THIS IS THE FSI HEBREW BASIC COURSE: THIS COURSE INCLUDES BASIC SET WITH STUDENT TEXT MANUALS. THERE ARE 40 LESSONS IN ALL WITH MP3 AUDIO INSTRUCTION THAT GOES ALONG WITH THE STUDENT TEXT MANUALS.

INTRODUCTION

Americans know of Hebrew as the language of the Old Testament. Hebrew had been a living language that is it was spoken as a native language by a community of people at least until the First Century B.C. and possibly for several centuries after that. But even though it ceased to be a living language in this sense a large and important body of literature has remained in constant daily use for prayer and study. During the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance Hebrew served as a lingua franca for Jews throughout the world and the literature was expanded by scholars and poets. Hebrew thus was kept in continuous familiarity and in the last century successful efforts were begun to revive it as a modern language. Today Hebrew is the official language of the State of Israel. It is being taught to immigrants speaking a wide variety of native languages and the coal is to have all the inhabitants learn to speak it. To be sure modern Hebrew is different from the Biblical language. The phonology (sound system) has been simplified and new syntactic patterns and vocabulary have been developed to express concepts not dreamed of two thousand years ago. But the modern language is unmistakably the descendant of the language of the Psalms and the prophets. The sounds of modern Hebrew are fairly easy for Americans to learn. Since only a minority of the present population are native speakers of Hebrew foreign accents can hardly be called rare and one should not feel the slightest embarrassment in making even halting efforts to speak it.

PURPOSE

It should be stated very clearly at the outset that this book is not intended as an elementary text for the study of the Bible or other Hebrew literature. It is also not intended as a reference grammar of Hebrew. There are a number of good books on the market to fulfill those needs. This book is intended as a training manual designed to teach a non-speaker of Hebrew to speak and comprehend with some degree of fluency an acceptable form of the modern language. Its relationship to a reference grammar is analogous to the relationship of a program of calisthenics to a textbook on physiology. The student is not supposed to read this book in order to find out about Hebrew; he is supposed to work at the material presented here until he can speak Hebrew and he will have to work hard. The goal of this course is performance. One "knows" Hebrew in the same sense that one "knows" how to drive a car. It is not necessary to be an automotive engineer or to know the technical terms for the parts of a car in order to be a good driver. Many excellent drivers even have wrong notions about the mechanical aspects of an automobile. Similarly it is not necessary to be able to discuss accurately and comprehensively the grammar of a language in order to speak it fluently and correctly. Intensive drilling will produce the proper habits. When the student participates in conversation easily and fluently with a minimum of either "accent" or of conscious effort then he has achieved the goal of the course.