Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

Dear Louis,

 

Thanks for your comments. Just so that you know, you can change your
settings to "digest" - just go to
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew, enter you user name and
password, and click on the "digest" option.

 

Yigal Levin

 

Co-moderator, b-hebrew

 

  _____  

From: Louis Sorenson [mailto:llsorenson AT hotmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 6:37 AM
To: leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il
Subject: RE: [b-hebrew] A new list is definitely needed

 

I am more of a watcher of the B-Greek list.  My Hebrew is rusty - and I am
working on refreshing it. (I'm a Greek-o-phile who knows he needs to be
fluent in Hebrew for the LXX and NT.)  I am not looking for a beginning
Hebrew site which will answer and post all those beginning grammar and
philology questions - even though I struggle with those issues here and
there. What I am looking for is an email list which will pull me into the
Hebrew language world and help me learn and improve my Hebrew skills, and
also let me know what many of the hot topics are in Biblical Hebrew. If I
have a question, I would like to be able to post a question, no matter how
"stupid" that question would be to many on the list. I'm a firm believer
that there is no such thing as a "stupid question" -- a teacher in my past
always used to tell me, "when you are answering a question on the test,
consider me as intelligent but uniformed."  I understand that many people
have passions in regards to their personal convictions on issues such as
"inspiration", historical-critical perspectives, interest in philological
versus pedagogical and linguistic-origins-of-Hebrew and Origins of Israel
and Hebrew language origin topics.  

The point is that I am interested in all of these topics. What I struggle
with is the constant drum of members wanting to dominate the list and use it
for the propagation of their favorite pet theory.  I don't receive a digest
(i.e. all emails in a single combined email) - I do not know if this is an
option.  (It is on the b-Greek list; perhaps this could be an option for the
b-Hebrew list.) It is a hassle and very irritating to have to delete 15
emails in the same day which deal with a single pet thesis of any given
member.  

So, "Is a new list needed?" NO. The real question is this: What do most
members of the list expect? What are the tones and subjects and numbers of
emails that they receive in their e-mail boxes. How many of those emails do
they roll their eyes at, and say "not again,"  "won't this topic ever end".


Content is the key.  If an email has content, i.e. "meat", whatever the
topic and controversy, most members will read them and evaluate them --
which is the point of the List. Those who are on the borders of 'academic
acceptance' do have valid theories - and their arguments need to be
evaluated. But if the entire balance of the list is focused on evaluating
these proposals - with no counterbalance, the thrust of the B-Hebrew list
gets shifted from what its intent was (as I believe), to being the tool of
those who are the most frequent and ardent posters. 30 emails in several
days, about a controversial and borderline topic are too many for most
members (imoho). 

I greatly appreciate those who are in academic circles and participate on
this list. Those academics and very skilled non-academics who take an
interest in grooming, encouraging, corralling, nudging, correcting and
inspiring are an absolute requirement for a list such as b-Hebrew.  Those
who do not hold PhD's in Hebrew or M.A.'s in Hebrew need you academics who
participate in this list. It is truly a service that George Athas and
Yitzhak Sapir provide to this group.


Louis Sorenson



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