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Modern Hebrew for Beginners
Agenda for First Session 1. A little background
information 2. The Hebrew class ? From the
ground up no prior knowledge assumed ?
Detailed notes will be available ? General
plan ? First phase develop a phonetic reading
ability ? Thereafter develop grammar,
vocabulary, conversation ? Practice,
practice, practice There are excellent
tutorials on the web-site called Hebrew
Language at the University of Texas at Austin.
The URL is http//www.laits.utexas.edu/hebrew/h
eblang/tutorials.shtml 3. Housekeeping matters
related to the class ? Class will be held in
the Jewish Home chat room on the Virtual Yeshiva
web-site ? Login URL (for JAVA) is
http//messiahtruth.com/torahchat/logon.html
? Login URL (for previous version of software)
is http//virtualyeshiva.com/login_x.html
? Class is scheduled on Mondays, 900 1000 PM
Eastern US Time ? Lessons will start on
time, at 900 PM sharp! Please try to be
punctual.
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Modern Hebrew for Beginners
3. Housekeeping matters related to the class
(continued) ? A Blind Copy e-mail list
will be used to communicate information on the
class, such as cancellations due to holidays,
to those who are registered. ? Lesson notes
will be uploaded to the whiteboard in the chat
room ? Notes will be posted at
http//thejewishhome.org/page4.html ?
Archives of lesson notes and recordings will be
available on the same web-page
http//thejewishhome.org/page4.html ? Lesson
notes are prepared using Microsoft PowerPoint
2003 (11.8169.8172) SP3. If you wish
to download the notes from the Jewish
Home website and do not have the Microsoft
PowerPoint application on your PC, you
can download a free PowerPoint Reader from the
compressed URL http//tinyurl.com/v2586.
? For the purpose of practicing pronunciation
and reading skills there will be a
parallel presence on Skype http//skype.com. If
you want to take advantage of this
capability, you will need to open a Skype account
and add me as a contact. I am using the
nickname uri-yosef on Skype. ? We will need
a couple people to record each lesson just in
case the one who normally records it is
accidentally disconnected from the chat-room.
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Modern Hebrew for Beginners
4. As our Hebrew primer, here are some
(transliterated) basic Hebrew greetings
(accented syllable is shown in bold CAPS) ?
shaLOM Initial greeting to others, such as
Hello!, Peace! also used upon
departure, such as Good-bye!, So long!. The
standard response to shaLOM as the initial
greeting is shaLOM uvraCHAH Peace and a
blessing!. ? BOqer TOV Good morning!.
The response is BOqer OR. ? Erev TOV Good
evening!. The response is also Erev TOV. ?
LAYlah TOV Good night!. The response is also
LAYlah TOV. ? lehitraOT Greeting upon
departure, such as See you!, So long!. The
response is also lehitraOT a literal
translation of the German greeting Auf
Wiedersehen! used in the same circumstances.
? shaBAT shaLOM Good Sabbath!. The standard
greeting on the Sabbath. The response is
shaBAT shaLOM umevoRACH Good and
blessed Sabbath!. ? shaVUa TOV The
standard greeting following the Sabbath and the
start of a new week, Good week!. The
response is shaVUa TOV umevoRACH, Good
and blessed week!. ? bivraCHAH A common
sign-off on written communications, most closely
represented by the English With kind
regards literally it means In a
blessing.