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  • From: Rochelle Altman <willaa AT netvision.net.il>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Collecting Wow stories
  • Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 10:34:01 +0200


On 6/13/06, bowick AT idirect.com <bowick AT idirect.com> wrote:
Hi, James,

The WOW moment that has had the most influence was the hot day I walked around a large rock jutting out from the mountainside while on a dusty mountain road -- with deep ravines and dangerous, sheer rocky falls to one side -- and walked into middle of Psalm 23. There it all was: the oasis of low-lying greenery of the na'ot deshe; the refreshing waters of the mei menuchot; the peace and the protected feeling...with outside the dangers of falling off the winding way of the right path of the galei tzadek.

Talk about a WOW moment! Suddenly, I understood the layers of imagery of the psalm. (It only took ten more years to get it all down on paper -- but, without that WOW... that sudden illumination of the Hebrew text...)

Rochelle

> Hi folks:
>
> I was wondering if you would be willing to share stories or places where
> your knowledge of Hebrew has let you see something in the text, or have an
> insight that made you say 'wow'. I am not thinking of advanced studies,
> and the cutting edge insights you have made so much as I am asking us to
> reflect back on our early experiences with the language. In some cases,
> later reflection may have led us to discard aspects of those insights, but
> their emotional impact remains.
>
> My purpose is to collect stories to motivate beginning students. We know
> that learning Hebrew is a lot of work, and it can get discouraging. These
> stories can give students, perhaps some even lurking on this list, a
> reminder of why they are doing it.
>
> A couple come to my mind just to get the ball rolling.
>
> First, I remember when I was first reviewing the declension of the pronoun
> MIN, and saw the Hebrew of Emmanuel.
>
> Another one was from Psalm 27:4 which reads ACHAT SHALTI ME'ET Y''H.
> (Typing from memory). When I first read that the vowels of ME'ET slit to
> MA'AT and I read it not as the preposition MIN withe the direct object
> marker, but rather as a construct state with the Egyptian noun MAAT. "One
> thing I ask - the MAAT (Order) of the LORD." Now I have had enough
> eyebrows raised telling people about this to think the proposal is a bit of
> a reach, but for me it has become a significant part of my reading of that
> prayer, as I seek the divine order of the LORD in my life.
>
> My guess is many of you have much better stories and insights. Lets
> collect them to motivate the novices on the list, and also to help one
> another encourage our students.
>
> James Bowick





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