The Fascinating Secret Behind Hebrew Letters
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- Опубліковано 5 чер 2024
- Hebrew doesn't work like any other language on Earth.
Every letter of the Hebrew alphabet has a unique meaning, and this allows speakers to piece together words in a way that resembles the chemical language, where symbols directly represent substances. In this video, we explore the fascinating world of Hebrew letter meanings and how they can help us understand the essence of words.
For example, the letter bet means a house, and this can be seen in words like "bayit" (house) and "beit knesset" (synagogue, literally "house of assembly"). Similarly, the letter nun means a seed, and this can be seen in words like "netzer" (shoot, sprout) and "gan" (garden).
This unique feature of the Hebrew alphabet has fascinated scholars and speakers for centuries, and it continues to be a rich source of exploration and discovery.
Sometimes I forget that the concept of the alphabet was invented by the Canaanite people. Most other written language forms were pictographic at the time (i.e. to represent a man, you draw a stick figure of a man). But when the Canaanites developed the alphabet, they created a more abstract system that used individual letters to represent sounds. However, because the Hebrew language evolved from this more visual form of communication, it maintained some aspects of the pictographic writing system. This means that the Hebrew letters not only represent sounds, but also carry deeper meanings and symbolisms. In contrast, when the Greeks and Romans later adopted the technology of the alphabet, they removed many of these dimensions, reducing it to a simple system of arbitrary symbols that represent arbitrary sounds.
Whether you're a language lover, a student of Hebrew, or just curious about the world around you, this video is sure to spark your imagination and leave you with a deeper appreciation for the beauty and complexity of language. I will say, I don't think that every single word in modern Hebrew can be broken down and analyzed using these techniques, but this concept does at least exist as a poetic ideal of the language; that you should be able to look at the symbols of word and understand the substance.
Full Lecture from Rabbi Mordechai Kraft (@EMETOutreach )
"The Hebrew Language the DNA of Creation"
• Secrets Of Hebrew Lang...
00:00 - Nylon: How English Names Work
01:10 - The Premise of Hebrew
01:28 - Aleph
02:10 - Bet
04:04 - The Chemical Language
05:08 - Genesis 1
06:09 - Examples
07:23 - Obsessed with Names
I bought a book about 20 years ago that taught how to read and write and understand the ancient Hebrew alphabet. I wanted to learn this so I could better understand the OT. I’ve never used it but it still sits on my book shelf. I’ve made sure I brought it with me and I knew where it was every time I’ve moved. As a matter of fact, it’s no more than 10 feet away from where I sit now.
This video has inspired me to finally pick that book up and use it.
@trcmf
Do it. Start!
My first encounter with Hebrew was several years ago in a biblical lecture of Old Testament, and recently a sudden light inside has driven me, out of nowhere, to seek and learn the letters and to seriously start studying the Old Testament.
One thought inside my mind said to me that it's going to be too complicated and stop before starting, and right after this thought, another thought came into my heart and assured me I am watched over and start doing it because help will be granted. Immediately my heart felt joy of the second thought.
So....taking the courage to pray and start doing it!
Godspeed to you!
Oh nice! Chabad.org has a great free resource too called Letters of Light that does a great job at making each letter memorable.
@@_magnify Greatly appreciated.
Thank you !
What is the title of this book?
@@mariajjenkins I too would like to know
As a native Hebrew speaker (it is my first language), I am always fascinated by how the language is views from outsider point of views. I have to say, the video was quite well done! Despite some pronounciation differences (which is understandable), you have a lot of grasp on the language. Despite being a Hebrew speaker, I am still a modern speaker and am not fluent in the biblical language. Even though we read and learn it, biblical Hebrew and modern Hebrew are quite different in how they are wrriten, and even more so in how they are spoken. So although my knowledge isn't the best in this field, as I am not a religious person, I still have some small corrections:
The word for 'thing', 'davar' (דבר), and the word for 'word' aren't the same word. The word for 'word' is actually 'Mila' (מילה). The actual connection is between the word 'thing' and the word 'speaking/speak', which has a root of D.V.R (ד.ב.ר). A root, or 'shoresh' (שורש) in hebrew, is the base letter structure for different verbs. There are ways to use those letters and put vows before, after and between them to create new words with a collective meaning, like for example, the difference between passive and active un English. The connection is still interesting, for god spoke and thus created.
Another small thing, the Beten (בטן) is reffering to the stomach, more them to the womb. There is a different word for womb in hebrew, which is Rechem (רחם).
And when it comes to 'Et'... It is hard to explain to a non hebrew speaker because it's meaning and use is so unconscious at this point for me. It's a word that connects an act to it's reciever, I think would be the best way to explain it. In English, you might translate it to an 'a' or a 'the' before a word, like 'god created the sky'.
All in all, this was a very interesting, very well explained video! I hope my explanations are ok, I am still a teen and so lack some knowledge in the grammar area's of Hebrew, so bare that in mind and feel free to correct me😊
אחי עברית תנכית שונה, דבר יכול להיות גם מילה או משפט , למשל "דברי המלך", מילות המלך, וגם בטן יכול גם להיות מיוחס לרחם לדוגמא , "פרי בטנה".
@@rtg8709 תודה על התיקון😅 אני מניחה שדיברתי על המילים לפי המשמעות המודרנית הכי נפוצה שלהן.
@@rtg8709 אני עדיין לא מבין אבל כיצד אפשר לפרש את "בראשית ברא אלוהים את" בתור האלף-בית, הרי אפילו בשפה תנכית אם המילה "את" הייתה מיוחסת לשם עצם כשלעצמו אז המשפט לא היה תקין יותר.
A small correction for the small correction - Beten is belly, the word for stomach is Keiva (קיבה).
@@dennis1790זה מיסטיסיזם תנכי, התנך ידוע בזה שניתן לתת לו פרשנויות שמתנגשות אחת עם השנייה, זה הבסיס לתושב"ע.
One point: In the video, he says English nouns (or words generally) are random. That's no more or less true for Hebrew (or Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, any other language). All languages are simultaneously somewhat random sets of sounds for each word, yet also they have root meanings behind them which are carried over from earlier times, their ancestry in languages. House, in the example, goes back to a Germanic root word for a house, a building. Beth in Hebrew meaning a house or building also goes back to a Semitic language root. Take these further back, and some words are innovations at some point, and then develop meanings along the way, while others go very far back but may change meanings slightly or drastically over time. So In one sense, sure, they're random groups of sounds for a word, but in another, they typically go back for hundreds or even thousands of years. Occasionally, a new word becomes more popular for a given concept, so it takes over, or words may change meanings, split, or become rare and die out.
Exactly. The linguistics in this video are off, to say the least
It is less true for Hebrew for the reason explained.
It's not obvious in the "modern" (less than 2500 year old) square script, but the old letters look like the things they mean.
(He flashes a chart up which shows them).
So the written language, rather than being just phonetic (like Greek, etc) or just pictographic (like Chinese), is both.
A naturalistic hypothesis might be that a group of rather intelligent slaves made up a secret language (a conlang) to exchange messages among themselves, using a few hieroglyphics as a starting point.
So it looks intelligently designed because (like the banana) it was.
@@michaelmicek that's not really the case. The old Hebrew letters, called paleo-Hebrew, was borrowed from (and is nearly identical to) the Phoenician script. The letters look like the objects they were named after precisely because they were developed from a photographic script, viz. hieroglyphics. It's not a secret conlang (its simply a writing system, Hebrew and Canaanitic were languages long before the advent of writing), and it's not unique to Hebrew because the script wasnt even originally used for hebrew. Thus, the spelling of Hebrew words reveals no hidden meaning based on the letter shapes: hebrew words already meant what they did before writing came to record it, and the objects and shapes used to create the Phoenician script were completely arbitrary.
@@weirdlanguageguy Highly agree with you, as a native speaker, I felt that he barely any research. When he said about the supposed random creation of English words (which is wrong), I thought he would talk about how the Hebrew root system works. Well too bad that I expected he would actually do research.
Instead he went on about the connection between the letter and how it looks. While yes, it's true, he then starts connect it to the words themselves which at that point has crossed line from just not based on research but based on speculation that slightly related to reality to complete pseudo science not backed up by anything.
Proof of that is the wrong pronounciation and the wrong translations (for example, בטן means stomach but he translated it to womb somehow).
And the part where he starts talking about את is where it's only random rambling, because את is the definite object marker and has no equivalent to English and because of it shouldn't be translated, and it got absouletly nothing to do with א to ת.
Anyways, it feels like the video was either made out of speculations or out of unreliable sources (considering that in the video appears a rabbi who isn't neccesary an actual Hebrew speaker, I wouldn't be surprised why the video is so inaccurate)
@@user-wc5mg5wc4k good to hear a native speaker confirm this! Esoteric pseudolinguistics has unfortunately been a mainstay in certain religious circles for centuries.
Let me explain as a native Hebrew speaker, "את" is a preposition with no direct English translation. In the Bible it is mainly used as a Definiteness , so the closest translation is the word "the", in modern Hebrew it can still be used for that, but it usually appears together with " ה"א הידיעה " (He of Definiteness).
Today the word "את" usually appears as an inflection and its meaning is "with"
Three comments. 1. In biblical hebrew it sometimes means "with", as in "ויתהלך חנוך את האלקים" (Hanoch walked with G-d). 2. It usually appears the definite article heh, not just in modern Hebrew but in biblical Hebrew as well, and 3. Biblical exegetists find additonal meaning in its inclusion, treating it as not absolutely mandated by grammar, therefore included to hint that there is an additional case included not explicitly mentioned in the text. For example "כבד את אביך ואת אמך" (Honor your father and mother) uses the construct, thus implying that there is someone else not explicitly mentioned who should also be honored (taken to be older brother, for example).
@@tesilab994 So I will start with the third claim, first of all you wrote "עת" which means "time" and this is not true both in Exodus and in Deuteronomy it says "את" with א' so check your spelling. As I wrote, "את" is a word that indicates known and comes with the known God, but your father and your mother are already known words in Hebrew because they come with an inflection, like in English you don't say the -your father or the -your mother, so "את" comes alone without ה' (=the)
I honestly can't understand the second claim, maybe it's a translation gap.
Regarding the first claim, yes "את" without an inflection can be used to denote the word "with" , but this usually only happens with names in modern Hebrew because that's how it was used in the Bible. I didn't mention it because in the examples in the video he tried to prove that "את" is not translated
It's a definite direct object marker
@@tzvi7989 also indicating accusative case then (someone else said this)? In German you would use a specifically changed article to indicate the direct object: for many words that might be "den"
@@moonhunter9993 yeah but only in that way
Well the word את (et) is actually a very common word in the Hebrew language, the reason why it's not translated in the bible because it is a function word that had no English parallel, what it basically means is quite hard to explain to a non Hebrew speaker but basically if you want to say that you're doing a certain action to someone then for example if I say that I love a specific person called Max
Then in English I would simply say "I love max" but in Hebrew you'd say "Ani ohev et Max)
Translating that sentence word for word
To English it would be
Ani = I ohev=love et=? Max
So you can't just say
Ani ohev max
You must add that word et
So in the example we have in the bible
When it says that "god created the heavens and the earth then in Hebrew you have to add that word את in order to make that accurate grammatically speaking
Yes, it means specifically. Learned this in Ulpon. Never-the-less it has an alternate meaning here of aleph to tov.
have you understood what he meant when he said God created the Alphabet in the very first sentence? 'Cause to what i can see, we don't ignore the word, we may not translate the word but we translate the sense (which is part of translation, as word-for-word would get confusing).
B:rešhit bara AElohim et HaŠhamajim w:et HaAraez
i don't see where there is an Alphabet here? Why then just here, if - i just guess - et is one of the most frequent words in the old testament and i'm sure there are similiar usages here...
Yep, good explanation. In addition to the grammatical function you were describing here, many rabbis teach that את also serves a ceremonial function.
accusative case
🤦♂️
Right, saying that את (et) has a meaning is like saying Japanese は (wa)/が (ga) and Hawaiian 'o have meaning too.
3:44 "This language sometimes, man-"
Truer words were never spoken
Thank you for making this, this really is such a beautiful video and language. I debated with trying to learn Hebrew for a long while (since I'm an American with NO ties to Judaism or Hebrew), but I'm finally taking the plunge. After all, life is short and learning is fun, might as well make the most of our time here
Yaaaa, go for it!
Learn biblical Hebrew, not the constructed language invented by Zionists.
by learning a language that reads from right to left, you boost your IQ by at least ten points.. worth it
Boosting the iq by 001 🤣
you should learn Hebrew! as a native Hebrew speaker I can confirm this is a really cool language, for example this video and my opinion. in Hebrew there are many words that are some way connected but have a different meaning, so once you know one word and learn another you can see the resemblance between them. for example; "צדק" (tsedek) means right/justice, and "צדקה" (tsdaka) means charity. it has similar pronunciation and meaning because "tsdaka" is like saying "justice for ___". that's just something I've noticed (:
i’m a jew and i’m disappointed i never knew, hilarious watching you mispronounce our words tho, keep up the good work 👍
Same
As with 99% of English words being mispronounced by Americans I’m at the point where it’s an accent at this stage.
Like with names of F1 drivers, or the famous “apartheid” that they pronounce as “ay-paart-hide” rather than “ah-parrt-hade”
@@TinyFord1 apartheid is a myth 🇮🇱💙🤍
As a native Hebrew speaker I believe Hebrew is so fascinating, it’s the only language to die then get practically resurrected
As a Hebrew speaker, I must say that the word את (et) is a utalitarian word - it denotes the object of the sentence (a few other words can do this depending on the verb, but it is the most neutral one, as it does not have any meaning outside of that, unlike the others). It is untranslated because it is not necessary in nost languages, as the object is understood through the order of the words in the sentence or by changing the pronounciation of the word. All that is not to say it is impossible that it does represent more, I'm not a biblical scholar, but the word את is so common (and necessary for the sentence to make sense: בראשית ברא אלוהים השמיים והארץ is a nonsensical sentence) I don't believe it has a deeper meaning in this occurrence.
This is not biblical scholarly, this is jewish mysticism, and makes less sense when you look at it more closely...
Famous example, te hebrew verb לספר means both to tell a story and to cut hair (the initial lamed just means “to“). There is no explanation whatsoever as to why that is...
@@adrianblake8876, you mean you haven’t found an explanation? Have you ever been in a barbershop or beauty salon?
@@seanvogel8067 the one which the barber gossips!? Heard about it, but it's like "the ear gives balance“, a folk etymology at best...
Actually, the example you gave might be grammatically correct and bare the same meaning as with "et". I say might because it is still debated among scholars if "et" is necessary. Israel's first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, had a public stance against using "et", like he had nothing more urgent to deal with.
@@eladthehatter I mean, sure? Technically? But not really, and that is not a commonly used sentence structure in the Bible at all. But, again, I don't hold strong opinions about this, I think it's a nice idea and is enjoyable, even if I don't think it's true per say
You’re the Vsauce of language
Please make a million more videos. Absolutely astounded by both the information and the delivery. You are fantastic at this. I'll be watching.
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et is the direct object marker, which exists in many languages such as japanese (wo). In a sense it is translated every single time; its just that instead of translating it into a word, its translated into syntax.
Funny thing is it says so on the screen when he shows the table...
DirObjM (5:10 in blue)
@Adrian Blake he does but i still don't like the way the video is framed
@@whatno5090 It's introducing jewish mysticism, which has many plot holes. He explained “b“ means “in“ because the letter means “house“, but if the letter “l“ means royalty and “g“ means giving, why is “l“ the preposion of “to“ and not “g“?
And it doesn't explain unrelated homonyms or basic root word. (the etymology of garden in hebrew js that it comes from the word “protect“, not that it's a combo of letters “give seed"...
The Aleph Tav את isn’t just a thing. The Aleph Tav את is very very important for us. Yahawahshi HaMashiach את is the ET את. Proper name meaning or just proper names period are very very important to know whom we are referring to, taking to or about. Respect for the name is the up most important. “If are MADE in HIS image then CALL US BY OUR NAME!” Ericka Badu
@@adrianblake8876Good points.
Naming something carries the meaning of having authority (dominion) over it. So by speaking it into being, this shows God’s dominion over all of creation ❤
I really like this introduction to the Hebrew language! Thank you, it’s inspired me to learn more.
That's also why people, after medieval times, started adding middle names tho their kids. The middle name was kinda of a secret , and nobody would tell their middle names to untrustworthy people because it meant they could be cursed by the person who knew their whole name.
That's also why when you watch a movie about possession, the prist will command the demon to say it's name and submit to the will of the prist, a representative of God on earth.
Hmm yes naming something is sort of an ownership thing. In this way you get to choose something about something else.
and it also shows our dominion over all living creatures, given God Himself told us to name them all.
And it just solidifies me that we imagined this authorship since we made language.
Is that why we don't know God's true name?
Chinese has similar connotations because it is based on pictures from reality. It’s perhaps the first writing technique to transcend dialects and languages.
Hieroglyphs are the same, tho, and where the Hebrew letters originated (hence the meaning of each letter). It's a bit like Japanese letters coming from Chinese characters (or hieroglyphs). It would have been interesting, if hieroglyphs had been kept in the West, too. Apparently they were considered too difficult (plus holy) for the average person, which is how "demotic" (people) scripts developed. A bit like Korean characters.
So I'd say what's really special about China isn't so much that it came up with hieroglyphs (like the Egyptians or the Maya), but that apparently a large enough portion of the population learned to read them to make their continued use feasible. And have it spread across a wider area. And lo and behold, the nations that adopted Chinese characters are still among the most educated in the world. Personally, that amazes me even more. 🙂☝️
@@simonspethmann8086 It's been suggested that the western alphabet, i.e. Latin alphabet, especially with the English language allowed for so much abstraction that it caused or allowed for more innovation. Some say this is why the west is more inventive and innovative than the eastern cultures that use pictograms.
@@jakeaurodSuggested by whom? As someone who knows both languages, that sounds ridiculous.
Reminds me of Japanese Kanji. 春秋 (Shinjuu) means “year/age”, and is made up of the kanji for “spring/prime/puberty” and “Autumn/season/time”
but then there's the ateji
"i like to eat longevity-administer"
Japanese Kanji are a subset of Chinese characters, the Chinese invented most of them
@@notwithouttext why are you everywhere lol
@@brighthades5968 intersection of videos you watch and videos i comment on has population of at least 3
only difference is each of those actually have meaning, whereas this is just looking too far into coincedences
I attended Biblical Hebrew classes for several years back in the 1990s and we were privileged to have for our teacher a Methodist lay preacher who had learnt Semitic languages from a Rabbi. When he felt that our brains were beginning to hurt, wrestling with the very different concepts of Hebrew grammar as compared with English during the class, he would get us to put down our books and give us a "Bible bit" - little gems and insights from his Rabbi teacher. Since that time I have been fascinated by the Hebrew language and the significance of the individual letters and have several books on the subject, some by Jews and others by Gentile Christians. There are so many wonderful insights to be discovered and I feel that I have only begun to scratch the surface! This video was a joy, and I hope it encourages people to dig deeper into this fascinating subject so that they can be blessed as I have been. Thank you so much!
The letters are also very beautiful to look at. I have often incorporated them into my art as they lend themselves so well to calligraphy and embroidery.
The Lord has given me so many insights into His character and His Word through a study of Hebrew, and I am so grateful for the privilege of having the opportunity to study, and also to share what I have learnt with others.
This was wonderfully edited! Great video fr
This feature exists in all ancient languages which are still read / written so it is not unique to Hebrew. Example Chinese and Sanskrit (ancient Indian language ) . This shows languages started with associating sounds with particular objects and they became kind of basic “root words” . Eventually we used combinations of these “root words” to describe other things. Later on people started using words from other languages for things which were new to them but known to natives. This caused us we lose consistency of root words as different languages had different root words.
Its basically how modern German is structured, excluding its phonetic alphabet. Its a bundle of small words stacked into almost sentences to form compound words which describe an object- obviously quite different than Hebrew and the languages you've mentioned here, but still has that modular characteristic of words being almost their own simple sentences withing sentences. It seems appears missing in most other languages today.
During the video, i remembered how my teachers taught us the alphabet using these meanings. but, i forgot about them quickly, and never thought about them again.
But you helped these memories resurface, and, with your explanation about words, which i haven't heard previously, helped me appreciate my native language in ways i didn't think about before.
Thank you! I love your work!
Alef🏕 beit🏘 gimel 🐫
You should do more long videos.
Thankyou for simplifying Something I've tried explaining to others. More of these videos would be great. I love learning about the kabballah for the indepth discussion on words, too.
Hey, thanks for the encouragement 🙏 Thinking about doing a series of 22 videos on each individual letter!
@@_magnify You should do it man.
Im so happy you all see the beauty of the holy language! As an Orthodox Jew, it really pleases me to find so many of you interested in these special letters
I really wish you did more long form content like this. Your shorts are absolutely fascinating, but I would love to see you do more deep dives.
Beautiful video! I am learning Hebrew as an adult and you did such a good job communicating the poetry of the language and a sense of wonder. Thank you for that.
This is brilliant! So easy to grasp and wonderful to become enthralled in! Your tiktoks are always a joy to come across on my FYP!
Yay! Glad you found me here!
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and light unto my path. I've learned something recently. An anointed song doesn't depend on skill of your instrument. It depends on your prayer life.
Still you need to practise many many hours in order to express yourself musically. What you say sounds good poetically but everybody who has ever learned an instrument knows that a beginner could never play anything profound no matter what.
Best example I can come up with is that we have 0 histories of a violin player who sounded good from the beginning as far as I know
Absolutely.Amazing.True.
Very nice. This is so enlightening. Makes Hebrew more understandable and shows its mystical beauty. Thank you.
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New Favorite channel, you are a God send, and I like how your teaching and approach uses humor. Keeping doing your thing bro! Godspeed
About the letter Aleph, Jorge Luis Borges (argentinian writer) has a book and a short tale named "the aleph" where it explores infinite and actually is fantastic, I recommend it
In mathematics aleph is used to represent cardinality with infinite sets that can be well ordered. I would recommend looking up aleph numbers.
I've watched everything you have posted and i truely am blessed. Listening to and watching the things you have showed here makes me look at our father through new eyes and measures me love Him even more. What caught my eye though was the verse at the end of you videos and it's beautiful. It's something that many people forget and it's something that you show of your self in your work. It's subtle but it's there. Thank you for blessing me this Sunday morning.
Great video! I’ve heard all of this from scattered other sources, but never put together so clearly. Thanks!
Love your page! My spirit has been pulling me towards understanding Hebrew. Please keep sharing its so fruitful 🙏🏻🤍
What a beautiful thing. This really ties some loose ends for me. A professor of mine died and left us students his over 3000 books. I'm glad i took the little Tora he had. I want to read the original texts myself. Thank you!
What a good video. Thank you for this wisdom; some things I had never understood before suddenly clicked into place.
Love your videos, appreciate the community in the comments. I'm mostly here for your longform content, but I like the shorts, too
This is currently my favourite video and my favourite chanel. It's been a while since something THIS interesting poped up. Thank you!
Here from the tiktok wanting to learn more
Tik Tok and wanting to learn more doesn't even sound real in the same sentence 😂
If you are here from TikTok you will have to unlearn virtually everything.
Ah - that explains how he has so many subscribers with only 5 videos. Interesting stuff!
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@@PETERJOHN101 😂
I looooooooove it. Very easy to memorise and learn z awesome language of almighty Elohim.
Blessings and shalom.
Thank you
Seeing the shape of the ancient version of Tav at the 6:50 mark, and its meaning beside it is genuinely astonishing, I had no idea that was a thing. Nice video
I like your style of videos. Keep up the good work man.
This sounds a lot more like an interpretation of it after the fact. A lot of these word I presume go back to protoforms which sounded much different, and the idea of letters resembling things was for sure more practical and happenstange than "deeply meaningful" at first. For example, the alef is not silent, and the original pronounciation was indeed not silent either. It is possible or plausible that these connections could have altered the words (if for example the word for garden was gam, not gan, and the interpretation changed the latter letter), though even this I have a hard time seeing as something common.
As a historical linguist I think this is a fun "exercise" and a cool interpretation, but it isn't really how languages work scientifically. We rarely just "create" words like that, especially basic words such as father, garden, etc. In the case of father, it's quite clearly a Lullwort, a nursery word, containing simple consonants that children can easily make (compare any other language, usually showing something like bilabial plus a or vice versa). The kids didn't consider what alef would have signified or that a voiced bilabial plosive was written with a word that meant 'house' etc. I love your other content, but I think it's important to make it clear that this is an analysis made by Jewish scholars, most of which have probably historically been religious, and so would want for there to be a bigger meaning behind the letters used. I know it's a huge part of some Kabbalistic traditions, but religion and science isn't the same, and while it is fascinating that they can find meaning like that in the words, it is important to remember that that doesn't mean this is how words were "created".
Also, the word for word and thing is the same in many languages. It is not too special, but the semantic background for this I can't begin to get into here as I am a historical linguist first and foremost.
'et is not translated because it is a grammatical marker signifying a direct object (aka the accusative case), if I am not mistaken, which doesn't have an equivalent in English. I am not a Hebrew scholar so that explanation may be insufficient or imprecise, however 😊 In any case, a grammatical marker is not translated except for in meaning, and I bet Jewish scholars just read alef-tau as something like "a-z", as in, "In the beginning, god create a-z".
The concept of words = magic = creation etc., is also found far and wide, but that is not such a strange concept either, I think. It is found in Indo-European contexts and in Near-Eastern ones too, and I am not surprised if it also appears as far away as in Australia and the Americas, really.
I know you say it is a poetic idea briefly around 7 min in, but I feel like that is very important to stress, as a lot of people have a lot of wrong ideas about historical linguistics and natural language development 🥲
Finally found someone making sense in the comments! This video is based on pure religious interpretation and has no basis in actual linguistics. Aleph does not signify god, its origin is from the word for "bull", with the letter evolving from the likeness of a bull with horns. Two minutes of research will show you that fact. I am a native Hebrew speaker and I agree that this interpretation is very pleasing, but it is pure nonsense.
This is pretty cool, reminds me Chinese characters, which is basically the Hebrew alphabet but x500 so you have SUPER DEEP meaning.
I'm a huge fan of this channel, I've watched most of the shorts- please can we get more long for content, this is a fascinating channel!
this is exactly my kind of content, love your stuff so much 💜
its fascinating to me how Quranic Arabic (and the ones spoken now too i believe) and Hebrew have similar pronouncing of some letters like aleph/alif, bet/ba, kaf/kaaf, lamed/laam, mem/meem, nun/nuun, Qof too...
that's because they're both semitic languages
@@notwithouttext ikr, it's still cool
@@raatkikhoobsurti yeah, it's also cool that it relates to greek
'aleph -> alpha
bet -> beta
lamed -> lambda
as for qof that turned into koppa but then it was dropped from the greek alphabet because they didn't have the [q] sound
@@notwithouttext poor koppa, rip...
@@raatkikhoobsurti same with vav/waw -> wau -> digamma -> stigma, it disappeared
Great first video! Would be interested in more from you, such as kabbalistic explanations in Genesis (Bereishit).
You'll find many videos like this one, idiotic, even among some kabbalists jews or not jews. First know it is not kabbal but Qabbal, the Q and the Kof have not the same meaning. The Q means to Stand and the K the copy. Inside of QBL we have the etyma BL means to Reverse, so To Stand +To reverse = QBL means 'to put front something', and Qabbal. The double B inside the word is the factitive form of the verb. Nowdays in hebrew philosophy, Qabbala means to recieve, means you have to put yourself front the knowledge.
Omgosh!!!!! I have goose bumps!! I love this!!! I’m a devout Christian and will never look at my Bible the same way!!! It explains a question that I couldn’t understand if we came out of the dirt with it or how God showed us written knowledge!!! I’m so tickled right now. Thank u so much!
I'm amazed at the detail and effort you've put into this channel! Thanks so much for this interesting deep dive into the hebrew alphabet!
From what I know, Aleph was a glottal stop, which is a normal consonant, but in Ashkenazi Jewish communities, the letter became silent, marking a vowel initial word or a hiatus. A glottal stop is still a "silent letter", it's just a more intentionally silence, where you stop the air flow for a moment and release it again.
I had heard that for Ayin, but not Aleph.
@@_magnify Yeah, both sounds are "throaty" sounds and not common in western languages. Ayin I think would be a pharyngeal/epiglottal sound, and Aleph a glottal one, but in modern Israeli Hebrew both are pronounced more or less the same. Of course, all of this varies with language and dialect, since the semitic abjads being the oldest forms of alphabetic writing, their letters sounds have evolved and diverged for thousands of years.
I really love your videos, but I often notice mistakes in your translation of Hebrew words and in some of the information presented.
to name a few:
- Aleph isn't completely silent, and it is absolutely a consonant and has a pronunciation.
- Beten (בטן) means belly or stomach, rechem (רחם) is womb.
- Et (את) can't be translated because there is no grammatical need for it to exist in English (technically there is no *need* for it in Hebrew, it just makes sentences clearer, but still it has no meaning of its own, it's a direct object marker).
edit: i see you've responded to someone else about et being taught by rabbi's to have an alternative meaning, that's really interesting, tho I wonder if thise rabbi's are native Hebrew speakers or not. that sounds like an explanation for a lack of a translation more than a biblical analysis
כמובן שהם לא דוברים ילידיים, זה ברור מהמבטאות שלהם
Just found your channel and by looking at the substance, I love it already.
Amazing video!!!
Super captivating and excellent visuals and editing🔥
The aleph (at least historically) represents a glottal stop, and the name and symbol comes from Phoenician for ox. In modern Hebrew it might no longer be a consonant and only used to indicate a leading vowel or as a symbol to attach a vowel diacritic to.
The idea that all the letters are meaningful in themselves, is some form of mysticism. If aleph has an association with god or the divine that's a more recent association not something that the creator of Hebrew words though of since the original symbol was clearly an ox and it's name meant ox.
My learning was that ayin is a glottal stop, whereas aleph was silent, taking the sound of the vowel - which to me sounds more like a vowel place holder (for a leading vowel).
@@cigmorfil4101 probably varies in the different languages and dialects that use alphabets/abjads descended from the Phoenician. But from what I read ʼaleph was a glottal stop (the stop sound in "uh-oh") and `ayin was a glottal fricative (sounds more like straining if your language doesn't have this sound) in Phoenician.
@@cigmorfil4101 That's modern Hebrew pronunciation. Ancient Hebrew used aleph for glottal stop and ayin for pharyngeal approximant, similar to modern Arabic ayn.
Wow, beautiful explanations and insights
I study this topic since many years. He said only extravagant things, and he doesn't understand anything in linguistic and semitic languages. Find in internet how the semitic alphabet was created, and so, the latin one. But yes, each letter has their own meaning, but it doesn't appear in this video, expect fantaisy here.
This is my second video of yours to watch-great new channel! blessed by the videos. Subscribed!
Very entertaining your camera shots angles, presentation made it very enjoyable to watch. Thanks
Thank you for a Great video.
I learnt a lot and my primary language is Hebrew.
I just recently(last 2 years) got into kabala and pardes(mostly Maimonides), so I'll just remind that in the Hebrew tradition nothing is really what it seems. And while you can use cabalistic ideas on letters, they will be left as they are. Unchanged. With no meaning and all of the meaning at the same time(and for the bible opening my favorite explanation is that "inside the start, god created the up and the down"
this feels like folk etymologies, like how many people believe "chav" comes from "council housed and violent" whereas it just comes from the angloromani word "chavi/o"
funnily enough, the nylon example is a folk etymology
This is 100% folk etymology. The letters in Hebrew do come from actual words, but they're not necessarily the words he claims they are. For instance, א/alef isn't "god", but "ox". ב/bet is house. ג/gimel is camel, not garden. ד/dalet is door. And so on and so forth. As a natural language, Hebrew's words came about naturally. They were absolutely NOT the result of a process intended to symbolize the word's meaning through its constituent letters.
very interesting..
my first crash course in Hebrew language studies.
an easy to comprehend presentation for a non-speaker 👌🏼
So well taught! More videos on Hebrew like this please!!
For those interested in the meaning "את" have in spoken and written Hebrew today, "את" is a connection word like "of" or "to" in English, the meaning of "את" can be closely translated to "directly", so in Genesis 1:1 you can say "In the beginning God created directly the sky and the earth.". In English, the concept of "את" doesn't exist, but in Hebrew it makes sense, you use it when you want to talk about a direct instance of a thing, like "I want ice cream" will be translated to "אני רוצה גלידה" but "I want David's ice cream" will be translated to "אני רוצה את הגדליה של דוד", the "את" symbols that it's not a generic ice cream but a specific one, in this case, David's ice cream.
Makes sense since sky meets horizon.
It literally says it's a definite direct object marker in the video haha and other languages like Japanese have one too. The reason for it in Hebrew is because it used to be written VSO instead of the majority SVO syntax it is written in today. If you have a sentence like ויאכל המלך הכריך how are you going to know which is the subject and which is the object on first glance if you know nothing about the syntax noun order in the sentence?
(literally so the king the sandwich ate, because there's no marker for the direct definite object in that sentence)
And it seems to have become a grammatical feature of Hebrew early on during the first temple period
Beten is stomach or belly, womb in Hebrew is Rehem
רחם
Comes from the word "rahem" means to feel grace or mercy for someone.
Good info! Biblical Hebrew uses both. From a modern perspective it seems like בטן is used more for generally "abodomen/belly" and רחם specifically for the uterus, but I would need to look more into what the anatomical understanding was at the time.
@@_magnify
Its fascinating! Keep on the good work 🙂
Long format 'magnify' is the best! Thanks!
This is so cool ❤ Thank you so much for putting the effort and time into this video it is so well done
Truly thought provoking!
I'm half way through, and I have to point out that, somewhat ironically, another language whose words work by stacking meanings is German. Also English to some extent. Most of them, really.
Thank you for enlightening me about the Hebrew alphabet tho, I will look more into it, I'm quite intrigued.
Regarding the second half of the video, et is just the Hebrew language's direct object marker. We translate it in English with syntax (because we don't have a direct object marker) by changing "In the beginning created God the Heavens and the Earth" to "...God created the Heavens and the Earth". The idea that it represents the aleph bet is just a kabbalistic theory.
@@4rtie So like a conspiracy theory.
I watched all of it, and to be completely honest, the guy is a bit too smug for me to lend much credence to his words.
@@durere not really a conspiracy theory, just an interpretation that isn't nearly as certain as his confidence in presentation would lend you to believe.
@@4rtie Took it with a grain of salt anyway, if it were really so, it would shake the very foundation of how many people see the world, and I would find it hard to believe that it flew over so many heads so far. But I do like to entertain wild ideas.
@@durere in addition to this, the actual english translation of genesis 1:1 is "when God started/began to create the heavens and the earth" as opposed to in the beginning. The word "bereshit" is always mistranslated here. It does not mean in the beginning, it literally means at first. Grammatically speaking here it's also a dependent clause as it doesn't start with a verb. It starts with a prepositional adverb
subscribed! looking forward to more of your stuff!
This is really spot-on and great. Solid Hebrew speaker here and this UA-camr really did his homework- slow clap.
We LOVE your content and your teaching method. PLEASE - PLEASE - teach us more Hebrew 🙏
But א DOES have a pronunciation. It's a consonant, a glottal stop. Say "uh oh" and it's the sound between. We just don't write it in English. Now, it becomes a mater lectionis when it takes vowels after other consonants, so then it is "silent" in a sense. But originally, it's a glottal stop.
7/24/23 I am glad I found the video part instead of just the shorts, very much enjoyable! I am in awe with the learning of the language.
The Hebrew את has as much meaning as English’s “the” or “a”. It’s just a preposition, specifically an accusative preposition. It’s used to signify the object of the sentence/ recipient of a verb.
English "the" and "a" distinguish between a specific "the" and a general "a" thing.
I really enjoy your longer format videos. I think I'm getting closer to God's truth by studying the original language. You're making it fun.
God revealed the Torah and the Quran, don't do the mistake of ignoring the Quran just because it's usually associated with an "enemy" culture
This has been one of the most interesting videos I have ever seen on YT. I find languages very interesting and speak a few of them, but I never really came into contact with Hebrew. Connecting the world with the alphabet in this way is a beautiful and elegant way of looking at what is. Thanks, I am really intrigued now to learn more.
I think this is probably the best video I've ever see on YT. Thank you!
Amazing video/tutorial. Instantly subbed. Eagerly waiting for yuh ta post more....For me , too much about GOD seems just right. Thank you for sharing. Peace.
Glad to see you linked to the original video.
Interesting stuff the Hebrew Language.
The Word for Father is "Abba" or Alef Bet
The Word for Son is "Ben"
Bet Nun
When you combine them Father and Son as one "Alef Bet Nun" you have "Stone"
Jesus said "I and the Father are One"
The Stone the builders rejected has become the Cornerstone.
Stone=Father and Son as One
That's not how numerology works tho
What a GREAT video and content. Many curiosities I've never heard of, I'm in awe 🤯. Congratulations, mate. Your videos are simply amazing!
Linguistically, the reason "את" doesn't have a direct translation is because it's a direct object marker, a linguistic feature we don't have in English. It would be like trying to translate our indefinite articles "a" and "an" into Hebrew; it's a grammatical feature they don't have, so it wouldn't have a direct translation.
That is not true given there are many places in the Tanakh where a direct object pointer should have been used and it is not or where it ought not be used and it is. The great scholars of the past were leaning to the et as having divine significance. It all changed when the southern kingdom living in Jerusalem killed the suffering servant of Isaiah 52
This is so beautiful it made me cry!!!! I’m studying (informally) Hebrew for months now. This gives back the feeling of wonder to the language of God that I had at the beginning. In the past few days everything feels like a task. Now I am just in awe of how sovereign God is. Amma search for that song at the end now
As a Hebrew speaker even I didn’t know that!
This is the best channel on youtube. What a gem
ALEPH is not silent he is yelling all night
It is unless it has a nekudah which is what give it different sounds
Thank you so much for this video!. The eternal bless your effort, seriously. I'm amaze of how majestic is this language.
I'm starting in the learn of hebrew, with the urge to know what about the TRUE god in the bible. I barely survived to the disturbing madness in JW sect, But what I've learn about Elohim has been healing all my wounds slowly . This video is fresh water man!.
This channel makes me very happy. God bless you, brother
I wish this video was longer!!! Great stuff
1:36 Aleph isn’t the only letter that’s not a vowel or consonant, the other one is ayin ע
It is very inaccurate to say that either of these letters are neither consonants nor vowels. Aleph, like all other letters in the Hebrew writing system (therefore classifying it as an Abjad), is a consonant called a glottal stop (written in IPA as [ʔ]), which is like the stop sound you make when saying the word "uh-oh". It is also what's known as matres lectionis, meaning it can indicate a certain vowel. For example, it may sometimes indicate that a longer vowel is pronounced or that there is a diphthong. Ayin historically made the [ʕ] sound, which doesn't exist in English, but does exist in Arabic. Some dialects still use this sound such as Mizrahi, Sephardi, and Samaritan, but it is mostly merged with Aleph in Modern Standard Israeli Hebrew
There is another word that the English language has no translation to and it’s ברא which in English means Created but in English it is only created from something which we all are creating from something and in the Hebrew word ברא it’s meant Created from nothing which no one can do but אלוהים God.
Nice video.
God Bless🙌💪🙌
As in abracadabra: more or less "I will create according to His word". Not Hebrew, but Aramaic, its near relation.
@@chanaheszter168 Fascinating!
Thank you for honoring Hebrew so nicely in your unique way. THe study of gematria is fascinating as well - every letter also has a specific numerical value.
What an amazing phenomenon,
amazing video,
amazing channel,
amazing man!
✨
Sooo gladI found you; can't tell it enough..
❤
And He is present in all things
The semitic letter for Present is the Y, and related withe the Will, this is why ElohYm and YaD hand.
I am a lover of foreign languages and I speak two, besides my native one. I have learned two more but I have forgotten both. As a lover of languages, I ache to be able to learn Hebrew, for three reasons; one is for ability itself, the other is because of my Hebrew ancestry, and the third, and more important one, to be able to read the Bible win Hebrew. I have the feeling I am never going to be smart enough to become proficient in a language that belongs to my people, the language spoken by our Eternal Father, through revelation to the Jews.
Beautifully explained ❤❤❤
Very well presented. Leaving me wanting more...
Hey, native Hebrew speaker here . I obviously know this story from childhood, and it indeed is cute and uplifting with lots of intriguing examples. However, most often it doesn't work, and you'll need lots of mental acrobatics to maintain it. Once you learn a bit about the development of Semitic languages it kind of falls apart entirely. Still a cool language though.
This really is neither how Hebrew works, nor how english works regarding its' naming of things. For example, in Hebrew, you claim that most words relating to god begin with aleph, but the personal name of god begins with yod. On the other hand, while words in english can mean anything (as they can in any language), you in fact find many patterns. Yes we could have invented the term 'thalickor' for the idea that the earth moved round the sun, but in fact we came up with the word 'heliocentrism', with helio- meaning sun from the greek we so often draw on. No language is entirely logical in the way it derives new words, but nor are there any that are to my knowledge entirely illogical. I defy you to find any rule designating a single role to a single consonant in hebrew that does not have some serious flaws.
Good thoughts! I definitely wouldn't say it is a precise rule. However, there does seem to be a culture of commonly known connotations surrounding individual Hebrew letters in a way that does not exist in the English alphabet. Are you familiar with the Bouba/Kiki Effect?
@@_magnify I am very familiar with the effect. While I am not sure that I know what you would wish to argue from it, I would beg you first to look at Japanese sound symbolism and onomatopoeia. If there are universal patterns, the Japanese have mastered them.
I would say however, that the aura surrounding Hebrew specifically likely emerged with mystical speculation attempting to force connections that don't in fact exist. We should note that the idea that writing held mystical properties emerges in Egypt very much earlier. The idea may well have filtered down. I would argue that if we in english chose to do so we could find just as many connections between letters and meaning as in Hebrew.
@@freddypowell7292 I need to get more into Japanese! I tend to agree with you about Hebrew. There is definitely an impulse in Midrashic Teachers to find, or even force connections. Although then, I think it is interesting to ask what it is about Jewish philosophy that inspired Hebrew teachers to be interested in the character of individual letters, while English poets have not been traditionally interested in that dimension of language.
@@_magnify As I say, the influences are not hard to find. Egypt is probably the start of it, placed alongside various later mystical speculations, whereas in english, we are using a foreign writing system anyway, shared across Europe, and because there was never any conception that English might have been the language used to speak the world into creation. Remember that for the great portion of the history of the english language, the holy texts of the majority of english speakers had to be translated. It is possible that the Lord might have spoken Hebrew, but it seems no less likely to me that Hebrew has a connection only by coincidence, and that he could have spoken any language he wanted. There were claims that latin was the perfect language, or that French was.
@@freddypowell7292 thanks for the thoughts! Just curious, what’s your background in? Seems like you know a good amount about a couple different fields.
I was interested to learn Hebrew now you made me more into it
Please make more videos where you go more in depth about teaching Hebrew🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽 I like your style!
"a little learning is a dangerous thing"
People, please don't just take this guy's word for stuff, ive seen many of his tik tok videos that are not very accurate.
A few corrections: first, the letter don't have meaning. In Kabbalah - Jewish mysticism, the letters have meaning. In the language itself, and for most Jews and Hebrew speaker, the letters don't have meaning. Also, for 1:31, א does have a sound - a glottal stop. It's a sound you don't have in English. Another thing: את (et) is a preposition. It specifies what you are talking about and is a past of Hebrew grammar.