Instructor(s)

Course Description

This is a beginners’ course in Modern Hebrew. It is designed to equip the student to progress in any of several directions: toward study of Biblical Hebrew, reading simple literature or advanced conversation. The course begins with basic conversational Hebrew. It then proceeds to reading Hebrew passages that contain the lexical and grammatical items the students ought to know at the basic level. A variety of exercises will reinforce the student’s comprehension of stories and provide active practice in the grammatical items. There will also be reading passages reproduced without vocalization so that the student will become accustomed to reading both vocalized and unvocalized Hebrew early in the language course.

Course Objectives

Upon Completion of this course, the student will:

1. Achieve a variety of introductory Modern Hebrew skills: reading, comprehension, conversational facility, and writing ability.
2. Acquire a Hebrew vocabulary of about 900 words
3. Master important functional items of Hebrew grammar.
4. Read both vocalized and unvocalized texts.

Course Outline

Part 1 – Alphabets

Week 1: Consonants and vowels, and basis pronunciation

Part 2 – Conversation Hebrew

Week 2-5: Conversational Hebrew Lessons

Part 3: Reading and Writing

Week 6: Hebrew Script Writing: [Hebrew Level 1 Bella Bergan (ed.) Shalom: pp. 1-8].

Week 7: (i) Nouns: Masculine and Feminine Gender, Singular and Plural, (ii) The Definite Article הַ, (iii) Present Tense (הֺוֶה): Masculine singular and Feminine Singular,

Plural, (iv) Basic verbal sentence, (v) Noun-Verb Agreement. [See Hebrew Level 1 Bella Bergan (ed.), pp. 13-25].

Week 8: (i) Personal Pronouns, (ii) Past Tense (עָבָר): Third Person, (iii) Negation, (iv) The Conjunction and – ו, (v) סִפּוּר קָטָן [Hebrew Level 1 Bella Bergan (ed.) Lesson 2: pp.

29-49].

Week 9: (i) Verb Sentences and Noun Sentences, (ii) Demonstrative pronouns אֵלֶּה ,זֹאת ,זֶה, (iii) יֵש / אֵין (iv) Present Tense of Verbs Ending in ה, (v) מֶזֶג הָאֳוִין, (vi) לְהִתְרָאוֺת

מָהָר[Hebrew Level 1 Bella Bergan (ed.) Lesson 3: pp. 51-69].

Week 10: (i) Interrogatives: הַאִם, אֵיפֺה, מָתַי, מַה, מִי, (ii) The Direct Object of the Verb; Use of אֶת, (iii) חִידוֺת, (iv) הַשּוּק בְּיִשְרָאֵל. [Hebrew Level 1 Bella Bergan (ed.) Lesson 4: pp.

75-94].

Week 11: (i) Adjectives, (ii) Adjectives in Noun Sentences, (iii)  אֺכֶל, (iv) אׅיש חָכָם [Hebrew Level 1 Bella Bergan (ed.) Lesson 5: pp. 97-116].

Week 12: (i) Possessive Preposition שֶל (ii) Possessive Pronouns (iii) Verbs with ח and ע as the Third Root Letter: Present Tense (iv) מִכְתָּב׃ אֳבִיגַיִל הַקרָה [Hebrew Level 1 Bella

Bergan (ed.) Lesson 6: pp. 119-132].

Week 13: (i) Past Tense (עָבָר), (ii) הַמִּשְפָּחָה, (iii) טֶלֶפוֺן לִסְדֺם [Hebrew Level 1 Bella Bergan (ed.) Lesson 7: pp. 139-158].

Week 14: (i) Prepositions, (ii) Particle Prepositions בּ כּ ל מ (iii) Particle Prepositions בּ כּ ל with the Definite Article הַ, (iv) מִשְפַּט שְלֺמֺה [Hebrew Level 1 Bella Bergan (ed.)

Lesson 8: pp. 163-183].

Week 15: (i) Prepositions with Pronominal (Personal) endings, (ii) Possessive Sentences - …אֵין ל / …יֵש ל (iii) ִחִידוֺת, (iv) תַּרְגּגּם הַשִּבְעִים [Hebrew Level 1 Bella Bergan (ed.)

Lesson 9: pp. 187-211].

Week 16: Review of Grammatical Principles: [Hebrew Level 1 Bella Bergan (ed.), pp. 217-229].

Mode of Delivery

Through lectures, class interaction, group discussion, reading and assignments