In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)

Now, when one reads the verse above in English, it sounds very straightforward.  However, if you read the same verse in Hebrew (the original language of Torah) you get so much more.  Let us look at the same verse in Hebrew.

בְּרֵאשִׁית, בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים, אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם, וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ.

It is important to remember that Hebrew, unlike English, is read right to left.  Now, let us transliterate the verse into English.  Transliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another.  The verse above would be transliterated as follows, reading from right to left:

Bereshit Barah Elohim, et hashamayim v’et haaretz.  That is how an English person can understand the Hebrew pronunciation on this verse.  Now let us literally translate the verse into English from the Hebrew.  I will use brackets below each word.

בְּרֵאשִׁית, בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים, אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם, וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ.

(the earth) (and et), (the heavens) (et), (the judge) (created out of nothing) , (In the beginning)

Unique Language

Biblical Hebrew, also known as "Lashon Kodesh" (The Holy Tongue) is a unique language. It is the only language whose letters communicate meaning independent of the words they form.

In most languages letters don’t have independent value. They don’t communicate any meaning. A letter is a symbol that indicates a sound (much like a musical note) and is only valuable when paired with other letters to form a word. Even then, it is the word that communicates meaning, not the letters.

In English, for example, the letters E-A-R of "ear" have no intrinsic meaning. They mean nothing when they stand alone, and still mean nothing when they stand together. There is nothing about ear, the word or the thing it describes, that is connected to the shape or name of the letters E, A or R. Similarly, no one will say that an "era" is somehow connected to an "ear" simply because they share the same letters.

Breaking Down the Verse

In studying the actual translation above we can see that verse offers so much more than the simple English above.  The verb used for create is Barah.  This is the verb used for God alone because it means to create something from nothing.  There is another verb (ליצור ) which means to create from something. 

We also see that the word used for God is Elohim which means the judge.  There are many attributes within Elohim and judgement is one of them.  Judgement is not negative in this case.  It simply means that God had to use judgement in order to create the universe.  How big would the planets be? How much light would the sun and moon give off? Etc.

What is Et?

Notice there is a Hebrew word (repeated twice) which isn’t translated. The word Et. Et is a Biblical Hebrew word that has no translation. To be sure, the word is not meaningless, and while it cannot be translated, it is interpreted. The Talmud is replete with respective explanations for the numerous Et’s that appear throughout the Torah.  In Hebrew Et is spelled Alef Tav (the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet). The Et in this verse was explained by the Magid of Mezritch as follows:

Breishit – In the beginning
Bara Elokim – G-d created
Et – Alef through Tav

In the beginning G-d created the Hebrew Alef Bet.

Letters of Creation

You see, the Hebrew Alef Bet are not just letters; they are the Elementary Particles, or DNA of existence. They represent forms of Divine energy. Fuse a number of metaphysical elementary particles (aka Hebrew Letters) in a specific manner, and you will have heaven, fuse a few others in a different manner, you will have earth.

So God says "Let there be light", i.e. may the energies/letters of Alef, Vav, and Reish fuse into (the word) Or (light). They do. As a result we have light.

Thus the Psalmist says "Forever, O Lord, your word stands in the heavens." Your word O Lord, "Let there be a firmament" is the persistent Raison d’être of the vast skies. As the Mishnah says, "with ten utterances God created the world." (Ethics of the Fathers 5:1)   The utterances themselves are the building blocks of creation. They are not just what called creation into being; they are the being called creation.

3D Letters

And thus for thousands of years Hebrew was studied not only as a language of words (grammar, spelling etc), but a as a science of letters. Since the letters themselves are descriptions of energies we must understand what each letter tells us about the energy it symbolizes. These secrets can be found in the meaning of its shape and name, its numerical/mathematical value, and based on what other alphabetical elementary particles it groups with.

There is much to say and many words have been recorded to explain the letters. Following is a series of short essays providing brief insight into three dimensions of each letter: its name, shape and numerical value.

In Summary, it is all of these elements which make Hebrew not only the Holy Language, but also the Language of the Soul.

Coming soon!

Learn the Hebrew Alefbet the Easy Way! Online from your own home! Learn Hebrew from the convenience of your own home. Enjoy all the comforts that online learning provides. Learn the Bible’s Original Language! Know the Bible as never before! Peer through the window of the original Hebrew text to gain a deeper understanding of the Bible.

You’ll learn Hebrew in an entirely new and exciting way and gain the tools to continue learning Hebrew on your own. Hebrew grammar, vocabulary and syntax, coordinated with some translating activity in the Hebrew Bible. Using the "Teach Yourself to Read Hebrew program" beginning Hebrew course outline and textbook. Learn the Hebrew alphabet and simple words and phrases. A study of the fundamentals of the Hebrew language. Learn the lenguage of our Maran Rabbi Yeshua HaMashiach! Sunday nights $100 for 12 classes

The course is being offered at Beth HaDerech Congregation. Prerequisite: Willingness to learn Hebrew. Class meets for 2 hours Sunday starting on September 25, 2011 @ 5pm. Please contact us via email, and we will call you.

Importante: Clases disponibles en Español dependiendo en numero de personas interesadas.

Hebrew (עִבְרִית, Ivrit, Hebrew pronunciation) is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Culturally, it is considered the Jewish language. Hebrew in its modern form is spoken by most of the seven million people in Israel while Classical Hebrew has been used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world for over two thousand years. It is one of the official languages of Israel, along with Arabic. Ancient Hebrew is also the liturgical tongue of the Samaritans, while modern Hebrew or Palestinian Arabic is their vernacular, though today about 700 Samaritans remain. As a foreign language it is studied mostly by Jews and students of Judaism and Israel, archaeologists and linguists specializing in the Middle East and its civilizations, by theologians, and in Christian seminaries.

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