Sunday, November 24, 2019

WHY DO YOU SAY YOU HAVE NO TIME OR YOUR PLATE IS FULL?


My apologies. Blogspot does not allow me to do a nice layout. Things just keep running out of alignment.












I want you all to watch this.

This is exactly how I see my life.

Everyone says she has a full plate and no time to learn a new language.

Let me share with you my hectic schedule:

  • I write books and press releases/ video scripts for my clients
  • I am also a media consultant and we produce magazines for clients
  • I am a father of two children, and I have to cook for them and fetch them for their activities. I also spend time tutoring them.
  • I am also a theological student doing my Master of Christian Ministry part time
  • I also provide training in public speaking to a group of kids 
  • I am doing a lot of troubleshooting to solve people's problems 
  • I preach occasionally
Yet, I still find the capacity to learn Hebrew and will embark on learning Greek in January next year (2020).

I am not a superman. Neither am I a genius. Nor am I any more special than most people. I am just an ordinary Malaysian, but I fill my idle time doing something productive. Since childhood, I have always learnt to redeem my time.

For example, while waiting for my clients, I would scribble away the Hebrew alphabet. That was how I started learning back in May and June this year (2019).

There is another person whose productivity is also a wonderful example that I often admire. 
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About Dr Alex Tang Tuck Hon

Biographical Sketch:


Dr Alex Tang is a Senior Consultant Paediatrician at the Johor Specialist Hospital, Johor Bahru. He obtained his basic medical degree from the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (National University of Malaysia) and did his postgraduate training in Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States. His specialty is in General Paediatrics with special interest in neonatology, respiratory medicine and biomedical ethics. He is a member of many professional bodies, and of the International Child Health Group.

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I attended Dr Alex Tang's module on Spiritual Formation at STM. He is the author of many books, besides being a senior consultant paediatrician and a Monash lecturer.

I share this so that you know ou don't have any excuse to say that you cannot learn the very languages that God used to communicate with us. If He found it important enough to communicate with us using Hebrew, we should likewise spend time to learn it.







Great Benefits Learning to Read in Hebrew

This is how I benefited. As I studied the book of Ruth in Hebrew, I realised that I was able to participate in the pow wow between the three widows after the death of Elimelech, Mahlon and Chilion.


First, the Elimelech family were economic migrants. There was economic depression in the land of Judah. Due to low rainfall, famine had forced the children of Israel to go to Egypt looking for food. Now, during the time of the Judges, there was also economic depression that forced the Elimelech family to emigrate even to the open fields of Moab. Moab was not even a state or a nation like Ye'hudah. It was only an open field, which suggests that the Depression that hit Ye'hudah made it far more unbearable to the family of Elimelech.

To this family who was always looking for the greener pasture, anything is better than to die of famine in the land of Ye'hudah. Elimelech and his two sons did not survive very long. When Naomi heard that God visited the land of Judah, and learnt that the people were enjoying good GDP, she decided to go back to Beth Lehem where they came from.

You can feel and enter into the world of Ruth and Naomi when you hear them in the original Hebrew language. Fresh insights into the book started to flow.

If you do not believe me, do this experiment. Watch a movie in your own mother tongue.

Start off by turning off the audio and read the sub-titles as you watch the movie. After that, turn on the audio. You will be able to feel the pulses of the people in the movie when you can hear them speak in your own mother tongue.

This is what I experienced when I was reading and listening to the reading from the book of Ruth in Hebrew by Abraham Shmuelof. I have split the book into its four chapters. You can download the audio files of the four chapters of Ruth from here.

This is how you can build your vocabulary in Hebrew and be able to read and understand what is read to you. First, work your way through the text. I find using the Accordance Bible Software a great help. Next, listen to each chapter many times for at least one week. You can do it while you are driving or cooking.





Saturday, November 23, 2019

RUTH: WHAT A COURAGEOUS WOMAN, INDEED!





Ruth 1:16

וַתֹּאמֶר רוּת אַל־תִּפְגְּעִי־בִי לְעָזְבֵךְ לָשׁוּב מֵאַחֲרָיִךְ כִּי אֶל־אֲשֶׁר תֵּלְכִי אֵלֵךְ וּבַאֲשֶׁר תָּלִינִי אָלִין עַמֵּךְ עַמִּי וֵאלֹהַיִךְ אֱלֹהָי


  .This was what Ruth said to her mother-in-law, Naomi

“Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.”

For the Moaviyah (Moabitess) to say this, Ruth must have a lot of courage and commitment towards the God whom her husband, now deceased, used to worship.

She was willing to follow Naomi wherever she went. The relationship between the two widows was very strong like glue to two pieces of wood. She and Naomi were inseparable. Ruth was prepared to return with Naomi to a people who was foreign to her because she was already a committed believer of the Elohe Yis'rael (God of Israel)

Ruth could see that her mother-in-law was very bitter about the death of Elimelech and her two sons. Ruth is the wife of Naomi's second son, Machlon.

The fact that she said these words to Naomi shows that she would not abandon the Elohe Yis'rael. For her to return to her family in Moab meant that she would return to the gods of the Moabites. And, coming under the umbrella of her parents again, she would probably have to re-marry. There was no guarantee that she would be able to continue walking with the Elohe Yis'rael Whom she had believed in.
Therefore, God honoured her faith by arranging for Boaz the גֹּאֵל (redeemer) to redeem her. As a result, the Moabitess, considered to be a Gentile, was grafted into the House of Israel. She later became part of the physical lineage through whom Jesus the Messiah was born.






Monday, November 18, 2019

GOOD ENOUGH FOR DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS BUT NOT FOR UNDERSTANDING THE DEEPER MEANING OF GOD’S WORD


 The letter a is made up two other letters - the c and the bent letter, I


If you look at it carefully, doesn't the letter a look like a 'c' attached to the slightly bent 'I'? This letter a is what God uses to remind us that with Christ, especially when we are willing to let go of our ego, we will be the 'a' grade disciples of Jesus. Or, rather the 'A' grade followers of Christ. After all, the capital A looks like a ladder that goes upwards into the gate of heaven.

This is good enough for a simple devotional thought that we can share as long as we do not stretch it too far. Thankfully, no one has ever used this illustration to interpret the English Bible.

Honestly, it holds no water as far as biblical interpretation is concerned. Neither can we make it up as though the letter 'a' has a hidden meaning which God has only now revealed through me. 

I feel it is the same with the Hebrew Bible text. We should be studying God's Word as God's Word, and not look for mystical meanings behind each letter of the alphabet.

Let's look the example of Genesis 1:1 commonly used by people. I have watched an entire video on this:  

בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ׃


Some Rabbis have spent hours debating why God chose to use the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet בְּ instead of aleph א. Countless of reasons have been proposed. I would say, "Wow!" to some of these reasons, but the bottomline is, I think they are just being rabbinic in their reading of Scriptures. 

For example, one of the rabbis says that Aleph can only be used for God. Yet, others give some more convincing answers. How ever this may sound interesting, I think we have to look at the language in its entirety. 


What Do I Mean?

By this, I mean, who cares whether the Bible starts with the first or the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet? I do not think God cares, too. 

I would tend to agree more with someone who came out with this more interesting explanation which is more consistent with the use of the Hebrew language. 

The word, בְּרֵאשִׁית he says, is spelt as 'be-re-shit' instead of 'ba-re-shit'. So, what is so is so interesting about this?


Now, if you ask any Hebrew native speaker, they will be able to tell you that the syllable בְּ refers to 'in' without the definite particle 'the.' I repeat, if literally translated, it should only be 'in beginning' (without the definite particle 'the' in the English language).


With the definite particle, it should be:בָּ (or literally translated as 'in the...') replacing the need of using the prefix  'hey' ה


Therefore, the word 'be-re-shit' should be literally translated without the definite particle 'the', but 'ba-re-shit' is to be translated as 'in the beginning.' 

In short, what this teacher is saying is that, when God created the world, there was no definite time when the world was created. 


Now, what about אֵת?

I have also heard that the word אֵת is a reminder of God as the Aleph א and Tav ת. But, is this really what it is saying? 

While it is true that God has introduced Himself as the Aleph Tav, I do not think this word which occurs 11563 times in the Old Testament (and another 10944 times as  אֵת־ actually refers to God as the Aleph Tav. It is simply a word that appears frequently in Hebrew text just like any other words. The word is used simply mark the direct object that follows its usage.  




Trust me, the word אֵת exists twice in Genesis 1:1 and it certainly does not mean that God is a plural God. Neither was God trying to emphasise the importance of the word אֵת by repeating it two times. 

Beware of extra-biblical teachings

Now, let me mesmerize you. 
Next year will be the year of tsade צ which has a gematria of 90. The word Tzaddiq צֶדֶק begins with צ; therefore, next year, 5781 will be a year where righteousness reigns. And if you plus all the digits in the year 5781 together, it is a total of 21. This number is just five short of the gematria of the Tetragrammaton, but it is getting closer to the number 26 -- what an illustration that, as the Day of the Lord approaches, the mouth of the righteous will become more visible.

Tzade has a gematria of 90. And if you take away the 0 from 90, you will get 9. When you deduct the number 9 from 90, you will get 81. Wow! And next year is the year 5781 in the Jewish calendar! Taking away the zero from 90, when is no one (or zero person) willing to speak up for righteousness, although the gematria of Tzade is supposed to be 90, the year 5781 will become a year of unrighteousness when people are not willing to speak up for righteousness. 

Wow! What a warning for all of us in the year 5781
Where in the Bible does it say the year 5781 has any significance? Or, where in the Bible does it say that righteousness or unrighteousness will prevail in 5781, depending on whether people will speak up for righteousness in that year or they just prefer to remain silent? 

While gematria exists in the Hebrew alphabet (example, seven has always been a unique number to represent perfection), we can sometimes stretch the gematria too far beyond our own imagination, especially when we think we have understood the hidden meanings of everything in the Bible. But, is it taught in the Bible?

Although this 'hidden meaning behind the Jewish year 5781' is a far-fetched illustration, it goes to show that with just a bit of imagination, we can go astray after some strange teachings not taught in the Word of God. 

We have been cautioned against adding anything to the Word of God. While I would use such an illustration with a disclaimer that this is strictly my own views, I would not say this is God's Word or some hidden meanings that I discovered in His Word, to encourage you to speak the words of righteousness. 

Just because there are co-incidences when someone speaks up for righteousness in year 5781 does not validate my "teaching." In any other years, we have countless of people who would speak the word of righteousness in a time that badly needs it!

Putting Into Perspectives

While it is good for us to philosophise, theologize and look carefully into the details of the Hebrew consonants to give it new meanings, we have to be careful not to use this method to interpret the Bible. 

Hebrew, like koine Greek used in the New Testament, is for sure not God's mother tongue. We learn Hebrew so that we can better understand the original meaning in the Hebrew text, without depending too much on the translations.

Reformers like John Symthe, for example, would never preach a sermon without using the Bible in its original languages. Much of the European reformation also began when people started reading the Bible in either Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament).

The Bible must be interpreted with care, based on the way how it was written, to whom God's Word was originally spoken to, looking at the historical, cultural, geographical and economic backgrounds (or the context). 

There are a lot of truths hidden in the original Hebrew Bible which, have unfortunately, not been easy to translate directly into the English language. See an example here

I sometimes love to listen to the way how some teachers make Hebrew more interesting by bringing pictorial images. However, I take this as just pure devotional thoughts. 

Like I gave the example of the alphabet 'a', anyone can sit down and come out with some nice devotional thoughts, but let us keep this pool of knowledge as just some beautiful devotional thoughts. 

To stretch the meaning too far could only lead to some false teachings unless we are careful.





THE MAN & MIRACLE THAT REVIVED THE MODERN HEBREW LANGUAGE

Do you wish that you knew Hebrew?
You may be surprised to discover how many Hebrew words you already do know, such as halleluyah, amen, and shalom.
Let's take a brief look at what these three words really mean and discover the man and the miracle that revived the Hebrew language for everyday use after 2,000 years of linguistic exile.
Crowds gather from around the world at the Western (Wailing) Wall during
the annual Jewish pilgrimages of Passover (Pesach), Pentecost (Shavuot),
and Tabernacles (Sukkot).

הַלְלוּ יָהּ

Halleluyah actually consists of two Hebrew words: hallelu, meaning praise (a plural imperative) and Yah (shortened form of Yahweh, the personal name for God and often written as LORD).

אָמֵן
Amen, a Hebrew word commonly said in prayer means dependablefaithfulcertain and true.  This word has the connotation of faith, since its root A-M-N can mean faithful, have faith, believe, reliable, confirmed, and to be firm.
Amen is often translated as truly or verily in the Brit Chadashah (New Testament), which we will see later is quite Hebraic.
"In that day you will not question Me about anything.  Truly, truly, (amen, amen) I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you."  (John 16:23)
And, of course, people around the globe know the Hebrew word shalom, but not many know that it means much more than peace.  It encompasses wholenessblessing, and well-being.  It is also used conversationally to greet others hello and goodbye.

The Hebrew word Shalom (read right to left).
The Miracle of Hebrew's Survival
Hebrew has against all odds defied extinction.
The fact that it’s now a modern language used daily by millions of people in Israel and in Jewish communities around the world is an absolute miracle.
Logically, Hebrew should have died out two millennia ago after Rome destroyed Jerusalem in AD 70 and defeated the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135, resulting in the scattering (Diaspora) of God's Chosen People to lands near and far.
In the Diaspora, the Jewish People acquired the local language for everyday use.  But Hebrew didn't completely fade away; it survived primarily in the synagogues and yeshivas (Jewish seminaries) as a scholarly and liturgical language.

The Great Synagogue on Dohány Street in Budapest, Hungary is the largest
synagogue in Europe and one of the largest in the world. It seats 3,000 people. 
While noticeable differences between Ancient and Modern Hebrew exist, they are not drastic.
In fact, if Moses were to return today, he would likely understand modern Hebrew, though he would have to learn some modern words as well as adjust to some differences in syntax (arrangement of words to form a sentence).
Some of these syntax changes are due to the influence of Yiddish, a combination of German, Hebrew, Slavic, and other European dialects that became the spoken vernacular of Ashkenazi Jews in central and eastern Europe beginning in the 9th century.
And, of course, many words had to be introduced to accommodate technical and cultural innovations.
Jewish man reads from a siddur (Jewish prayer book).
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda: Father of Modern Hebrew
Throughout the Tanakh (Old Testament), we see men of courage leading the Jewish People out of their exile and into their destiny.
God used Moses to bring the children of Israel out of slavery into freedom.  He used Joshua to bring them out of the wilderness into the Promised Land.  And He used Cyrus to bring them out of Babylon and even help them rebuild the Temple.
In the last two centuries, the movement of Jews back to the Biblical land of Israel required partners and visionaries in every area of nation-building.
In the area of language, God used a man named Eliezer Ben-Yehuda to help teach the Jewish People leaving the Diaspora how to speak Hebrew again in modern pre-state Israel, a nation that would be reborn as prophesied 2,700 years ago:
"Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and gather you from the west.  I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' and to the south, 'Do not hold them back.' Bring My sons from afar And My daughters from the ends of the earth."  (Isaiah 43:6)

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda
Ben-Yehuda, whose name means son of Judah, was born Eliezer Yitzhak
Perlman in Luzhki, located in the former Soviet territory and modern nation of Belarus.
He believed that the revival of the Hebrew language in the Land of Israel
could be the key to uniting the scattered Jews.  As such, he rejected the Diaspora lifestyle, including the speaking of Yiddish and other regional dialects.
Making aliyah (immigrating) to the Promised Land in 1881 at the age of 23, he set out to revive Hebrew as the native tongue for future generations of Jewish olim (immigrants).
History has proved his efforts successful.

Ben-Yehuda and his wife Hemda, 1912
Ben-Yehuda: Radical Approach to Reviving Hebrew
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda took a radical approach to his mission: some might even say fanatical!
He insisted that only Hebrew be spoken in his home.  He is even reported to have admonished his wife after hearing her sing a Russian lullaby to their child.  
The first native speaker of Modern Hebrew was his son, Ben-Zion (Zion's son), who also was only allowed to speak Hebrew. 
His extreme efforts paid off.  By setting an example in his own family and taking students into his home to learn Hebrew, along with the help of others passionate for the cause of national unity, he helped to start a linguistic revival.
  
Yarkon Park, Tel Aviv: In 1909, the first Hebrew city, Tel Aviv, was founded.
Hebrew so dominated the scene here by this time that one writer announced
in 1913:  "Yiddish is more treif (non-kosher) than pork. To speak it a person
needs great courage."
The Development of Modern Hebrew
Ben-Yehuda's deep calling and conviction caused him to push forward even amid accusations in the ultra-religious community that he and his work were blasphemous.
After two thousand years of isolated use, Hebrew had been viewed by Orthodox Jews as the one and only Holy Language, which should be spoken only during prayer and in the synagogue.
Through one of the newspapers that he edited, Ha-Zvi, Ben-Yehuda not only promoted his edgy Hebrew vernacular among the Land's religious residents, he waged war against certain religious practices and customs, which led to his arrest and the closing of the paper for fourteen months in 1894.  (National Library of Israel) 
The Orthodox community even declared Ben-Yehuda herem (excommunicated), but he did not waiver.  (My Jewish Learning)
In 1890, he established the Hebrew Language Committee (Va'ad ha-lashon ha-Ivrit).  The Committee set out to establish uniform standards in grammar, terminology, and pronunciation that would be used throughout schools, commerce, and government.
It published bulletins and dictionaries and established thousands of Hebrew words that are in everyday use today.  Ben-Yehuda’s English–Hebrew / Hebrew–English Dictionary is still one of the most commonly used dictionaries.

Ben-Yehuda at his desk working on his dictionary
Ben-Yehuda, who immigrated a year before the First Aliyah movement (1882–1903), saw the fruit of his efforts in the Second Aliyah (1904-1914).  In this movement, 35,000 olim (immigrants), mostly from Russia, entered the Ottoman-ruled land of pre-state Israel and many embraced Hebrew as their new spoken and written language.
In 1922, with the region now under control of the British Mandate of Palestine, Ben-Yehuda and his supporters crossed a great milestone—the formal declaration of Hebrew as one of the land's three official languages, alongside English and Arabic.
Sadly, near the end of that year, on December 16th, Ben-Yehuda died at age 64 of tuberculosis, a sickness he suffered from for most of his life.  
Such was the honor and respect that the Israeli people had for him that
30,000 people attended his funeral.  He was buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.  

Nearly 150,000 cemetery plots line the western slope of the Mount of Olives,
facing the Temple Mount platform.  (Photo: Go Israel)
To honor Ben-Yehuda, large Israeli cities often have a street named after him.  In fact, the most famous and busy streets in both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are named Ben Yehuda Street.
In the book Was Hebrew Ever a Dead Language?, Cecil Roth succinctly
summarized Ben-Yehuda's contribution this way:  "Before Ben-Yehuda, Jews didn't speak Hebrew; after him, they did."
Just five years after the Modern State of Israel was reborn in 1948, the
Israeli government replaced The Hebrew Language Committee with the
Academy of the Hebrew Language, which operates out of Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
The Academy continues to create new words from Hebrew root word structures as it replaces loaned words derived from other languages.
It also continues to set standards for Modern Hebrew grammar, orthography,
transliteration, and punctuation based on the historical development of the language.

Though it has been labeled Israel's "language police," the Academy considers its decisions binding only on formal speeches and written texts.  (Hebrew Academy)
Though Hebrew is now the native tongue of new generations of Israelis and integrated throughout society here, in the ultra-Orthodox religious neighborhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem, some still reject Hebrew and use Yiddish for their everyday spoken language.  
Even so, when they pay bills, deal with Israeli companies on the phone, and interact with the larger society, they do have to speak Hebrew.
The Mea Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem
The Hebrew Bible
While Aramaic was for a time the common language of the Israeli people, including Yeshua (Jesus), it accounts for less than one percent of the Tanakh (Old Testament), which was written primarily in Hebrew.  
Out of the over 23,000 verses in the Tanakh, only 250 are written in Aramaic.  We find Aramaic, for example, in Ezra 4:8–6:18 and 7:12–26, Daniel 2:4b–7:28, and Jeremiah 10:11.
And although the Brit Chadashah (New Testament) is written primarily in Greek with some Aramaic, it is very Hebraic in nature.  Why?  The writers are Jewish, the culture is Jewish, the religion is Jewish, the traditions are Jewish, and the concepts are Jewish! 
The apostle Paul who wrote at least thirteen of the twenty-seven books of the Brit Chadashah even identified himself as being "circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee. "  (Pilippians 3:5)
Because of the strong Jewish identity of its writers, we find throughout the Brit Chadashah numerous references to the prophecies and practices of the Hebrew Scriptures.
For that reason alone, learning Hebrew helps us to better understand the true plans and purposes of God.
Roy Blizzard, Jr. in Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus said,
“If any additional advances are to be made, especially in better
understanding the words of Jesus, the concentration must shift to the study of Hebrew history and culture, and above all, the Hebrew language.”
Believers who learn Hebrew today are doing far more than simply learning
another language; they are participating in a great end-time move of the Spirit of God, reconnecting the Church to its Jewish roots and revealing the true identity of HaMashiach (the Messiah)—Yeshua.
With your gift to this ministry, you are helping us develop the Free HEBREW Messianic Prophecy Bible Version that will be given to the Jewish People throughout Israel.
Moreover, we are developing free online software to help you and everyone around the world read the Messianic Prophecies and the whole Bible in Hebrew.
And hundreds of Bible Societies around the world will have our tools to translate the Hebrew Scriptures into their own languages.
"For I am ready to set things right, not in the distant future, but right now!  I am ready to save Jerusalem and show My glory to Israel."  (Isaiah 46:13)


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