to do, but I did introduce the Song as a special place in the Bible - such as Rabbi Akiva noted.

The entire world is unworthy of the day that the Song of Songs was given to Israel, for all of Scripture is holy, but the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies. (M. Yad 3:5)

The book of the Song is in the middle of the Bible as shown in the picture. (For earlier posts of mine on the Song, begin here. For the first lessons with the blocks, see here and here)

The blocks are complete

2009-10-16T20:51:00.001-07:00

For more pictures - see here. Note particularly the analytical powers of the shapers of the Law, the Prophets and the Writings. Brevard Childs in a new publication suggests a shaping of the Pauline corpus that does not show clearly in the colours I have used. (In fact - where does Philemon belong?) It will be interesting to see what we discover over the next year or two as we use these blocks to get an overview of the Bible across to the children. What analytical understanding could they bring to the table in their lives?

The book blocks are coming

2009-10-14T20:33:00.000-07:00

I have all the blocks 35 for the OT and 27 for the New - the thirty five are shaped according to the organization of the Hebrew Scriptures in three sections: Law, Prophets and Writings. The Law are the five books of Moses, the Prophets are divided into the former prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings), the later prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel) and the 12 (so named in Aramaic). The Writings are divided in three also: the Book of Truth (Psalms, Proverbs, and Job), the five Megillot (Song, Ruth, Lamentations, Kohelet, and Esther), and the three remaining (Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles). That's 5 + 4 + 3 + 12 + 3 + 5 + 3 = 35 'books'. I have not included the Apocrypha but I do have a few blocks left - and could do it. The New Testament is the 4 Gospel accounts, Acts, the 13 Pauline letters, the general epistles, John's letters and Revelation and Hebrews. That should give 27 (4+1+13+4+3+2) and it does - yea! 62 books altogether - 4 taken as one each where the traditional OT divides them in two.

There are two pdf's. NT and TNK They fit exactly on 3 x 5 inch plywood blocks - print without scaling on 8.5 x 11 paper. (The plywood edges sort of look like pages). One requires the following sizes.

BOOK	TESTAMENT	SIZE
14	n	1	.25"
5	n	2	.375"
6	n	3	.5"
2	n	4	.675"
10	o	1	.25"
6	o	2	.375"
5	o	3	.5"
6	o	4	.675"
7	o	5	.75"
1	o	6	.875"	(use glue)

The book labels themselves are in Hebrew and Greek. The labels are meant to be put on as for left to right reading (sorry). They are intended for Hebrew to English and Greek to English exercises as well as for piling on top of each other and learning to count and learning what the books of the Bible are (without too much parochial reductionism).

It is possible to print them out on white paper that will take glue or on a mac-tac type of paper, then cut the images out and paste them onto the wood blocks (you'll have to make those). You can cut the Hebrew labels in two (or 3) and bind them right to left. You'll get the idea. (But if you are interested, get in touch with me. I found a few errors and difficulties as I actually did the matching so I am not sure if my sizes are quite right, and I have added a few puzzles to the labels since printing to PDF which has its own idiosyncrasies with large paper sizes.) You could also print them on cardboard stock and fold them to shape - but they won't be as resilient as wood.

Oh - I did do a short lesson last week - just a few minutes on counting again and we sang the shema - I will repeat this till they really know it. There are some fine musicians there.

Immersion in אֶחָד

2009-10-04T15:05:00.000-07:00

Well, how did it go this morning? How much Hebrew can one immerse the children in? Not too much at least not for me. We did our five minute lesson on One and they all learned, practiced and sang the shema with me. words alone - tune to la la la and then put it all together. I know we got through this with some success - I have never heard this group sing so loud.

As usual when looking at my illustration of 'One', all heads gathered close so I had to ask for my space back to spread out the map of Genesis 1. It was 4 feet by 2 feet. The colors are many and I think they recognized some of the patterns in the refrains on the page, but I did not read anything in sequence.

There was no one there who remembered the first lesson from Spring 2008 so I repeated it quickly. Then I pointed out the uses of and God said - I found only 9 but I was sure there were 10. The computer counts 10 so there must be 10. Where is the tenth? (One of them is in verse 28 and the computer is counting only the word 'and he said'.) We read together the refrains and counted thus up to 7. I think we will have a lesson on every number, so all this was by way of introduction.

Have you noticed this?

ויאמר אלהים נעשה אדם בצלמנו כדמותנו
And God said - let us make a human in our image after our likeness

וירדו בדגת הים ובעוף השמים
to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of heaven etc

ויברא אלהים את־האדם בצלמו
So God created the human in his image

בצלם אלהים ברא אתו
In the image of God he created it
זכר ונקבה ברא אתם
male and female he created them

God says - let's make the human in our image according to our likeness
But then God creates the human in his image

What's missing? In a poem where repetition is a pattern closely followed, this 'after our likeness' is not repeated.

Likeness without image is used in Genesis 5 - How are we to understand the missing words? The use of likeness with respect to the human is not taken up again till the visions of Ezekiel.

A New Beginning

2009-10-03T11:00:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow's lesson is on Genesis and Creation. I will also be introducing the number 1 and the first Book of the Bible by means of a plywood block model that will sit on the bookshelf looking like a book - a draft copy of the first of many. It will read on its cover something like this:
תורה ספר אֶחָד

בראשית
Genesis

בראשית ברא אלהים
את השמים ואת הארץ

And it will have a colorful spine as noted in the prior post.

I have a 2 ft by 4 ft blowup of this diagram - I wonder what I will do with it or how much I will read for sound. I am not into reductionism when teaching. Slow and steady in a rich environment - that's how to grow.

The organization of the books of the Bible

2009-09-26T18:24:00.000-07:00

The topic of the books of the Bible is a very complex one. (See for example the link at the left) North American Protestants are not much aware of the issues:

that there are several versions of the canon;
that the word "scriptures' as used in the New Testament did not mean necessarily the 'Old Testament' in the order we have it today, and certainly did not include the New Testament;
that the Hebrew Scriptures are in a different order from the Old Testament as used in the churches today.

A preliminary image of a model that eventually may illustrate the whole and the many parts is here. I hope to construct (with some capable help from my friends) a set of blocks that represent this 'library' and see where the new set of blocks might lead us to teach the books of the Bible to the Sunday School.

Imagine these attached to a set of blocks and on a shelf - looking like a shelf full of books. (Note how the books would be organized right to left.)

Guess what's on for Sunday School tomorrow?

2009-09-12T15:28:00.000-07:00

Cookies - The letters are designed to be inscribed but cookie dough is difficult to inscribe in! You can just make out בית in the upper left corner and there are lots of alefs. When you cut out alefs, you leave diamonds - so there are lots of diamonds too. (It took me a while to figure that one out.) Tomorrow for the older students there is a new alef-bet book.

New draft of alef-bet book

2009-08-22T15:40:00.000-07:00

This should be a lot of fun even for adults. Even for those who have never seen the Hebrew alef-bet before. But you won't find some of the exercises easy until you have struggled with the easy ones.

I have printed the book in 3 parts since the pdf's were getting big. Note that it is designed to be printed in duplex open at the left (or right) and collated and stapled on the right to read from right to left as all Hebrew books are read.

Pages 1-12 (for a printer - actually these are pages 13-24) are here
Pages 13-25 (for a printer - actually these are pages 1-12 and the title page and its back) are here
Page 26 which could go as back to page 25 contains the 34 exercises here.

How many can you do? (There are 4 songs to sing - the music for the alef-bet song is an experiment in printing right to left.)

New Year approaching

2009-08-18T10:11:00.000-07:00

Sunday School will start again in September. Some of the lessons last year were very hard and even my learning from them was limited. This year I am thinking that a book for each child might work as a year long exercise - 24 pages. There are a few pages without examples since I did not succeed in covering the entire alphabet last year. Any of you have ideas out there? How would you use a booklet like this? I am thinking colouring book + workbook. My initial draft is available here in pdf form.

Looking to year 2

2009-06-21T14:16:00.001-07:00

Today we reviewed the alef-bet and sang through the alef-bet song. (You can hear the song here. I opened discussions as to how to better finish the lyrics.) There was a particularly attentive group today. Even the energetic spirit pointed out that Hebrew has two s's two t's and a ts. And the studious spirit had us repeat the song many times. I suggested that next year we might do a page for each letter as a letter of fire and end the year with an alef-bet book for each person. (Note the comment of the Velveteen Rabbi on this post re letters of fire.)

And I assigned homework for the summer. A kind of find Waldo exercise - see this diagram. For each letter in red on the second page, find it in the corresponding paragraph. For some of the children this will be more difficult than for others. I had a mistake in the diagram which I only discovered after printing it. So I left it there for the eldest to find. I don't know how it happened - somehow I had copied storm wind סער from Psalm 107:25 instead of sustain סעד Psalm 119:117. In the diagram I have replaced the Samech word with Support סמך as considered here. Perhaps I had two examples and kept differing pieces of them. It looks though as if I had traded a resh for a dalet - easy to do when reading or when writing but hardly when using copy and paste on a computer.

If we have a class during the summer, I will explore these shapes - maybe.

Have a fun summer - all.

Catching up

2009-06-17T12:33:00.000-07:00

There was a full room on Sunday - 11 children and 4 adults. We sang and looked at the Shema in the book דברים (debarim). the second word of the book we call Deuteronomy (Greek roughly for second law). We read the Shema also - שמע ישראל יהוה אלהינו יהוה אחד just to the first word of chapter 6 verse 5 - and thou shalt love... ואהבת (ve'ahavta)

I wasn't sure how much time I had - and I could have gone further. But it was good to complete the sentence in English also...

After a year, I feel the need to emphasize the aural more - more talking - more singing - more communicative behaviour in the ancient tongue. I think I will try and link in further to the Cohelet project on this subject. (A very clever name - sounds like Qohelet the preacher = our Ecclesiastes!)

Continuing with song

2009-05-25T23:00:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday we had five minutes of hiney ma tov - Psalm 133. The letters for the Shema were still up from the previous week, so I showed the one letter difference from אחד to יחד. From the quiet circle, I put the song in the middle, and like bees to honey all noses converged onto the text as I sang the song and followed the letters of the psalm with my finger - careful - it's easy to get the direction confused when you are reading upside down.

After 3 or 4 times through, some were singing clearly and everyone was trying. Must repeat the songs and let the letters fall out from them. No Sunday School next week - high mass for Pentecost and a special Palestrina choral feature with several visiting singers.

After a year, I must think how to continue the teaching process. Blocks and singing and lessons with action seem to be the best for retention for children and adults alike. But this much is true - five minutes a week makes a difference.

One

2009-05-17T13:11:00.000-07:00

The subject this morning was the Eucharist - so I put the Shema as counterpoint and taught the word 'one' with the blocks. There were a number of new people in Sunday School so it was good to restart at alef and repeat a song. I will likely repeat this next week and also do psalms 133 again - just for singing. Maybe I will prepare some music on paper too...

Thinking about Isaiah 61

2009-05-10T09:31:00.000-07:00

Jesus reads Isaiah 61 a long time ago in that Synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4:18-19). He closes the roll and returns it to the attendant. All eyes are fixed on him. And he says: today...

There are so many possible lessons in today's words that I noted as I prepared for this part of the class, on its own, about the presentation of 'ancient time' and 'today' to those of us with only a few years of memory.

Then I also covered the upper room and the institution of the Eucharist - It was of necessity brief - but again time, memory, and presence are in the story.

Honey cake for the feast. Jewish New Year and Anointed Time all in one. Delight yourselves in fatness (Isaiah 55:2).

After Job or even in tandem, I think Isaiah 40-66 a good next project.

The 35 minute lesson was successful. The door keeper and I acted out the reading. She handed me the 'scroll' to read, I read the frame in English and the Isaiah portion in Hebrew, showing them a scroll in English and Hebrew, then I handed the scroll back to her and sat down. In contrast to other godly play lessons where eye contact is not the norm, this one with its lesson - all eyes were upon him - required action and eye contact. A student had helped me prepare by finding the Spirit רוח (ruach) and 'on me' עלי (alai) with the blocks. The whole class 'learned' these two words.

We made a time line to illustrate the 'length' of 2000 years. We started with a question to the young Korean - how old are you - and he held up his five digits with open palm. So we marked on the time line our points, the dates of the events of the gospel and the time of Isaiah, 600 to 800 years prior to them.

For such a long lesson everyone was quiet. It is a good lead in to Pentecost.

Next class - Spirit on me - Isaiah 61

2009-05-05T17:02:00.001-07:00

The next class is mine to teach again - it is on "Synagogue and Upper Room" and has an elaborate building structure. The text is Isaiah 61:1-2 which is in the Godly Play in English of course. But we will do it first in Hebrew and compare Luke 4:18-19 with the passage in the Hebrew Bible. (I will not be using the Vulgate which includes the Dies Irae.)

Here is the Hebrew text in an image (till I find out why Mac's don't display some Hebrew right!)

Read it with me (cover the following if you don't need it):
ruach Adonai יהוה alai
ya`an mashach יהוה iti
'lebaser anavim
shelachani lachvosh lenishberei-lev
liqro lishvuyim dror
vela'asurim peqach-qoach
liqro shenat-ratson la יהוה
vyom neqam le'elohenu
lenachem col-avelim

And translating:

the spirit of the Lord יהוה is on me
because יהוה has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor
He has sent me to bind up
the brokenhearted
to proclaim to captives liberty
and to those who are bound, emancipation
to proclaim the acceptable year of יהוה
the day of vengeance of our God
to comfort all those who mourn

Spiritus Domini super me,
eo quod unxerit Dominus me;
ad annuntiandum mansuetis misit me,
ut mederer contritis corde,
et prædicarem captivis indulgentiam,
et clausis apertionem;
ut prædicarem annum placabilem Domino,
et diem ultionis Deo nostro;
ut consolarer omnes lugentes,

The children don't do Latin yet - but soon :)

Where does Jesus stop in his reading?

Repeat lesson on head and shoulders

2009-05-03T21:45:00.000-07:00

Today we did some review from the beginning - recalling the first word they learned 11 months ago, כּי-טוב. I reintroduced each body part in the head and shoulders song one at a time - singular and plural when required for the song.

head - ראש
shoulder - כתף - shoulders כתפים
knee - ברך - knees ברכים

When you see knee, right away you know that it is the same word as bless. One kneels for a blessing - right?

extremity - toe or finger - אצבע - toes אצבעות

One nameless nine-year-old had offered foot instead of hand to the teacher as a greeting. So as distraction, I could appeal to the lesson that toe and finger are the same word in Hebrew.

eye - עין - so very like the English eye in pronunciation
ear - אזן - the hardest to open though it has no lid!
mouth - פה
nose - אף - as anger

When we had finished - all sang the song with me - and all did the movements. As the light is good and the Lord is good - so also the blessing to us in our limbs is good.

Notes and miscellany

2009-05-03T09:14:00.001-07:00

No lesson last week. Trying to organize this week - may just do a bit of review. I have put reusable papers in envelopes - a long way from card stock and stand-alone exercises. Next week I have a whole hour on Church and Synagogue. That will be a challenge for my thought this week.

We have been going nearly a year - time to consider results...

Biblical Studies Carnival 41

2009-04-30T21:40:00.000-07:00

Hear ye - hear ye - come one and all. The Sunday School Blog has been given lead billing in the Biblical Studies Carnival LXI - Do take a look. James McGrath of Exploring Our Matrix has done a great job of summing up a complex month.

On toes - for meditation

2009-04-21T09:11:00.000-07:00

and there was yet a battle in Gath
and there was a man of great size
and the fingers of his hand and the toes of his foot were six and six
twenty and four in number
and even this one was born to the giant
(2 Samuel 21:20)

Strengthen drooping hands and tottering knees secure
(Isaiah 35:3)

then will be opened the eyes of the blind
and the ears of the deaf will be unblocked
(Isaiah 35:5)
note the assonance in the Hebrew

mouth
- so many to choose from, 78 uses in the psalms alone

my mouth will speak of wisdom and the musing of my heart of discernment (Psalm 49)

nose - and wrath (Psalm 115)
ears to them and they do not hear;
nose to them and they do not smell

Some verse possibilities for body parts

2009-04-20T18:24:00.001-07:00

Some parts are hard to find - so כָתֵף is used for back, side, and all sorts of other translations - and there are other words rendered shoulder - but here is a verse from the prophets for shoulder and ears - a tough verse worth learning in its context. (Zechariah 7:9-11)

ט כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת לֵאמֹר מִשְׁפַּט אֱמֶת שְׁפֹטוּ וְחֶסֶד וְרַחֲמִים עֲשׂוּ אִישׁ אֶת-אָחִיו
י וְאַלְמָנָה וְיָתוֹם גֵּר וְעָנִי אַל-תַּעֲשֹׁקוּ וְרָעַת אִישׁ אָחִיו אַל-תַּחְשְׁבוּ בִּלְבַבְכֶם
יא וַיְמָאֲנוּ לְהַקְשִׁיב וַיִּתְּנוּ כָתֵף סֹרָרֶת וְאָזְנֵיהֶם הִכְבִּידוּ מִשְּׁמוֹעַ

So says יְהוָה of hosts saying: judge with a true judgment
and mercy and compassion do -
so it should be for anyone to any other who is near
and widow or orphan, stranger or the poor - do not oppress
and evil - anyone to any other who is near - do not imagine in your hearts
but they refused to pay attention
and gave a shoulder to stubbornness
and their ears they stopped from hearing

There are many sounds we have heard in other contexts in these verses alone.

Ideas from anyone else on suitable verses for teaching about how we use head and shoulders, knees and toes?

Note: this post altered to see if the Hebrew letters will work on Apple.

Body Parts - lesson 1

2009-04-19T13:09:00.000-07:00

The world premiere of Head and Shoulders, the Bob version, was given today to 9 or 10 children. We sang it together first in English - so they know they knew the tune. Then I reminded them they already knew the first word from Genesis 1:1 The word for beginning בְּראשית bereshit contains the word for head ראש rosh.) - and away I went with the Hebrew version - there were many smiles all around. Then there being three fluent Korean speakers, the eldest sang a bit to us in Korean and the youngest smiled. Some things are universal - like how cultures teach children words.

The version I used is here. I did try and record it if you can play a .wav file. I really should find out what it takes to do the other control for playing things.

Note for a more complete list of body parts see here. I think I could occupy several 5 minute Hebrew lessons with a verse a week on various body parts.

Head and shoulders

2009-04-18T15:07:00.000-07:00

רֹאשׁ כְּתֵפַ֫יִם
בִּרְכַּ֫יִם אֶצְבָּעוֹת
ברכים אצבעות
ברכים אצבעות
ראש כתפים
ברכים אצבעות
עֵינַ֫יִם אָזְנַ֫יִם
פֶּה אַף

Now just get the right 'and' with each and you have a new head and shoulders song. Review of all body parts see here.

Palm Sunday - Zechariah 9:9

2009-04-05T15:22:00.001-07:00

We had a great procession around the neighborhood. We had a new boy from Korea at Sunday School today - and fortunately for him, our young Korean violinist was there to do simultaneous translation from Hebrew or English to Korean. What a lovely gift. How shall I spell the boys name, Jinyoung in Hebrew? Some sounds are hard to imitate.

Today I simply read Zechariah 9:9 in Hebrew and translated as I read. I asked first what did Jesus ride into Jerusalem on - and one youngster duly guessed a horse - so we talked briefly of war and peace. The three words for donkey in the text provided a nice continuation of our series on animals. I wonder if horse would make a good subject for Easter?

The Order of the Phoenix Sunday

2009-03-30T21:52:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday - that was yesterday, 28 children came to St Barnabas to take part in an experience. There were several tents set up in the hall, filled with colour and props and staffed by costumed leaders.

The task was to experience each tent and carry something away. Each child needed a password to get into the upper room when they had finished collecting their experience in all the tents. We in the Hebrew tent were the source of the passwords. We had a few books as props, a table, and a box full of words in Hebrew with the meaning and transcription on the back of each word.

The password was simple. Each child had to pick a unique Hebrew word from the box and find the correct first letter of the word. That means getting the word right side up and picking the rightmost character. Then they could find their password - the name of that Hebrew letter - by scanning the walls of the tent where all the letters were hung - right to left of course - to match the shape.

Perhaps a half-dozen of the children found this easy since the letters were not new to them - but all succeeded and each listened to a bit of the Bible in Hebrew which contained the word they chose. Then they memorized their password and put their word in their bag and went to the next tent.

After everyone had finished, children and parents all went into the church for an episode of Godly Play. Everyone came away with sparklers.

The children of the Raven

2009-03-22T17:51:00.000-07:00

We had a fun lesson today - I gave the boys and the girls two sets of 7 blocks containing sufficient letters to spell לִבְנֵי עֹרֵב without the vowel pointing. It is not a very easy task - both groups succeeded in forming the words with the letters in the right order. (Each had a little confirming help from me - but the boys won.)

The advanced 11-year-old student was not there, but I am told by his mother that he has finished the first four chapters of Putnam's Toward Reading & Understanding Biblical Hebrew. So soon he will be teaching me. Now here is a time for careful encouragement and a new source of teaching material and experience.

Think of this though - in a small Sunday School, you can make a difference with 5 minutes a week. Children like content and a rich environment - they will respond in their own way at their own time. It is a joy to see.

This was our last week on the Hogwarts house animals. The exercise was difficult but we were able to focus on bits of it. If we come back to these verses with the same children a year from now, we can go deeper.

Just right - and more than expected

2009-03-15T13:34:00.001-07:00

Before I even moved into the circle today one youngster said to me - 'I remember last week's word'. And he did - how delighted I was, because I had prepared the blocks to show them last week's word and two more words that can be made out of the letters with one substitution and have them spell two of the other animals in the Hogwarts menagerie.

Here they are:

badger (or seal or dolphin or whatever this animal is): תחש, tachash
serpent (as in Genesis 3:1): נחש, nachash
and lion - the fierce one from last week: שחל, shachal

There were just 4 in the class today and one of them, about 8 years old, really enjoyed laying out the blocks and organizing them in the right order to spell each word. Much more to be said.

The blocks have lasted well - almost a year since I made them with blocks from the dollar store and some mac-tac using this image.

Too much - too complex

2009-03-08T18:17:00.000-07:00

Lions they know about but not the simple shape of Hebrew poetry. So we did Lion - as planned (see the homework I did here) , but I note there are also two variations on snake in Psalm 91:13 and next week we will do the subtle serpent. But I really ought to look at one word at a time. (Though the Genesis passage has several words that some of the children might recognize.)

I had two new 10 year olds who had never had a Hebrew lesson - I suspect they were a bit flummoxed by the 5.5 minute Hebrew lesson! (Yes I went overtime.)

Too much - too complex. I will take some of my exercise books to the Tuesday class - and it will be too little - too boring (לִ לֵ לֶ לַ לָ לֹ but we'll get through them quickly and they are useful for practicing the sounding out of words). Where is the middle ground?

Some more images

2009-03-07T13:37:00.000-08:00

Placeholders for the next 3 weeks. These are the images I will work a lesson around. The aim is that after 4 weeks the children will be able to see how letters and vowel markings fit together. They will probably learn a few other things also.

The hints so far are here

Tomorrow - poetry

2009-03-07T10:03:00.000-08:00

Psalm 91:13 is a beautiful example of Hebrew poetics - 6 words, a b c / c' a' b' - not quite a reversal. The image does not show the 'answer' 3-3 but puts the words in the form 2-2-2 in order to have the children find the 3-3 pattern as an exercise.

We will begin with transcription - since most of the children cannot yet hear the Hebrew - then we will move to form - all in less than 5 minutes.

And this is part of the preparation for Easter using Hebrew scripts from Hogwarts.

Easter, Hogwart's and Animals

2009-03-03T23:07:00.000-08:00

What have the Lion, the Snake, the Badger, and the Raven to do with Easter? As we work through Lent, we will look at these animals in the Bible, and I am sure we will be able to find some teaching that will suggest answers to this question.

Such is the direction that I think we will go.

I can report after an hour's lesson today with one older student and his mother, that there is more retained and grasped than one might expect - even at 5 minutes a week! For the older student, I am now recommending 15 minutes a day.

Today's hour was largely review of the first 10 or so lessons, (see here). We did both writing and sounding out words and reading.

No lesson last week

2009-02-28T11:29:00.001-08:00

The children enjoyed the colorful pictures from Hogwarts - but I think the project is going to be much too difficult for most of them - so I am unsure how to proceed.

I will talk to them about it - and see where it goes. I just finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It too is way over the heads of the age group I am working with. The enemy within - the pairing of good and evil - the difficulty of appearances - the allusions to Job~! All these are too much - too abstract. Animals in the Bible they might cope with. But badger - so loved in the King James Version has become dolphin or sealskin in the current versions - that's a stretch! Was the tabernacle covered by the skins of an unclean animal?

The direction to Easter

2009-02-14T20:17:00.000-08:00

We are going to do a project that I think will catch the children's interest. See if you can figure it out. It involves these verses - related to Lion, Raven, Serpent, and Badger.

עַל־שַׁחַל וָפֶתֶן תִּדְרֹךְ תִּרְמֹס כְּפִיר וְתַנִּֽין	נֹותֵן לִבְהֵמָה לַחְמָהּ לִבְנֵי עֹרֵב אֲשֶׁר יִקְרָֽאוּ
וְהַנָּחָשׁ הָיָה עָרוּם מִכֹּל חַיַּת הַשָּׂדֶה אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים	וְעָשִׂיתָ מִכְסֶה לָאֹהֶל עֹרֹת אֵילִם מְאָדָּמִים וּמִכְסֵה עֹרֹת תְּחָשִׁים מִלְמָֽעְלָה

I will give the children a very big clue: here

I am not sure yet where we are going - but I think they will learn a few words of Hebrew for they will need them in clues for an as yet to be defined Easter exercise.

Bread, rule, and thanksgiving - after the first lesson

2009-02-07T17:15:00.000-08:00

Generally, the class went very well from my point of view. We began with the planned Hebrew lesson on מָשָׁל (mashal) and we had much more time so I got the children to find the letters in the blocks and help figure out how to pronounce the word. They successfully matched the letters and sounded out a pronunciation. We finished with a children's version of Psalm 47 where I encouraged them all to stand up and jump and clap their hands.

Then we did the parable of the leaven as planned - I think I got most of the necessary bits in the right order. I started I think with the woman then the leaven. If I were to show the props in the word order of the Greek, I would start with the leaven. Our understanding of the kingdom of God arose naturally from Psalm 47 which is all about the king and trumpets and shouting. By beginning with the psalms, both the idea of parable and kingdom in the words of Jesus form in the mind out of the Jewish tradition.

In the response period, two of the boys hammered away at wood - and neither of them struck a finger. This is success. One of the boys asked me why we only do 3 minutes of Hebrew a week. So we worked through the whole alphabet and song. He is ready for more detail. I encouraged him to find and review the blog and ask questions. The door-keeper worked with the girls braiding, sewing, and colouring. (We just divided into girls and boys, it was not planned!)

Later I also delivered a lexicon to my senior student - maybe there will be time for lessons with more specific intent in Hebrew.

For the feast, we had the Challah which I had baked yesterday and we took time over the grace in Hebrew and English. (Thanks to this site for the image.)

Baruch 'ata Adonai Elohenu melek ha`olam
hamotsi lechem min ha-erets

Blessed are you O Lord our God king of the universe
who brings forth bread from the earth

This prayer linked our parable of the leaven with the thanksgiving of the world today and with the rule of God from all time and for all time.

Here's the alefbet song

2009-02-07T13:25:00.000-08:00

You can hear the song - old technology here

Preparing the Mashal

2009-02-06T19:30:00.000-08:00

Parable, riddle, dark saying and our search. Here is a diagram for riddle.

I have collected and shaped the parable material for Matthew 13:33: a bit of felt, a picture or two wrapped in tape, a criticism or two suppressed, and a potential for life from a riddle.

I have a picture by Vermeer for the woman and she stands. I have three images representing three measures of meal. I have a square of tan felt which I have cut in two – one flat and one round. The round folded in half hides under the flat. I made a small golden tetrahedron for the leaven, like a morsel of sourdough. The action could begin like this:

After opening the box, take out the woman –
then take out the little box with what she has to work with
– 3 measures of meal and the leaven –
then show what she does to make the dough by mixing them all together:
place the flat felt piece hiding its fullness over the three measures and the tetrahedron to hide the yeast
then leave time to rise
then make the lump rise by pulling the larger piece of felt above the flat piece

I am going to need to practice.

Parables

2009-02-05T13:06:00.000-08:00

Godly Play in the sections on Parables has a number of scripted statements that leave me slightly cold. So the Hebrew lesson preceding my parable will include the word מָשָׁל (mashal) in Psalm 49:1.

אַטֶּה לְמָשָׁל אָזְנִי
אֶפְתַּח בְּכִנֹּור חִידָתִי

Transcribed (read the Hebrew words and letters in reverse order to match)

'ateh lemashal 'azani
ephetah bekinor tidati

and a literal translation

I will stretch out to a parable my ear
I will open on the harp my riddle

In GP, parables are in a gold box - nice image. They must be opened and they are dark - good.

But what about the parables of the kingdom? Do they just come out of nowhere? Is there no root for them in the Old Testament? The psalms that use mashal are Psalm 44:14, Psalm 49:3-4, Psalm 69:11, and Psalm 78:2. Psalms 44 and 78 are Maskilim - songs of skill. 49 I have not classified and 69 is one of the many personal psalms.

But who is King? And does the Old Testament kingship - particularly as portrayed in the Psalms - have anything to do with the parables of the kingdom? Part of the English problem is the substitution of heaven for kingdom in Matthew - leading us to uproot the words from the first century tradition as if somehow the place where God reigns is not our concrete reality. I hope whatever I say will not leave this impression.

Leaven

2009-02-03T08:31:00.000-08:00

Note - the opening verses of Ruth use the verb תִּשָּׁאֵר from which leaven שאר is derived - very curious.

Coming up to the parable of the leaven. The presentation of parables seems a little rigid to me - but I must do it like a musical performance - the same only different every time. Will summarize it later.

Candlemass

2009-02-01T14:43:00.000-08:00

There was a long procession this morning and the Kyrie was after the procession so I was late for Sunday school. That meant my Hebrew letter occurred after the parable of the pearl of great price. Fortunately it fit well into the parable and the children joined in the alef-bet song too. Isn't it curious that KLMN-O turns into ךלםןס and that Samekh looks like an O which can be seen as a pearl?

After singing the alphabet song in English first then with the Hebrew letters as underlay (and following this image), I told them briefly about the 8 acrostic psalms. Then we read psalm 145:14 (which I had a challenge reading upside down - you try it) and we talked about the cost of God's support of us, the cost of our own learning when we really want to learn something (in this case, I knew I had a young violinist there, so I mentioned the cost of learning great violin music), and the reality of hope in God's support when we commit ourselves to him. Here is the image right side up also (that's the way the children would have seen it)!

I am thinking about Godly Play and I will receive a few lessons in it this week so I will report more later. It seems to me that no amount of explanation or apologetic will win commitment to the promises of God. What a mystery choice is.

I repeat the Hebrew transliteration of Psalm 145:14 from last week.

somech יְהוָה lecol hanoflim vezoqeph lecol-hakfufim
Sustains יְהוָה all the fallen
and he raises up all the distressed

Samech

2009-01-31T17:58:00.001-08:00

Here's a note on Samech

Upcoming lessons - pearl and leaven

2009-01-30T12:39:00.000-08:00

Pearls - how does one approach this with children? I don't teach the parable this week but I may stay a bit longer to see what the approach is like, since next week I am supposed to prepare the materials and teach the parable of the leaven - (which usage I wonder? Likely Matthew 13:33, Luke 13:21 - not Matthew 16:6 and parallels)?

And again he said, "To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened."

He told them another parable. "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened."

What Hebrew letters would you choose for the pearl?

Hmmm pearl גביש (gavish) occurs only once in the ancient writings, Job 28:18 - and it contains other rarely used words.

רָאמֹות וְגָבִישׁ לֹא יִזָּכֵר וּמֶשֶׁךְ חָכְמָה מִפְּנִינִים

ra-amot (high and precious things - coral?)
vegavish (pearl?)
lo yizkar (that's a word we did recently - this one is niphal passive - not remembered - or as KJV has it - no mention shall be made)
umeshek hokmah (for the price of wisdom)
mpaninim (is above jewels / rubies?)

Pearls get a good press in Revelation 21:21

I was going to move on to the final mem and/or the samech - the suggestion that samech meaning support symbolizes the presence of God in the world is a nice one. It is curious that it is in the place of our O and that it looks like O. But it isn't O. But it is the shape of a pearl!

Read those links - the play that John Parsons has with the letters is delightful.

Psalm 145:14 is a good example of the use of samech (it is in the acrostic - the last ABG psalm.)

סֹומֵךְ יְהוָה לְכָל־הַנֹּפְלִים וְזֹוקֵף לְכָל־הַכְּפוּפִים

somech יְהוָה lecol hanoflim vezoqeph lecol-hakfufim
Sustains יְהוָה all the fallen
and he raises up all the distressed

note to self: the alef-bet is easily sung to ABC

alef-bet gimel-dalet / hey-vav zayin
chet-tet-yod kaf-lamed /mem-nun-samech ayin
peh-tsade qof / resh-shin taf
that's all the letters / that you have
now I know my alef-bet
see if you can sing this set

The letters ayin and tsade

2009-01-25T12:58:00.000-08:00

Today with the help of a tree-like image of Psalm 1 and a Morris print of the tree of life, I introduced 'tree' as a word made from the two oddest letters of the Hebrew alef-bet. The tree of life is in Genesis 2:9, Psalm 1:1-3 and Revelation 22:2 - beginning, middle and end of the Bible. Leaves specially in the last two sections. I read them the psalms and had spelled out עֵץ הַחַיִּים [etz hahayim] from Genesis 2:9 on the blocks. It was a full 5 minutes.

כְּעֵץ שָׁתוּל עַל־פַּלְגֵי מָיִם

Like a tree transplanted by streams of water

The children stretching their arms and fingers had no trouble imagining themselves as trees.

Curiously, the first response to the colours in the image here was PH. I didn't know I had a 10 year old chemist in the class. (I think the message is - use every bit of your knowledge for joy because the children see right through you.)

Roster

2009-01-23T19:15:00.000-08:00

There is a plan till Easter - 4 parables beginning last week: the Sower, the Mustard Seed, the Pearl, and the Leaven. Any ideas for a Hebrew lesson to begin each parable? This week - the idea of a tree suggests teaching a little of Psalm 1 shaped like a tree.

I think I cannot reveal any secrets - so if I use this image, it will have to be related to the colour and shape of words.

After the parables comes the Mystery of Easter. Then the Faces of Easter for 5 Sundays.

Zayin - the seventh letter

2009-01-18T16:38:00.000-08:00

ז is for זכר remember. Zayin, the seventh letter, for remember was quite successful. The children, with a little prompting, remembered the first six letters of the alef-bet and we sang them together to the first musical phrase of the ABCD song. As they remembered each letter, I read them each verse in the diagram here. The verse I chose for remember, Psalm 25:6, is one of many where it is God who remembers - in this case as the psalmist prays: remember your compassions יְהוָה and your loving-kindnesses.

We touched on what we do every week in the Mass where we remember Jesus' death. We did not have time to develop the act of remembering - making the past present. But we had a good start to discussion of the Eucharist and we did briefly connect to Luke 22:19 and 1 Corinthians 11:25-26 to the concepts and reality behind the Eucharist and how the Exodus is similarly used in Jewish tradition. Note that in at least one Hebrew NT, the words in Luke and 1 Corinthians for remembrance and proclamation are both based on זכר

Restarting teaching the alefbet

2009-01-16T14:49:00.000-08:00

After nearly 8 weeks, what does one do to restart the teaching of the Hebrew alefbet? Who among the children will remember what?

I did a new diagram of the first 7 letters here. My 5 minutes could be as little as getting them to find the first seven letters in the blocks (and introducing the seventh ז zayin), or as large as reading some of the verses they have seen earlier. I am being encouraged to include the singing and may be brave enough to do that. Repetition is important and so far I have done little repetition.

I am also reading the Godly Play book 1. I am very impressed with the chapter on a theology of childhood. I can be quite critical, but not here. I think the tone is just right. Perhaps I will blog more on this program later. I will be teaching a full session soon so I will have some new experience to report.

Another question: given 4 weeks of parables, and 6 weeks of the Lenten program on the faces of Jesus, how could the Hebrew letters and Old Testament counterbalance fit in?

Reading Hebrew

2009-01-12T13:15:00.000-08:00

Try reading this as if it were English but typed as Hebrew

.dg m dg ry dnא lpp m b llš lpp ry
o- y-- o- ou-- : a e eo- y e-: a e eo ou

This looks like a fun exercise to restart the Hebrew learning

With thanks to Fred Putnam here and Naama Zahavi-Ely here.

Blog Myers-Briggs rating

2008-11-25T18:08:00.000-08:00

This blog has been rated as ESFP - The Performers! (See here)

La dernière classe (jusqu'a 2009)

2008-11-23T20:58:00.001-08:00

I did start with ח and it was fun. I set up by finding the letters nun-chet-mem sofit in the blocks - and on the way I also found the Latin letters for nacham - 6 in Latin and only 3 in Hebrew. I had found all the Latin letters before the first of the Hebrew ones turned up! (Something about the block content design?)

We fit the history of the hope of the world in 5 minutes - touching Isaiah (I began by singing the opening tenor recit from Messiah - just the first few bars - there were titters from the girls at my singing!) then to the difference between He and Chet reminding them of Abraham and Sarah - and on the way Ruach - (I forgot Noach!). Then a little on Simeon and Anna and the consolation of Israel - as outlined in the last post but without all the detail. And then the promise of the Spirit - the Comforter - for us all but particularly for those present.

One of the girls asked me 'what is the Hebrew for Christmas'? - what would you answer? I thought it should be something around anoint / Messiah and festival.

Christmas is coming

2008-11-22T19:44:00.000-08:00

the geese are getting fat! Well - it's more than that!

The children are getting ready to prepare for Pageant and I will be away for several weeks in England and France - to hear my daughter's services at Ely and Selwyn and for a little break near Nice. So this week will be the last Hebrew 'lesson' till January.

With what word or letter shall I introduce Christmas? What else is possible but with the word NXM (nacham)- as Handel's Messiah begins: נַחֲמוּ נַחֲמוּ עַמִּי יֹאמַר אֱלֹהֵיכֶם (nachamu, nachamu, 'ami, yo'mar 'eloheikem)
The children already know the word from the name נֹחַ (Noach) for of him it is said he will comfort us concerning our work. His name is from 'rest' but the writer of Genesis 5:29 connects it with נחם.

Of the human, it is used to mean console (Genesis 37:35).

Of God the word is used when God 'repents' - almost meaning 'sighed'. So Genesis 6:6-7 and Exodus 32:12. But 1 Samuel 15:29 shows some ambivalence over God's repenting. Nevertheless יהוה repenting in 1 and 2 Samuel is frequent. (1 Samuel 15:35). The children don't know these stories yet - I am just checking a few to see if I can say anything about how נחם relates to Christmas. The connection is with what Simeon was waiting for when Jesus comes to the temple for the first time with Mary and Joseph. (Luke 2:25) The consolation that Simeon is waiting for (παράκλησις paraklēsis) is that same comfort of which נחם speaks. It is the same word as the one John uses for the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the paracletos. This shows the great Hebrew-Hellenist divide - how do we know what words make the transfer of the word of God from one culture to another? The LXX translation tells us - and here it is for Isaiah 40: παρακαλεῖτε παρακαλεῖτε τὸν λαόν μου λέγει ὁ θεός.

How does one introduce to children the helper of their lives? One doesn't need to - one simply points to the words that have been used through the millennia that have been God's word to us of love.

One could use Psalm 90 - a great psalm of 'turning' - for the children can at all times be encouraged to turn to God as God can be encouraged to turn to us. And in that psalm, Moses prays just such a turning (Psalm 90:13)

שׁוּבָה יְהוָה עַד-מָתָי וְהִנָּחֵם עַל-עֲבָדֶיךָ.	Return, O LORD; how long? And let it repent Thee concerning Thy servants.
ἐπίστρεψον κύριε ἕως πότε καὶ παρακλήθητι ἐπὶ τοῖς δούλοις σου	(LXX) Bring back O Lord! How long? Be consoled (parakletheti) over your slaves.
	(Bob) Turn O Lord, how long? And sigh over your servants.

The truth about Jesus, the consolation of Israel, is that God need not repent further - for in him, he was well pleased. His pleasure in Jesus gives us all grace.

Perhaps I will begin with the letter Chet ח and see where it leads.

Father and Mother

2008-11-16T13:10:00.000-08:00

This week I had a longer opportunity to work with the youngest. The main subject of this week's class was Mary so I brought in an image of the Lippo Memmi and Martini Annunciation and Two Saints 1333 currently at the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence - the kids loved it and identified the stream from the Angel's mouth as 'letters'. We talked a little of the word of God coming to each of us also.

Then I read them this verse from Exodus 20 and pointed out the av and the em. They had seen these words before.

כַּבֵּד אֶת-אָבִיךָ, וְאֶת-אִמֶּךָ

Honour thy father and thy mother

We read it together several times and I noted that the younger ones are both more absorptive and less distracted when they are alone. We also reminded them of the mothers and fathers they had studied in the last 4 or 5 weeks. Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel and Leah. We talked a bit of Mary as mother and of Eve. And I promised them that sometime later we would read about Hannah and Samuel - another special mother and son in the Old Testament (1 Samuel 1-3).

I brought out all the flash cards and laid them out. Some of the smaller ones were disappearing into small hands. Then we went to find the father and mother in the flash cards - of course, being the smallest, they disappeared even in a small hand - but we did find them.

They like the flash cards and turn them over to read the transcription and meaning.

Vowels - an introduction

2008-11-02T17:52:00.000-08:00

This morning I had a few minutes to continue the lesson on Vav and to introduce the Masoretic markings - or 'vowels'. This was not a successful lesson - from my point of view. I felt that I was unprepared, and that over the last 6 months I had achieved nothing. I think the children remember the cookies and the games but none of the content. But the 10 or so children in the class were just as wonderful as ever. It was only me with the depressed heart. Why art thou so heavy O my soul! (Psalms 42-43).

I write this so that anyone reading will know that there are times that are down as well as times of elation. Hope still in God.

Vav - the hook for the tabernacle, the connector of words, is a letter that can say va, vi, ve, vey, o, and u (oo). Isn't it curious that the v disappears before the o class of vowels? Is it perhaps that vav is the proto vowel?

Linguists out there, help me out if you see this question.

Presenting Vav

2008-10-26T12:42:00.001-07:00

There was an interesting 4 minutes at Sunday school today. I very briefly introduced Vav and pointed out some of the circled vav's in the pictures here. Then I took a writing implement (a thin point magic marker) and placed the strip on the floor and lightly held the marker against the strip so that I could drag it under the marker making a line as it moved. As I dragged the marker, the children watched the vav's go buy - many of them saying - 'there's a vav', 'there another vav'. Then when the line came back to the starting place - their jaws dropped and their eyes popped out and they said - 'how did you do that?' - and one picked up the strip and looked on both sides of the paper clearly seeing that both had been marked without turning the paper over.

They won't forget the Moebius strip - and I hope they won't forget the vav that connects or hooks words and the curtains of the tabernacle. Not one end to the other with a half-twist, but there are curious connections still to be discovered. There is much more to learn about hooks and they will have fun doing it.

(Incidentally, they can see the differing vowel points, but I haven't introduced them yet. The time will come.)

The sixth letter (continued)

2008-10-25T11:25:00.000-07:00

Vav is for U and vi, and O and va, and ve and vay. Today I have made an image of a set of verses most of which we have already seen in a three dimensional strip with only one side so you can keep reading continously.

Print the base image on landscape. Print another on the reverse side of the same page. (This may be tricky depending on your printer since the strips must line up.) Whether one sided or two, cut the image into strips and paste them end to end. before joining the beginning to the end, twist the strip once and you will create a moebius strip - a three dimensional figure with only one side.

I think it is important to lay a rich table - not to oversimplify. I will present only the vav's in this image. I will ask them to find the vav's that are not circled. You can see that the image can be built on for lesson after lesson.

The sixth letter

2008-10-24T16:06:00.000-07:00

Vav is a hook. See this post for a description of the form of the letter and its role as a hook in the tabernacle. In Exodus 27:11 we have the instruction for the building of the tabernacle including the silver hooks of the pillars.

וָוֵי הָעַמֻּדִים וַחֲשֻׁקֵיהֶם, כָּסֶף [vavei ha'amudim vahasheqeihem kaseph] The hooks of the pillars and their attachments of silver.

חשק is a verb meaning to love, be attached to, long for, or be joined. As in English, 'attachment' can be literal - a hook to a pole, or figurative.

We have met several vavs in our existing vocabulary and verses.

The experience of names

2008-10-12T13:13:00.000-07:00

Today's lesson was very full. After the greeting of the door keeper and the forming of the circle and the mutual greetings and the thanksgiving prayer, my short section began with the blocks - selecting the five (and guarding against using the only mem-sofit) for Abrm and Abrhm and briefly presenting them on the floor in the circle, moving them around so that all could see. Then I put the laminated children's names on the floor, right side up. They paused, counting letters first and deciding 'my name can't be there - too few letters'. But then I said that the vowels are missing (except for the helper letters - the mater lectiones). Yes I did use that big word in Latin, but it didn't seem to phase anyone. Then they discovered that the names were in English on the back - so the game was quickly short-circuited.

Then I showed them a page of the English Hebrew Bible in parallel. One comment that arose was: 'Nice, you can see the relationship between the English and Hebrew'. (The Bible is the Parallel Bible, Hebrew on the left, English on the Right, Biblica Hebraica Leningradensis and the KJV.) Not an interlinear - though some of them are very helpful. A Parallel Hebrew-English Bible is online here.

We had two new children in the class today - so some new name tags must be created for Sophie ספי (wisdom חכמה) and Nick ניקלס (one who overcomes - or ruler of the people). Both are Greek names. May we indeed have wisdom and triumph with all the necessary tension of humility that must come between them.

THE GREAT FAMILY - Godly Play Lesson 4 - 12/10/08

2008-10-11T15:57:00.000-07:00

This week will focus on Genesis 12-15 and 24, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah.

The point of this lesson, in my opinion, is to show the children that no matter where you go, God will be with you, especially if you feel frightened, alone, or hopeless. Abraham and Sarah showed their incredible faith in God again and again.

It is also important for them to know that God can do seemingly impossible things. Sarah had her first baby - Isaac, when she was about 90 years old.

I also want them to be able to relate themselves to Abraham and see how they fit in to the great eternal story of God's creation, as one of God's people, as is every person on earth.

THE GREAT FAMILY

1) We will get ready and shake hands and say good morning to each other

2) I will lead a very small discussion about what Thanksgiving is and why we have it.

3) We will all have a chance to mention something special that we would like to give thanks for.

4) We will say a Thanksgiving prayer, trying to include one thing that each child is grateful for.

5) Bob will give this week's Hebrew lesson, focusing mainly on the letter 'H'.

6) I will lead a small discussion "Where is God?"

7) I will get the material for the story and tell the story.

8) We will have a wondering time after the story is told.

9) We will have a feast if we have time for it.

10) We will clean up and be escorted back to the church in time for communion.

Abraham and Sarah - Names

2008-10-08T23:02:00.000-07:00

וְהָיָה שִׁמְךָ אַבְרָהָם	but will be your name Abraham (Genesis 17:5) [vehayah shemka avraham]
לֹא-תִקְרָא אֶת-שְׁמָהּ שָׂרָי: כִּי שָׂרָה שְׁמָהּ.	you will not call her name Sarai: for Sarah is her name (Genesis 17:15) [lo-tiqra et-shema Sarai: ki Sarah shema]

What will we do with a name? There are some lovely lessons about Hebrew in the above phrases - for a later lesson.

We are still at the beginning of a long process. One cannot be in a hurry. We will introduce the letter ה and we have a plan to hand out laminated names - I think we can put them in a pile and see whether the children can identify their own name. As you can see from this post, their names are differing lengths. I wonder what clues the children will use to find their own.

Clarifying Learning and Teaching Objectives

2008-10-08T11:57:00.000-07:00

Why would one introduce Hebrew into a Sunday School curriculum at an early age? I can think of a host of reasons and a host of risks.

Reasons: makes people aware

that the world is bigger than their assumptions,
that communication with ancient thoughts is possible,
that the Bible wasn't written in English,
that there are a lot of intriguing and puzzling things about our tradition,
that there are decisions to make about understanding that are not obvious.

Risks:

may be too complex to manage,
may be frightening,
may be incomprehensible,
may turn people off.

How to manage the risks. These are teaching objectives:

make it fun,
make the steps to reward easy (like eating cookies or deciphering one's own name),
let the concerns be expressed and hope that the real Teacher (the Holy Spirit) finds ways of mediating, defending, or prodding the students and teachers as they need,
find ways of integrating the letter or word of the day into the other parts of the curriculum,
make every lesson stand alone since some students will not have seen prior lessons (use handouts and notes for keeping track of things - create some easy posts and exercises online).

Here too are some measurable learning objectives - keeping them low key. When the first year is finished, that the student would be able to:

recognize a Hebrew letter and place it right side up! (use the blocks and make cookies)
put two or three letters together to form a word and see the difference from writing Latin letters (use an English name that is familiar and spell it in Hebrew)
recognize some words at sight (use large print cards)
recognize some words aurally (pronounce and sing words)
remember and recite a famous phrase (read the phrase, sing it, show it, memorize it)
given a word, find the letters that make it (use the blocks)
given several words, put them in order (use large print cards)
given a set of words and their transcriptions and translations, match them (use a matching game)
given a set of familiar names, apply vowel markers to indicate pronounciation
read a short passage, e.g. psalm 117, 133, 150 (target after 12 to 15 weeks)
read an acrostic psalm (target after 25 weeks)

I am guessing as to targets, but I would judge that the first four objectives are beginning to be met after 5 sessions - that is about 60 minutes of teaching over a four month period. Interest, absorption and retention seem quite high - but I would not want to examine achievements too closely yet. The age range in the class is 4 to 10.

Any ideas for additional objectives?

A useful link

2008-10-08T10:40:00.001-07:00

I have added a link on the left to the 1000 most common words in the Hebrew Bible.

Names

2008-10-05T21:03:00.000-07:00

The letter He ה was delayed in its presentation for a week or so.

As I sat listening to the story of Noah, I thought of a better way to approach this letter - using the story of Abram and Sarai - of which more later. One young man was particularly proud of the H in his name, and his discussion of his name came up with zero prompting from me - for I was silent.

This gave me the idea to spell the names of the children in Hebrew - but I did it without vowels. Some of the names are very complex - what do you think the names spell? (Some sounds in our language do not translate into the Hebrew letters!)

Note how frequent is the nun sofit - at least for this class!

A target psalm for reading and singing

2008-10-03T13:34:00.000-07:00

I just remembered in the post-lunch quiet a song I learned in Toronto in the 70s

א שִׁיר הַמַּעֲלוֹת, לְדָוִד:

הִנֵּה מַה-טּוֹב וּמַה-נָּעִים שֶׁבֶת אַחִים גַּם-יָחַד.

1 A Song of Ascents; of David.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!

mizmor quf-lamed-gimel (all the numbers are letters)
shir
hama`alot
lDavid
[1]hineh ma tov
uma na`im,
shevet
achim gam yachad
[2]ka-shemen
ha-tov
`al ha-rosh,
yored `al hazaqan,
zaqan 'aharon
sheyored
`al-pi midotayv
[3]ctal-Hermon,
sheyored
`al harrei
Zion
ki sham
tzivah
ha-shem (adonai),
et-haberaka
chaim
`ad-ha`olam

A literal translation and image is here. A freer translation here.This psalm is short enough that we might be able to set it as an objective for a first read. The vocabulary will need to be approached. The song I remember from memory though the words I sang then had lost the rough edges of the Hebrew sound which you can hear here. There are, come to think of it, a number of short psalms that would work. It would also make a good introduction to ה which is for הִנֵּה.

Someday maybe I'll record it :) Here is my recording.

Some vocabulary

2008-10-03T11:00:00.000-07:00

Also introducing the letter H - as simply as possible - no word, just the prefix for the definite article.

Potential vocabulary to date

2008-09-28T18:09:00.000-07:00

Note - some of this is explicit in the past lessons, some only implicit. Some is with vowel markings, some without.

כּי-טוב	ki-tov	for good
אלהים	elohim	God
את	et	the object marker
האור	ha-or	the light
דרך	derek	way
גמל	gmol	recompense
גדל	gadol	great
אַשְׁרֵי	asheri	Happy
	'Av	father
	'Eben	stone
	'Ohel	tent
	'Echad	one
	'Ish	man
	'Em	mother
	'Emet	truth

Whole verses that the children have heard
Deuteronomy 6:4
שְׁמַע, יִשְׂרָאֵל: יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ, יְהוָה אֶחָד
[shema Israel, Adonai Elohenu, Adonai echad]

Genesis 1:1
בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ
[b'reshyt bara elohym et ha-shemaym v'et ha-eretz]

Genesis 1:4
וירא אלהים את-האור כּי-טוב
[vayare elohim et ha'or ki-tov]

Genesis 2:4
בְּיוֹם עֲשׂוֹת יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים אֶרֶץ וְשָׁמָיִם
[beyom asot (adonai) elohym eretz vshamaym]

Psalm 34:2
אֲבָרְכָה אֶת-יְהוָה בְּכָל-עֵת
['avarcah et-(adonai) becol-`et]
I will bless יְהוָה at all times

Psalm 34:3
גַּדְּלוּ לַיהוָה אִתִּי
[gadolu la'adonai 'iti]
magnify - make great - יְהוָה with me.

Psalm 34:8
טעמו וראו כּי-טוב יהוה
[ta`amu ureu ki-tov יְהוָה]
Taste - ta-'amu, and see ure'u, that is good ki-tov the LORD.

Psalm 119:17
גְּמֹל עַל-עַבְדְּךָ אֶחְיֶה
[gmol al-avdeka eheyeh]

Psalm 149:2
יִשְׂמַח יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּעֹשָׂיו; בְּנֵי-צִיּוֹן, יָגִילוּ בְמַלְכָּם
[yishma Israel be'osayiv, beni-tsion yagilu bemalkam]
Let Israel rejoice in his Maker; let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.

Exercises:
Flash cards - develop
Spell the letter names (without looking at the diagram they have).
Memorize
Fill in the blanks in the table above

Achieving our first objective

2008-09-28T13:24:00.000-07:00

This morning, I was asked to do a few minutes in Sunday School - after the Kyrie and before the sermon (which I didn't want to miss) so I embarked on the next letter daleth, ד.

As a small amount of preparation, I had thought of using ד is for דרך [drk=way] since 'way' is a common word and similar to a couple of English words - direct and Derek - giving a slight advantage in memory. But those letters are notoriously difficult to see and distinguish - but why make it easy for young eyes!

Anyway, apart from this preparation, I had no other props, so for the first time I got the children to find the letters among the blocks. This too is not an easy task, but in a trice, their fingers and eyes were up to the job.

There they were heads down, gathered in a huddle around the pile of blocks that have their home in a small tray. My first questions were review - find the alef, then the bet, then the gimel. This is a substantial exercise. One has to pick up each block and search around the four faces with Hebrew letters and recognize the shape. They learned that the letters used in English are the Latin alphabet and they soon learned to ignore these ones. They were successful in finding several alefs, bets, and gimels - congratulations to all for the achievement of a joyful first objective:

At the completion of this course, the student, given an example, should be able to find the equivalent in a pile of blocks!

I think there were some students who had missed several prior lessons, but they also seemed to be happy with the others in their focused scramble among the blocks.

Then the new letter - where is a daleth? This proved harder. Vav and zayin were frequent confusion, but dalet and resh ר and the kaf-sofit (one of five letters with a special form for the end of a word) ך came up from the pile and formed the word דרך. I explained the differences in the letters - the stroke sizes (distinguishing from vav ו and zayin ז ) , the sharp and the round edges of ד and ר, the different kafs ך and כ - a tricky problem in seeing.

Then I even added a few letters to the front (back - upside down!) of the word to make 'the way' הדרך, and בדרך in the way or on the way. Too much learning at once? No - too much fun. I said to them that they are learning what they do not yet know, but that as we continue through the season at 10 minutes (I was late for the sermon) a week for the next six months, they would be surprised at how much they knew and they would have a deep joy in discovery. Then one asked me - do you know the Hebrew for joy? I said there was more than one word, and I couldn't remember the exact word - but I said I would substitute the first word of the psalms - Happy אַשְׁרֵי. [asheri]

(You can see the psalm in Hebrew and English here - you can listen too. Notice the word דרך in the second line).

To come: a summary of the vocabulary we have seen so far, all of it in a Biblical context.
Then: a reasonable objective for the whole year - can we begin to read a psalm? Will we try some vocabulary quizzes? Could there be some memorization of verses in Hebrew and English? Flash cards - here we come.

For joy - try Psalm 149:2,
יִשְׂמַח יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּעֹשָׂיו; בְּנֵי-צִיּוֹן, יָגִילוּ בְמַלְכָּם
Let Israel rejoice in his Maker; let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.
[yishma israel be'osayiv, beni-tsion yagilu bemalkam]

Gimel cookies a success

2008-09-21T12:58:00.001-07:00

They loved the cookies. We began with a reminder of which language we are learning - and the response was 'it's very hard'. It's hard not just because it sounds different but because it's a new writing system too. Well, that was the cue to bring on the cookies - a complete surprise to everyone (since they don't do blogs yet).

To keep life very easy, I had already set up two words with the blocks, גדל, גמל [gdl - great and gml for recompense, reward - see this note for the verses]. The children were quick to point out the matching shapes and the letter that the cookie matched. We noted how גמל spelled the letter also.

We could have gone on about the reward in today's lesson (Matthew 20:1-16 the parable of the labourers in the field) but we didn't. We could have talked about גמל in modern Hebrew - as in the phrase 'he got what he deserved', but we didn't need to. Wisdom is knowing where to stop.

During Sunday school, the cookies were eaten. Later in the lunch time after the service, there was a tendency for some to lick off the gimel first, then forget the less sweet biscuit under it! So in the end, they decided that the letters are not hard, but rather sweet.

The Letter Gimel

2008-09-17T20:44:00.000-07:00

Gimel is for growth (גמל) and greatness (גדל). Both these can be gained by eating cookies. So here are the gimel cookies.

Enjoy.

The Beauty of the Bible

2008-09-10T12:41:00.000-07:00

I came across this set of posts on Genesis 1:1 and the pictograms that preceded the use of the aleph-bet. Very creative...

The letter Bet

2008-09-04T09:42:00.000-07:00

Next lesson is

Bet ב begins the text of the Bible. It also begins the second word.

Bet and gimel

2008-08-14T15:43:00.000-07:00

The summer is not yet over but my thoughts return to the next letters of the alef-bet. That is bet ב and gimel ג.

Who will be at the next Sunday school lesson, I wonder?

ב is of course for In the beginning. ב occurs twice in the first two words of the Bible. Here is a good verse to memorize - why? Just for fun. It feels and sounds like a memorable verse (Genesis 1:1).

בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ

[b'reshyt bara elohym et ha-shemaym v'et ha-eretz]

The ending of the first word ית is rare - at least to me! The bet in the first word stands for the preposition 'in'. The רֵאשִׁ is a word meaning 'head'. Is there something more to the form of this word? (Curious that Paul writes of God as the head of Christ.)

The second bet occurs in the second word - created - the word בָּרָא occurs several more times in this first great poem (Genesis 1:1 to 2:4).

We know the poem ends at chapter 2 verse 4 since the words of chapter 1 verse 1 are repeated in reverse order. Notice too the change from אֱלֹהִים the word used for God in Genesis 1:1 to יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים in Genesis 2:4.

בְּיוֹם עֲשׂוֹת יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים אֶרֶץ וְשָׁמָיִם

[beyom asot (adonai) elohym eretz vshamaym]

Bet also begins the word bless. We see this word in Psalm 34:2 - I will bless יְהוָה at all times: אֲבָרְכָה אֶת-יְהוָה בְּכָל-עֵת
['avarcah (adonai) becol-`et]

But you may notice that the word begins with alef! That is a secret that you will learn - the root word is בָרְכָ.The alef signifies an action that continues - so we translate in this case, I will bless.

As for gimel - I will take that from Psalm 119 part 3 (Psalm 119:17).

גְּמֹל עַל-עַבְדְּךָ אֶחְיֶה - [gmol al-avdeka eheyeh] Deal bountifully with your servant that I may live. Eight verses in this psalm beginning with this verse begin with the letter gimel. To translate this one so it begins with our letter g - we could write - grow your servant. For another word beginning with gimel, we could use Psalm 34:3 again: גַּדְּלוּ לַיהוָה אִתִּי [gadolu la'adonai 'iti]magnify - make great - יְהוָה with me.

I will make up some games with these letters for September and also use that time to review our first lessons.

Alef is for One

2008-06-15T13:17:00.000-07:00

Today we read and sang Deuteronomy 6:4 under the banner: this lesson is brought to you by the letter א, Alef.

שְׁמַע, יִשְׂרָאֵל: יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ, יְהוָה אֶחָד

Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one.

To prepare, I researched some words beginning with א. Which would best express this letter that is head of the alef-bet but is called humble since it declined to be the first letter of the Bible?

In the story, all of the letters come before the LORD giving reasons why they should be the first letter - all, that is, except for the letter Aleph. When the LORD asked why, Aleph explained that since he was silent, he had nothing to say. But the LORD honored Aleph’s humility and declared him to be the first of all the letters -- and to be honored as the letter of the first word of the Ten Commandments.

Look at the letters above to see a very few of the many words with differing starting sounds might be selected for alef.

'Av for father and father's day. 'Eben, a stone.
'Ohel for tent.
'Echad for one.
'Or for light (but it needs the vav as mater). 'Eretz for land.
'Ish for a man.
'Em for mother. 'Emet for truth. 'Et for the object marker (already introduced in lesson 1).

It is quite a boggle game, isn't it? (One could even select verbs in the first person singular imperfect, as if alef were the letter of hope and promise, but we did not discuss that option.)

As it turned out, I did not present any of these words. I only presented the one, 'echad. The children searched the image of the text of Deuteronomy 6:4 for the word 'echad and for the three alefs - ignoring those in the substitute word for the divine name. (Click for a larger image).

It was heard among the students that the lesson was complicated, but after class, one of them could be seen looking up each letter and sounding them out.

So though Alef became A, it is not A and can sound many other vowels. It has more than nothing to say.

I asked them how many strokes would it take to draw an alef. They answered with 7 or 8 - for the letter forms are with serif and they counted the vowel marks. The relation to three strokes: two yods, one looking up to heaven, and the other connecting to earth, crossed by a vav, suggests a three in one image, but even in a humble letter, one must not read in too much theology.

You can read more about alef here.

Learning Hebrew

2008-06-01T19:59:00.001-07:00

In recent weeks, the children have been learning about the Hebrew language. They began with one word: כּי-טוב

Transliterated this is ki-tov. Written as one word with a maqqep (hyphen), it really is two: the preposition כּי, and the adjective טוֹב.

We have examined two places in the Bible where this phrase occurs. In Genesis 1, it occurs 6 times and is translated into the phrase 'that it was good'.

וירא אלהים את-האור כּי-טוב

And God saw the light, that it was good.

We read the words va-yira - he saw. And Elohim, God, and the special word 'et' and the word ha`or, the light.

It all sounds and looks so different from English words in the Latin alphabet. But the children all remembered this word easily so we can say ki-tov - it was good.

In Psalm 34, this word occurs in verse 8, the invitation to taste and see that the LORD is good.

טעמו וראו כּי-טוב יהוה.

O taste and see that the LORD is good.

Taste - ta-'amu, and see ure'u, that is good ki-tov the LORD. It's a little hard to recognize the similarity in the words for seeing but God sees (yira) - and (u) you see (re-u). In English, we recognize that 'see' and 'saw' are not very similar either. We see something else here too - there are two different words, as in English, that are used of the one LORD God who created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 2:4) - the word אלהים Elohim in Genesis 1:4 and the special name יהוה that you can see in the letters above in Psalm 34. Someone reading in Hebrew does not normally say this name out loud.

The special name of the LORD God is not spoken. Hebrew readers substitute ha-shem (the name) or adonai (the Lord) instead of speaking the name. In the Jewish tradition, the name is spoken once a year by the High Priest at the feast of Atonement.

The children and adults were able to identify the letters in כּי-טוב in this alef-bet page. We talked a little about spelling our own names also.

Our plan is to introduce each letter in turn, perhaps like the Sesame Street, the program is brought to you by the letter alef א. I expect by the end of next year, judging from the speed of absorption already observed, that the children will be able to read a psalm.

For more about the alef-bet listen to this video, not exactly the style of music around St Barnabas - but definitely an effective rock .

For a work in progress that shows each letter and a little about it, see this image of an alef-bet book largely from the text of the psalms.