Hebrew Voices #89 - Hebrew Homeschooling

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Nehemia: All right, what is your next…Did I answer that question?

Lydia: Yeah, you answered, actually, a lot of my questions that I had with that one.

Nehemia: All right. That’s more than anybody wanted to know about Hebrew.

Benjamin Netanyahu: Le ma’an Zion lo ekhesheh, u’l’ma’an Yerushalayim lo eshkot. (For Zion’s sake I will not be silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest. Isaiah 62:1)

Nehemia: Shalom, this is Nehemia Gordon, and I am coming to you today with Katie and Lydia Hirn, in Michigan. Katie is a blogger who wrote a blog post about me. And I eventually received it, and I said, “Okay, I need to speak to these people and find out what this is all about and hear their story.” Shalom, Katie and Lydia.

Katie and Lydia: Shalom.

Nehemia: So, Katie, you are Lydia's mom. And I found out just now, you're the mom of 15 children, correct?

Katie: Right.

Nehemia: Wow, that's very impressive. Eleven of those are your biological children, and you adopted 4. Why did you decide to adopt 4 children when you already have 11 of your own?

Katie: My husband and I were foster parents, and we got Lydia with her biological brother as a foster placement. And we felt very strongly that Yehovah, God told us from the very beginning to make a lifetime commitment to them. After we'd made that commitment, we felt Yah call us twice more to adopt two other children.

Nehemia: Wow, that's amazing. All right, so Lydia, I met you in Israel over Sukkot. And I think this is actually the first time people are going to be hearing about this. There was this incredible thing that happened over Sukkot. I actually have two upcoming Hebrew Voices episodes where I'll talk about that in more detail, so I don't wanna talk about it too much. But just tell me, in what context did I meet you and your brother in Israel over Sukkot?

Lydia: You met us at a park in Jerusalem. And we were camping there for Sukkot, so there were just tents all around us.

Nehemia: So, you were with a group of other people who are also…I'm going to use the term “Hebrew Roots believers,” even though you might not like that term. I like to put people in boxes, it makes me feel more comfortable. But what I mean by it broadly, is people who believe in the Torah and believe in Yeshua. And you were in a group of people in a park in Jerusalem, in Independence Park, which is a very important place for the people of Israel, historically, Independence Park in the heart of Jerusalem. You were camping there with a group of people. And I'd heard about this, I heard there was a bunch of people living in a park, and I go there and I meet you. And you had mentioned that you and your mother, at least, had already met me in Indiana at a speaking event I'd done. So, when you got back from Israel, you posted some photos that you took in the park with me. And what was the response you got from your community in Michigan?

Lydia: Well, some people weren't very happy about it.

Nehemia: Why is that?

Katie: But most people were excited and thrilled, but there were a few people that just questioned our relationship with you.

Nehemia: Okay. And what does that mean, when they question your relationship with me? Give us what that means. Really, what are we talking about here? You took a picture with a person you met in a park, and I'm assuming "relationship" means you listen to some of my teachings, my podcasts and my support team studies I noticed that you get. So, they're wondering, “Why are you learning from Nehemia?” It’s really what they're asking, right?

Katie: Right, right. We pretty much support everything you put out. Your weekly things, we repost them and say we learned something from it. And so, people were asking us, why do we feel comfortable learning from someone who doesn't recognize Yeshua as the Messiah?

Nehemia: Okay. And you mentioned to me before that they quoted you the verse, I have it here, 2 Corinthians 6:14, and it speaks about being “unequally yoked.” I'm not going to go into that, because my friend Keith Johnson did a really powerful study on that in the “Open Door” series, which people can find on my YouTube channel, and I think it's in other places on YouTube.

Keith was teaching on this unequal yoke thing, and there's a key verse there. It's really interesting when you get into the details, and you see this word "anomia,” which means “without Torah.” I'm not gonna get into that. So, your response was to write this blog post and I want to read some of the blog post, if I can. “Recently, our family has been asked critically about a relationship with Nehemia Gordon, a Karaite Jew.” By the way, where can people see this blog post and other blog posts that you have?

Katie: This blog post is on hirnhomeschoolers.com, that’s H-I-R-N, that’s our last name, and that's our family blog.

Nehemia: Wonderful. And you go on, "Sadly, it seems there's always some reason to question or criticize our fellow believer. I am not sure why that is. I wonder if we want so badly to be sure we are doing everything just right, that we see others doing something differently it makes us uncomfortable." I thought that was a really profound observation.

And it reminded me of what Yeshua said in Matthew 7. Here I am, the Karaite Jew, quoting Yeshua, Matthew 5-7 in the Sermon on the Mount. He says, “Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” So, this is a very famous passage, “For how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye. First take the log out of your own eye. Then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.”

Okay, in other words, when you have one of these interactions, your response is to say, “Okay, I feel uncomfortable with what somebody else is doing. But before I go and criticize them, let me look at myself.” I'm impressed by that, that's very mature. Because a lot of people say, “I've got it right. Everyone else has got it wrong, and my job is to go around and reprove and rebuke everyone.”

It's interesting, there's a statement in the Talmud by this Rabbi named Rabbi Tarfon, Arakhin 16b. And some people have suggested this is actually a response to what Yeshua said. I'm not sure that's the case, because Rabbi Tarfon lived later than Yeshua. He lived at the end of the 1st century, beginning of the 2nd century. He says, “I wonder if there is anyone in this generation who's willing to accept correction. If someone says, ‘Remove the splinter from your eye,’ he responds, ‘Remove the beam from your eye.’” Which is really interesting, so if I take what Rabbi Tarfon said at face value, what happened in his day is there were people who had heard Yeshua's teaching, and then were using it as a reason not to accept correction, right?

They were saying, “Hey, don't tell me I'm doing anything wrong.” And don't we hear that today? We literally hear what Rabbi Tarfon said today. So, I don't know that it's a response to what Yeshua said, but I think it's a response to the way some people were abusing what Yeshua said. Because look, there is a place for correcting people. If somebody is doing something blatantly wrong, and there's someone who you can have a conversation with and it's not judgmental, then I think, it says in the Torah, “Hokhe'akh tokhi'akh et amitekha,” “Surely reprove your neighbor,” right?

And I love what you said here. You said, “Talking about doing it in a loving and kind way.” So, tell me a little bit about how you came to where you are in your faith right now, I want to hear that. And Lydia, I'm assuming you were just raised with this, is that right? How old are you, Lydia?

Lydia: I'm 20.

Nehemia: So, did you ever in your life celebrate Christmas at the Hirn family?

Lydia: Yeah, we did.

Katie: When she was little.

Nehemia: How long have you been doing Torah? That's my question.

Katie: Well, it's been a journey. It wasn't like one day we woke up and we were Torah observant. I grew up in a Christian home with strong Bible-believing parents. And they taught me that all Scripture is God-breathed and useful, beneficial. And I believed that.

Nehemia: Uh-oh.

Katie: So then, when I had children my husband and I decided to raise them in that truth. The problem was, I had never learned the Old Testament, really. In the mainstream church I just never really learned the Old Testament. So, as I started teaching my children from the beginning of the book of the Bible, I learned it right along with them. As we learned, we’d let go of things, we embraced new things. So, it's been about seven years since we started letting go of mainstream Christian holidays and embracing the Biblical feasts, including Sabbath. First, it was more quiet and personal, and about four years ago when we just really opened the door and said to our family and friends, “We are, essentially, Torah observant.”

Nehemia: Okay, wow. So, you mentioned how you listen to some of my teachings and you repost them. When people say to you these things of, “How can you learn from this man who is not a Messianic Jew? He's not a Christian, he doesn't believe what you believe.” What is your response to that? How do you respond to them?

Because you know, there's this famous verse in the Tanakh, it's Amos 3:3, it's one I've talked about before in my book, “A Prayer to Our Father.” It’s, can two walk together, except they be agreed? You can't have any kind of relationship of study or learning, or interaction, really, with someone who you don't agree with. Not just if they don't have the same faith as you, but if you don't agree on anything important, then you're supposed to break fellowship with them over this. At least that's how it's taken by some in the Church, and even in the Jewish world. So, what is your response?

Katie: You mentioned the “Open Door” series. And right away in our journey, we discovered you and Keith Johnson, and we started listening and watching your teachings. And that specific teaching was one that made me realize I am in agreement with Nehemia, because he believes that Torah is the foundation of our faith, and I believe that too. And so, that's my answer. My answer is that we are in agreement. And the other answer I often give is, why would I deny learning from a scholar? Someone who has the degree and the knowledge and the experience that you have, why would I deny myself of that when you're an authority on Hebrew, and I consider myself a Hebrew?

Nehemia: Okay, when you say “authority” you mean expert, right? I don't claim authority over anyone. I have authority over myself, and I used to have authority over my dog, Georgia, who has now gone to a different world. But other than that, I don't claim authority over anyone. And it's interesting, I posted jokingly on my Facebook page… This is when I left Israel and became what I call the “wandering Jew.” and then you gotta put down what your profession was on Facebook. And so, I put down “itinerant preacher.” And it was kind of a joke, because itinerant is somebody who travels from place to place.

And I had somebody contact me, someone in the Hebrew Roots movement, or what I call the Hebrew Roots movement. And they said, “Are you claiming to be a preacher?” And I said, “What does preacher mean to you? Because clearly, you have some connotation that I'm not aware of.” And she explained to me, preacher is someone who gets up from the pulpit, and you have to accept what they say. They're teaching with authority. And I said, “I don't believe anyone is a preacher in that respect, right?” I don't accept even that institution of preacher. When I wrote, jokingly even, “itinerant preacher,” what I meant is in the sense of the Book of Kohelet, or Ecclesiastes. In the Tanakh, the word “Kohelet” means, “He who gathers the congregation and speaks before them.” And that's been translated into German, particularly, as “Depredator,” which in English is the “preacher.”

So, if you look at especially German writings, the translation of Kohelet is, “the preacher.” That's how they translate that word. And so, that's all I meant. You know, I speak before congregations, right? And I travel around to do it. And what I mean by I don't teach with authority in the sense that they mean is that look, I'm a Karaite Jew. And the Karaite motto is, search well in the Scripture, and do not blindly rely on anyone's opinion. And that comes from this idea in Deuteronomy 17, when you don’t know what to do. I'm sure you've heard me talk about this in my Torah Pearls and other places.

When you don't know what to do, then you go to the Priest at the Temple. We don't have a Priest at the Temple, so what do we do today? And the Rabbis say, “We replaced that Priest in the Temple, you have to go to us.” And a Karaite Jew says, “No, you have to figure it out the best you can with the information you have. And yes, you should hear what other people have to say, and you should consult experts, multiple experts.” I hope people don't just listen to me. I hope they listen to other people and compare the opinions and arrive at their own conclusion.

You know, I quote the Apostle Paul, or I paraphrase him, I should say. People ask me questions, and I say, “You should work that out for yourself, in fear and trembling, with prayer and study before the Creator of the Universe,” quoting what Paul wrote in Philippians, or paraphrasing. Adapting it from a Karaite perspective, which is, “Look, today we don't have the High Priest, we don't have the Temple. All you can do is the best you can.” And I don't want people to blindly accept what I have to say.

And here's a really key point. So, the Karaite approach is, today we're in exile. And in exile, I don't have this High Priest. I don't have the Prophet in the sense that we had in Biblical times, in the Tanakh times. And if I blindly follow what some human being said, then I am making that person into God. I'm turning his words into the words of God. And therefore, that's idolatry in a sense, because I've now turned a man into God. And that's something I don't agree with and I don't teach, and I'm not in favor of.

So, let me get to the real issue here. When people say, “Why are you listening to Nehemia?” What they mean is, “Whoever you listen to, you have to blindly accept everything they say. And therefore, don't listen to Nehemia, because he's going to say things that you shouldn't listen to,” which isn't what I'm saying. Don't blindly accept anything I say. What are your thoughts on that?

Katie: I agree totally. And like you said, when I used the word “authority” I meant authority in the knowledge that you have. Authority over the discoveries that you've been a part of, and the language and culture of the Hebrew people. And I agree completely that I shouldn't ever sit under any teacher and just say, “Yes, yes, yes.” I should take it to the Scriptures, I should take it to other people who have knowledge in that area and check it. And so, I agree 100 percent.

Nehemia: What are your thoughts, Lydia?

Lydia: About the same. Yeah, I believe that the average teachers in our lives are just people who know things to teach us. But we always have to take everything back to Scripture, that’s what we say. We have to find out ourselves and figure out if we agree.

Nehemia: And one of the things you told me you're doing is, you're actually developing a curriculum for homeschoolers. Tell us a little about that. Because I love what you're doing is, you were telling me before, that people are teaching things in the Hebrew Roots movement that aren't correct. That can't be, right? And so, you decided to go back to solid sources and try to get some of the more solid information, especially about the Hebrew language. Tell us a little about that, Lydia.

Lydia: The reason why we're making this curriculum is we see that a lot of people want to learn the Hebrew, but a lot of the sources are not correct. And so, we want our resource, our curriculum to be correct. That's kind of why we contacted you, so you could help us to know if this is correct, and if the Hebrew that we're sharing with people is the right way to do Hebrew, which we don't know if there's a right way or wrong way, everybody does it differently, ‘cause of the language.

Nehemia: Ask me one of the questions that you wrote to me about that. I think that’s really important. I get like 50 to 100 emails a day, and I said, “I'll have to answer that next time I see you,” and you said, “I need it now, because I'm printing the curriculum.” And I'm like, “Okay. There was an email I saw a few days ago. There's no way I could ever find that.” So, now you have the opportunity, ask me the question and hopefully I can give you an answer, or refer you to a source where you can get the answer.

Lydia: Okay, so one question I had…

Nehemia: Before you ask that question, where will people be able to find this curriculum?

Lydia: So, this curriculum is going to be on a website called homeschoolingtorah.com.

Nehemia: Okay, and that is what it sounds like. They have a full curriculum for homeschoolers, right? You were telling me, they even have math, and science, and stuff like that, but it's based on a Torah perspective of people who believe in Yeshua, is that right?

Lydia: Yeah.

Nehemia: That's pretty cool, that there's this whole, I guess, movement out there of people who are homeschooling, who have this perspective and are looking for these materials. That's very cool. All right, so what are your questions?

Lydia: Why do people pronounce their vowels differently? Is it an accent? Is it different places that they live?

Nehemia: That's a really great question, a very important question, all right. And let's just take a really simple example. There are people who refer to the Sabbath as “Shabbat,” and there's people who call it “Shabbos.” And you're like, “Okay, what's going on here?” And people say, “Oh, if it's Shabbos it's Yiddish.” Well, not exactly. It also is Yiddish. So, Jews were dispersed throughout the Diaspora 2,000 years ago, right? I'm stating really basic information. The Temple was destroyed. Actually, they weren't immediately dispersed. Some were immediately dispersed. When the Temple destroyed, they were taken as slaves by the Romans and spread throughout the Roman Empire. Others remained in Israel until the Bar Kokhba revolt, and then, many more were dispersed as a result of the Bar Kokhba revolt, which ended in the year 135.

And you had Jews all over what was the Roman Empire, and then later, the known world. You had Jews all the way from Spain to China. That's west to east, and north to south, all the way from what today is Russia all the way down to Yemen, or even down to Ethiopia. So, you had this very widespread area of Jewish communities, and they preserved different pronunciations of Hebrew.

Now, to some extent, it's believed that those pronunciations were affected by their local language that they spoke. In other words, Jews who lived in Yemen didn't speak Hebrew, they spoke Arabic, because that was the language there. And Jews who lived in, you know, the Rhine Valley, they started to speak Yiddish, which was a dialect of German. Actually, Yiddish means Jewish, right? But it's a dialect of German that the Jews preserved up until the 21st century, from the Rhine Valley. So, you have them speaking these different languages which may affect their pronunciation of Hebrew, but it's a much deeper thing than that.

I have recently learned a lot about this, more than I ever knew, which is that, you know, we have this very simple story that, oh yeah, the Jews in Europe just spoke a Yiddish dialect of Hebrew, and the Jews in Arabic countries spoke in Arabic dialect. It's far more complex than that. In fact, they’ve preserved things from earlier dialects of Hebrew in the land of Israel. And it turns out that there were people who spoke Hebrew in the land of Israel in at least two or three different ways, going back to probably the 1st century and beyond that. I don't want to get into too much detail, but the long story short of it is that there's people, for example, who pronounce, let's say, the vowel kamatz. You have Shabbat, right? So, why do they say Shabbos? Because there's a kamatz there, and the "uh" is how they pronounce it in Ashkenazic Hebrew, which goes back to probably Tiberian Hebrew.

And then there's the Sephardic pronunciation. And this is the funny thing. People say, “Oh, you speak modern Hebrew in Israel, that's Ashkenazic Hebrew.” No, it's not. The vowels are Sephardic vowels. Or it's kind of a hybrid modern Hebrew. It's the Sephardic vowels, primarily, with some exceptions, and the Ashkenazic consonants, primarily, with some exceptions. So, you could say it's the best of both worlds, or some people would say the worst of both worlds, right? But the bottom line is it's really like tomato and tomato. That's the one-line answer is, the difference between “Shabbat” and “Shabbos” is tomato and tomato. Neither of those are correct.

Now, I would advise people, since you are going to interact with, I'm assuming, Jews who come from Israel, then you're going to want to know the Israeli pronunciation of Hebrew. And one thing I should point out is, in my generation… And I learned Hebrew in the 1970s, right, when I was in kindergarten. And in my generation, people in America, Jews, were still learning the Ashkenazic pronunciation. Now I've seen the younger generation are just learning directly the Israeli pronunciation. And they still may in the synagogue use the Ashkenazic pronunciation, but you'll meet Ashkenazic Jews in America who say “Shabbat,” which is the Israeli pronunciation. And like I said... It's really a hybrid of dialects, right, this modern Shabbat, but it is Israeli Hebrew.

In other words, we have six letters in Biblical Hebrew, which are called “beged kefet, bet gimel dalet, khaf peh tav,” which if they have a dot in them called a “dagesh,” then they have one sound, and without the dagesh they have a different sound. So, with bet we still pronounce that. A bet with the dagesh is a "beh" and without a dagesh is a "veh.” And so, anybody who tells you there's no "veh" in Biblical Hebrew and Paleo Hebrew doesn't know what they’re talking about, because obviously there is a "veh" sound. Peh with a dot is a "peh,” without a dot is a "feh.” Okay, what about tav? So, Tav with a dot is "teh,” but in Israeli Hebrew without a dot it's still teh, so what's going on there? So, in some Sephardic dialects it was "theh,” and in Ashkenazic it was "seh.” So, "theh" and "seh" are very similar, right? In fact, when I was a kid, I pronounced some of my "seh"s as "the"s and "the"s as "seh"s. And maybe I still do, I don't know, I hope I don't. So, I know when I say "inconceivable" people think I'm joking. No, that's just how I pronounce it. Inconceivable.

Anyway, the point is that the dagesh in the tav is "teh” and without the dagesh it's "teh" or "seh" or "theh.” So, which one's right? I don't know that you can say what's right in dialects, right? What did King David speak? I have no idea. David might have said “Shabbos.” He might have said “Shabbas.” He might have said “Shabbath, Shabboth.” I don't know. Those are all possibilities. These are dialects. And in dialects you definitely have variation, which is why in England people speak funny. You were supposed to laugh at that. I’m living here in Texas, there are people who speak in their…

Kate: Something funny.

Nehemia: And you’re right, you’re Michigan. I'm from Illinois, originally, so we have our own pronunciation. But the point is that you can't say one is right and one is wrong. They represent different dialects of Hebrew. Here's what's important to me, as somebody who studies language. And I'm not a linguist, I'm a philologist, so I use linguistics. But as somebody who's a philologist, what's important to me is that you're consistent. If you're going to pronounce the kamatz as an "ah,” always pronounce it as an "ah.” And if you're going to pronounce it as an "uh,” always pronounce it as an "uh.” You know, if you're going to use the Yemenite pronunciation, that's totally fine. Just be consistent and always use the Yemenite pronunciation.

And here's what drives me crazy. So, I go to the Hebrew Roots messianic website, and they have the Shema transliterated into English. And it says, “Shema Yisrael, Yahweh Eloheinu Yahweh Ekhad. We'ahavta...” No, no. I says, “Ve'ahavta et...” Well, wait a minute. Why are you saying "ve'ahavta? Shouldn't it be "we'ahavta?” You just said the vav as a "wah,” no problem. Yemenites pronounce the vav as a "wah.” The Baghdadi Jews pronounce the vav as a "wah.” If you want to pronounce the vav as a "wah" then always pronounce the vav as a "wah,” not just in Yahweh or Yehowa, but do it also in we'ahavta. And while you're at it, if you're going to pronounce the Yemenite dialect, then the dalet without a dagesh is a "theh,” it's not a "deh,” right? So, it shouldn't be "ekhad,” it should be "ekhath.” That's actually a really interesting thing. Have I completely lost you, Lydia?

Lydia: No, we're not. We’re good.

Kate: No, you’re helping.

Nehemia: Okay, so, you know, the Shema is Deuteronomy 6:4. And there's a famous statement of the Rabbis, which says you should elongate the dalet of "ekhad.” And why should you elongate the dalet of ekhad? They don't say why, but it's pretty obvious. Well, first of all, this is the key principle in Judaism, which is that God is one, right? Remember, in the ancient pagan world there were many gods, so this is what you should be emphasizing. Also, dalet and resh are graphically similar. In other words, if I'm writing a dalet and I'm writing a resh, it's very easy to mistake the two letters.

And if you say, “What does it matter, dalet or resh?” So, if you change the dalet to a resh, you get, “Shema Yisrael, Yehovah Eloheinu, Yehovah akher,” “Hear O Israel, Yehovah is our God, Yehovah is another,” right? So, you don't wanna say that. Therefore, they emphasize the dalet. And I remember my father, who was a Rabbi, a lawyer but also a Rabbi. And he would cover his eyes and he would say, “Shema Yisrael, Adonoy Eloheinu, Adonoy Ekhaddddah.” And it made no sense, ‘cause the dalet, you can’t d-d-d-d-d-d. You can't elongate a "dah", but you can elongate a "theh.” You can say "ekhathhhh,” right? Like you can elongate an S, but you can't elongate a T, right? And there's a whole linguistic theory behind that, that I don't want to go into. But there are certain letters you can elongate.

So, when the Rabbis were saying, “Elongate the dalet,” there is no question that they pronounced the dalet in "ekhad" without a dagesh as "theh" and not as "deh,” right? Now, in modern Israeli Hebrew we pronounce it the Ashkenazic way, with a "deh,” okay? So, the point is, as long as you're consistent… And by the way, I'm not saying the "deh" is wrong. In other words, the Ashkenazim preserved a certain dialect of Hebrew. That is a valid Jewish pronunciation, and some form of it, at least, may go back to an early period of Hebrew. What's an early period? Something in the land of Israel. The Ashkenazic apparently represents a Tiberian dialect. Sephardic, with its five vowels, represents what they call - I hate this term - a “Palestinian dialect,” or a “land of Israel dialect,” which is another part of Israel besides Tiberias. And the Yemenites represent some form of the Babylonian pronunciation, which may also go back to the land of Israel.

But what I'm trying to say is, just be consistent. And I would recommend Israeli Hebrew, because you're going to meet people who speak Israeli Hebrew, and they're gonna laugh at you when they hear you say, "Ekhoth” even though "ekhoth" is not wrong. It's actually not even "ekhoth,” it's "ehoth.” "Ekhad" would be "ehath.” Okay, so is that wrong? It's not wrong. I could speak with a British accent all day, but I'd sound quite odd. I'm not doing it right. I'm sorry, British people who are listening to this. This is my Mary Poppins version of British. All right, did I answer that question?

Lydia: Yeah, you answered, actually, a lot of my questions that I had with that one.

Nehemia: Wow, all right, that's more than anybody wanted to know about Hebrew. What is your next question?

Katie: I have a question. If she wants to be consistent, is there a source that you might give us that we could find good pronunciation in the modern Israeli Hebrew?

Nehemia: Yeah, and by the way, what I would advise is that at some point people need to learn the differences of these dialects, right? You need to know that the Ashkenazi and Sephardic say "veh,” unless you're from Baghdad and Yemen and you say "weh.” And then be consistent in saying the "weh,” I don't have a problem with that. I mean, I have a whole teaching on this, about the veh and the weh thing, and people get really... Like, this becomes the thing to break fellowship over, whether you say veh or weh, which to me, literally, is like tomato or tomato.

Kate: Right, exactly.

Nehemia: I mean, I think the pronunciation of God's name is really important, that's no secret. But even if someone says “Yahweh,” let the Father... I love what you said here, can I read it? I want to read one of your blog posts. And look again, people, at the website. People write blog posts about me all the time, and I don't bring them on the program. I just read this and I was really moved, and I wanted to share this with people, not ‘cause you agree with me, not because you're defending me, but I love the humility that went into this blog post. Where can people find this?

Katie: hirnhomeschoolers.com. That’s H-I-R-N homeschoolers.com.

Nehemia: Excellent. Okay. “If I'm not sure of my beliefs then I go to the word of God to find the answer.” Amen. “But if I think my brother or sister is sinning, then the right thing to do is to lovingly point out that sin. If after I point out their sin, they choose to continue in sin, that is no longer my issue. I must place them in the Father's hands”. Wow. If we could all just follow this principle and just let God be God.

Katie: It's not as easy as it sounds, though.

Nehemia: I agree with you. I’m in full agreement with you. It's easier said than done. But what we have to do is just let God be God. And I actually struggle with this in my life, because look, I'm a person who likes to control his own situation. And I interact with other people and you can't control other people. I learned this when I was a high school teacher in China.

Now, it's a little different than homeschooling, and I had between 55 and 65 kids per class, in most of my classes. I had a few smaller classes. And imagine if you're in a class with 65 kids, and you don't know what the kids' names are, because even if they told you, you can't pronounce them. And even if you can pronounce them, you can't write it down because it's in Chinese.

And I had a friend there, Leo, who said to me, “Nehemia, here's the most important thing in the classroom. The only one in that room you can control is yourself.” And that required me to put things into God's hands, to turn it over to Yehovah and say, “Father, all I have to do is control myself.” And I managed to get through an entire year of teaching where I was able to put this into practice, where I wanted to yell at the kids. But I did not, because I had to control myself, not them. And there are definitely some stressful situations, no question. And homeschooling is probably a very different situation, because you actually know all the kids' names. You're their parents, so it's a bit different. But yeah, you can only control yourself. And this is where I think we get into a lot of trouble. We try to control other people. I don't know how we got into that. What was your question?

Katie: It was about a good resource for being consistent in Israeli Hebrew. And you were talking about how we should make sure people know to know the differences.

Nehemia: Right, and I don't know that somebody beginning needs to know all the differences, but at some point, once you're fluent in Hebrew, you should know that, yeah, there are different people who pronounce things differently. This is a big issue when it comes to the shva. I mean, it's very interesting, because we have this tradition of how to teach shva. Does everybody know what shva is? Shva is that little two dots, it's actually the first vowel in Yehovah's name.

That's another thing that drives me crazy. They say, “Oh, we're gonna say ‘wah,’ because ‘wah’ is the original.” Well, why don't you use the other rules that deal with how people who have that dialect of Hebrew pronounce? In other words, if you're saying, “I'm gonna use Yemenite Hebrew,” use it all along, throughout. And Yemenite has a very complex system of how to pronounce “shva.” In any event, we have these rules of shva which come from Radak, this Rabbi, David Kimhi. No one today pronounces Hebrew according to those rules. I shouldn't say no one, but virtually no one does. So, we teach these rules that we don't actually use, and then in the beginning, the student is so confused. So, my suggestion would be yeah, what is a good resource? That's a really challenging question. I think you need to create it. I think it will be Lydia and Katie.

Katie: I was afraid of that answer.

Nehemia: We say in Hebrew, “Behatzlakha.” I wish you success in that. It's easier said than done. Because, like I said, we teach rules in beginning Hebrew classes which we don't actually follow. Specifically, shva is a really good example. Virtually nobody follows those rules with the exception of some Yemenites in their synagogues, perhaps, and then they have other rules which aren't even in Radak's rules. Yeah, it can be complicated.

If you really want my advice, I think Lydia should go and study Hebrew in Israel for a year at Hebrew University. That’s my advice…

Kate: Good advice.

Nehemia: That would be cool, and I think that would be perfect. She would go to ulpan and she'd be around people speaking Hebrew all day. There are other ulpans, I believe Bar Ilan University has one, as well. So, that's really the best way to learn Modern Hebrew. She'll come back a year from now and she will be fluent, if she can avoid people who want to speak English with her. That will be something that you'll have to decide if she's mature enough. But that is between you, and your husband, and Lydia.

Let's move on. I want to bring up something here. One of the things that people had said to you, one of the criticisms you got was... Here, I'm going to read it, because people are gonna see this, as well. "Our friend, Nehemia, has been falsely accused over and over of trying to lead believers away from Yeshua as the Messiah." So, look, Lydia, I was with you and your brother in the park in Jerusalem, and no one else was around. And I had my opportunity. Did I try to convince you to deny Yeshua as the Messiah?

Lydia: No.

Nehemia: My friend Keith makes the joke, he says, “Nehemia must be working on the 20-year plan, because he's known me for 20 years and he has yet to make his move.” Look, I have a paper I wrote about this years ago called “The Ass Speaks Out.” And I'm gonna just refer people to that. And then recently, I did a podcast with Dr. Mark called “Saving Faith,” which I'll also refer people to.

I love what you wrote at the end here. You wrote, "Let's learn and grow in love together.” If that could just be the motto of all of those seeking the Creator's truth, wow, I’d think we would be very blessed. We really would be. So, I'm willing to answer any other questions you have, if I can. What other questions do you have?

Lydia: You might have already answered this with the long answer you gave me, but we were wondering why some people emphasize the last syllable of a word, and other people emphasize the second syllable of a word. Where does the emphasizing come in?

Nehemia: This is very important. I'm really glad you asked that question, because I mentioned about Ashkenazic Hebrew and Sephardic Hebrew. But here is one area where Ashkenazic Jews are 100 percent wrong. So, Ashkenazic Jews, when they're reading from the Torah, they pronounce the words correctly. But when they're speaking outside of a formal reading of Scripture, they put the emphasis on the first syllable of the word. They'll say Shabbos, instead of Shabbos.

So, when you look at the text of Scripture, we have a system of consonants, another system of vowels, and a third system of accents. And the accents generally tell you which syllable to emphasize. I say "generally" because there are specific accents that don't, but most accents will tell you whether it's Torah, or Torah. An Ashkenazic Jew will say Torah. And listen to the "rah,” the "ah.” That actually is the Ashkenazic kamatz. By the way, Christians, when they say Hallelujah, are using Ashkenazic Hebrew. The "uh" of Hallelujah, it's not Hallelu-yah, it's halleluyuh, right? And that's the Ashkenazic Hebrew. Why would that be? Because when they learned Hebrew in Britain 500 years ago, they were learning it from Ashkenazic Jews who taught them the kamatz is pronounced "uh".

So, Torah has the emphasis on the first syllable, and the kamatz is an "uh,” and that is absolutely 100 percent unquestionably incorrect for ancient Hebrew. And how do I know that? ‘Cause even an Ashkenazi Jew, when he reads in the Torah, will say Torah. He knows the emphasis is on the final syllable. How does he know that? Because it's marked in the text. So, you have to be very careful from listening to American Jews in particular, because they'll often have this Ashkenazic pronunciation with the emphasis on the first syllable, which is generally wrong. In most Hebrew words, the emphasis is on the final syllable.

So, let's give an example. My name is Nehemia. And listen to the "ah" of Nehemia, right? An Israeli would not say Nehemia, he'd say Nehemyah. And an Ashkenazi Jew reading from the Book of Nehemia would say Nehemyoh, no question about it. My name is not Nehemia, it’s Nekhemyo or Nehemyah. But the way people refer to me would be “Nehemia.” And by the way, now if we're getting into dialects, if it was a Yemenite Jew, he wouldn't call me “Nekhemyoh,” he would call me “Nekhem-yoh,” or “Nekhemyah,” that’s how he would pronounce it, with a khet, “Nekhemyah.” So, that's just tomato and tomato, potato-potato. Just don't call me Baldy, as I've emphasized, right? I get very sensitive, guys. This is a choice, say "choice…”

Lydia: Choice.

Kate: Choice.

Nehemia: I didn't say it's much of a choice, but it's a choice. All right, back to our topic. So, there are exceptions to the rule. For example, the name Boaz isn't Boaz, it's Boaz. How do I know it's Boaz? Because I can see the accent when I open up the book of Ruth, and it shows me the syllable is in the beginning of the word on the first syllable. Or let me rephrase that. In Hebrew, this emphasis is always on one of two places. And this is how we think of it in Hebrew. It's always on the final syllable, or second to last syllable.

So, I'll hear people, they’ll talk about Yeshua and they'll say “Yeshua.” Well, it's not Yeshua. How do I know it's not Yeshua? Because the syllable, the emphasis is on "shu". How do I know that? It's marked in the text, it's not a matter of dispute. And it's not Yehoshua, it's Yehoshua. How do I know it's Yehoshua? Because it's marked in the text. Now, there's an interesting question. And this is for the "wuh" people, the people who say, “If you don't say Yahweh, if you don't pronounce it with the ‘wuh’ or ‘Yehowah,’ then you're damned to hell.” If you're one of those people, then just remember there's an ayin in Yeshu'a, right? Really, if we want to be technical here, if we were Yemenite Jews pronouncing it with that pronunciation, so the tzereh there would be pronounced as an "ey,” like the words “eight, wait, Kate, late.” It would be a long A. So, it would be “Yeshuwa'a.” Actually, that's how it would be pronounced it in Yemenite Hebrew, “Yeshuwa'a.” That's how it would be pronounced, “Yeshuwa'a.” Yeah, that's really easy, “Yeshuwa'a.” It's not so hard once you hear it enough. If you’re around it and you hear it a lot, ayin, it would be “Yeshuwa'a.” Well, they'll say “Yashu'ah.” I don't know how you would get that. At least pronounce the heh in Yahshuah, right? Yeah, “Yahshuah.” That’s how it would be pronounced in Yemenite Hebrew, “Yashuwa'a.”

If you can't say “Yeshuwa'a,” then please stop cleaning out the speck in your brother's eye. If you can't pronounce “Yeshuwa'a…” “Yahashuwa'a,” right, ‘cause there’s a hey, “Yahashuwa'a.” It's not easy to say, I’ll be honest with you. I’m not a Yemenite, that’s why. I’m sure a Yemenite could say it fine. Oh, no, it wouldn't be “Yahashuwa'a,” because there's a kamatz there, because of the “Halleluyah,” so it would be ““Yakhshuwa'a,” So, what American messianics and Hebrew people say is “Yashua.” In Yemenite, what they’d call Paleo Hebrew, it would be “Yakhshuwa'a.” Yeah, that’s what it would be. I wish you success with that, good luck. I'm just doing the best I can to pronounce the name as I see it in the Jewish sources. And, you know, Yehovah, if you were an Ashkenazic Jew, you could say, “Yehovoh.” And that wouldn't be wrong, “Yehovoh.” That's tomato, tomato. Shabbat, Shabbos, Shabbos. It's a matter of dialect.

I really appreciate you coming on and talking to me, and I hope this blesses other people. Look, I want to bring this actually, I want to close with this. There's a saying of the Rabbis. And this is, I think, a very Jewish approach, which is different from the traditional Christian approach. And, you know, people get involved in the Hebrew Roots movement, and they bring this Christian baggage with them. The Jewish approach is the saying of Ben Zoma, or Ben Zomoh, if I'm going to use Ashkenazic Hebrew. Ben Zoma was a Rabbi who is quoted in the Pirkey Avot, which is translated as "Ethics of the Fathers,” but it's actually the opening section of the Mishnah, and it's profound.

So, this is tractate of Avot, chapter 4, section 1. And it says, “Ben Zoma says, ‘Who is a wise man? He who learns from every man.’” And it says in Hebrew, “Eyzehu khakham? Halomed mikol adam.” Then it quotes a verse, Psalm 119 verse 99. So, the message of Psalm 119 is to learn from every man, as the rabbis understood it, and it's, “Mi kol melameday hiskalti,” “I have become wise from all those who taught me,” “ki edvotekha sikha li,” “for your testimonies are my discourse.” So, as long as you're talking about Torah, anyone who you learn from can be your teacher. You can learn from every human being speaking about Scripture. That is what David is saying, and that's what Ben Zoma understood David to be saying.

Wow, I mean, that's a different perspective than the Christian idea of “Only listen to this preacher, but don't listen to those other preachers.” And what that means is, blindly accept everything they have to say. David wasn't saying, “I'm blindly accepting what everyone else has to say.” He goes on, I want to read some of the other things, because Ben Zoma was this profound philosopher. He says, “Eyzehu gibor? Hakovesh et yitzro.” “Who is a mighty man?” Meaning, who is a strong man, a mighty man? “He who vanquishes his desire. As it is written, ‘tov erekh apayim migibor.’” And this is Proverbs 16:32. You translate this as, “Abundant patience is greater than being a mighty man,” “u’moshel berukho milokhed ir,” “and he who rules over his spirit is greater than he who conquers a city.”

Wow, so that really is what Proverbs is saying. Ben Zoma is just putting this into terms that we can more easily understand, which aren't a riddle, in a sense. “He who is a mighty man, he who conquers his desire.” And he says, “Eyzehu ashir? Hasame'akh bekhelko.” “Who is a rich man? He who is happy in his portion,” he who rejoices in his portion. And that is profound. As it is written, and he quotes Psalm 128 verse 2. And then the last one is, “Eyzehu mekhubad? Hamekhabed et habriyot.” “Who is an honorable person, who is a respectable person? He who respects others.”

And he quotes 1 Samuel chapter 2 verse 30. Guys, you can look that up. And I think that's a great point to end on. You can learn from anyone who teaches you. It doesn't mean you blindly accept what they have to say, but you can be open to learning. And I learn from all kinds of other people. When I'm studying the Bible, I read Christian commentaries. Most of the commentaries I read are written by atheists and Rabbinical Jews, and I can learn from anyone. My responsibility is to go back to the Father and work it out for myself, in prayer and study, with fear and trembling, to search well in the Scripture and not blindly follow what others have to say.

And my prayer for everyone out there is, do your best to do the same, to come before the Creator in humility. And to quote Katie, in her paper, as she says here, “To do this in gentleness, kindness, patience and love. These are the ways of God.” Amen.

Kate: Amen.

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