I started a new online Hebrew class for the summer, and my new Hebrew teacher is down to earth and clear and friendly, so I am hopeful that the class will be good and productive. But this is going to be my last Hebrew class for a while, because it’s expensive, and with another oral surgery coming up, and the pause on student loan debt repayment ending in August, I need to keep costs down; but also, I feel like I can’t focus on the classes during the school year anymore. I need more rest days, in order to recover from my work days, or else I won’t be able to work much longer.
I still love learning Hebrew, and I’m hoping that this last class will give me more confidence to continue learning new vocabulary on my own. Maybe I’ll even start writing in Hebrew and see how my voice translates.
Writing in Hebrew is one of the few things we haven’t worked on in these classes from Tel Aviv, where the focus is on conversation skills and reading newspapers and watching TV. I think I would write poetry in Hebrew, because the language is so conducive to poetry, with all of the rhyming words and onomatopoeia and the leanness of the language overall. I gave up on writing poetry in English after too many discouraging teachers telling me to write like someone else, but maybe with Hebrew I could start again with a blank slate.
I still want to become fluent in Hebrew, but I think if I take more classes I’d like to move towards Jewish learning in general, rather than Hebrew in particular. The focus in these classes has been on how Hebrew is spoken in Tel Aviv, with very little discussion of things that are recognizably Jewish, rather than Israeli. For me, Hebrew and Judaism are deeply intertwined, but Modern Hebrew has become a secular language, used for every mundane and profound purpose in daily life in Israel, and it feels like, as a result, some of the meaning has been stripped away.
I still want to learn more vocabulary, but I wonder if the words I really want to understand are the ones in the Hebrew Bible, or in the prayers, so that I don’t have to rely on someone else to tell me what they mean. I don’t want to lose sight of Modern Hebrew, and the way it has embraced so many different cultures and absorbed words from Arabic and English and French and Russian and more, I just want to re-invest in the connection to the past, where it all comes from.
I’m still not sure where all of this learning and exploring will take me, or how, or if, I will make use of it in my writing or my teaching, but sometimes learning is worth the effort just for its own sake, for the way it challenges our perceptions and widens our vision of the world and ourselves.
And maybe next summer, or when/if I start feeling better and have more energy, it will lead me to something more.
If you haven’t had a chance yet, please check out my Young Adult novel, Yeshiva Girl, on Amazon. And if you feel called to write a review of the book, on Amazon, or anywhere else, I’d be honored.
Yeshiva Girl is about a Jewish teenager on Long Island, named Isabel, though her father calls her Jezebel. Her father has been accused of inappropriate sexual behavior with one of his students, which he denies, but Izzy implicitly believes it’s true. As a result of his problems, her father sends her to a co-ed Orthodox yeshiva for tenth grade, out of the blue, and Izzy and her mother can’t figure out how to prevent it. At Yeshiva, though, Izzy finds that religious people are much more complicated than she had expected. Some, like her father, may use religion as a place to hide, but others search for and find comfort, and community, and even enlightenment. The question is, what will Izzy find?
rachelmankowitz 
Love the photo of you with the dogs.
Thank you!
In grade school, I remember starting at the Educator brand tablets we were given and memorizing the words on the front. “Learning maketh a man fit company for himself.” Sometimes that is the only reason we need.
Agreed.
Ditto
I like the idea of creating poetry in Hebrew. It would certainly have spiritual roots.
I hope I can do it!
I’m sure you will.
Oh yes, maybe with Hebrew you can start again with a blank slate… and begin using your chosen language creatively without the English hang-ups! Go for it!!! Oh, and I love the concept of finding ways to use Hebrew anomatopoeia!
Thank you!
Great to study and have your dogs with you ❤️
I think you might really enjoy writing poetry in Hebrew, merging your creative side and your love of the language. Good luck!
Thank you!
Ya know I kinda hope you pursue the written form.
💐👍
I’m sure you can find free resources to achieve your aims
I hope you achieve what you want and need to achieve. There are so many other factors going on. I think it’s marvellous that you’re continuing to learn.
Thank you!
Learning is good! I kind of understand your wanting to go back to the old Hebrew, though. Good luck with your pursuits!
Thank you!
You look so cute with the dogs! I love that picture!
Thank you!
Your cute doggies seem to be great study companions – how is their Hebrew coming along?
They’re fluent! Much better than me.
🙂
Blessings, lady, and dogs!!
Creation began before people, nations, languages, and religions.
And it will end, despite them.
Much energy, my friend!
Learning Hebrew because you’re interested, or anything else for that matter, rather than because it is required for school is very different. I’m sure you’ll get there because you want to make it happen! Cute picture with the pups.
Thank you!
Great photo of you with the dogs. Good luck with the language lessons.
Thank you!
I love the idea of you writing poems in Hebrew. I also am saddened that your own teachers tried to make you write English poems like someone else. You have a unique voice with poems(in Hebrew of English) just waiting for you to put them on paper.
Thank you!
So glad to be back in the loop with reading. You are really amazing to continue this study. Sounds like writing in Hebrew could be freeing.
I hope so!
Woof! That’s a lot to learn!
Such cute dogs! I am so impressed that you are learning Hebrew!
Thank you!
Learning is never wasted and Hebrew sounds fascinating.
Thank you!