The Torah Network

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031725
WORD FOR TODAY ” how do you honor YEHOVAH?”: Exo 35:2 On six days work is to be done, but the seventh day is to be a holy day for you, a Shabbat of complete rest in honor of Adonai. Whoever does any work on it is to be put to death.

WISDOM FOR TODAY: Pro 19:5 A false witness will not go unpunished; whoever breathes out lies will not escape.

www.BGMCTV.org

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"Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her."

Re 18

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Thought for Today: Monday March 17

Living in dependence on YHVH, is the way to enjoy abundant life. You are learning to appreciate tough times, because they amplify your awareness of YHVH’s Presence. Tasks that you used to dread, will become rich opportunities to enjoy His closeness. When you feel tired, you will remember that He is your Strength and thus will enable you to find pleasure leaning on Him. YHVH will be pleased by your tendency to turn to Him more and more frequently, especially when you are alone. When you are with people, you can often lose sight of His Presence. People, TV, music and social media can be a distraction and when you experience this, just whisper His Name – This tiny act of trust, will bring Elohiym to the forefront of your consciousness, where He belongs.

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Hebrew as a language

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I had an interesting question for ChatGPT this morning and would like to hear if this is your understanding as well. I had to cut out about 2/3 of the complete reply, so let me know if I should include the rest.

My question: "I always thought that Hebrew was spoken all the ages, but was recently told that the language had to be "reinvented" or rather reinterpreted over the the past 200 years as the pronunciation was forgotten over the middle ages. Is that correct and which Rabbi started the process?"

ChatGPT replied:

"Yes, that's mostly correct! Hebrew, while always preserved as a liturgical and scholarly language, was not a spoken, everyday language for nearly 1,700 years. Instead, Jews across the world spoke local languages like Yiddish, Ladino, or Arabic dialects, while Hebrew was primarily used for prayer, religious study, and legal texts.

Reinvention of Hebrew as a Spoken Language -

The revival of Hebrew as a modern spoken language happened in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, primarily through the work of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (1858–1922). He is often called the "Father of Modern Hebrew."

What Happened to Hebrew Before Then? -

- After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD, Hebrew began to fade as a daily spoken language.
- It remained in Jewish religious texts, prayers, and scholarship but was not commonly used in conversation.
- Over time, pronunciation was influenced by local languages (e.g., Sephardic Jews pronounced Hebrew differently from Ashkenazi Jews).

How Did Ben-Yehuda Revive Hebrew? -

- He standardized grammar and vocabulary to make it functional for modern life.
- He compiled a Hebrew dictionary (including thousands of new words).
- He raised his own son, Itamar Ben-Avi, as the first modern native Hebrew speaker.

He pushed for Hebrew to be the national language of Jewish settlers in Palestine, replacing Yiddish and other languages.
Today, Modern Hebrew is the official language of Israel and spoken by millions. However, some pronunciation differences remain between Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Mizrahi Jews.

Final Thoughts -

Modern Hebrew is 95% understandable if you know Biblical Hebrew, but it sounds different, uses simpler grammar, and has new words. However, most religious Hebrew speakers today (especially in Israel) can still understand Biblical Hebrew, as it’s used in Torah readings, prayers, and traditional texts."

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One afterthought, how can anyone claim to know the "holy pronunciation" of Father's name if the language was unspoken for over a thousand years? Even if it is just lost for one generation then the pronunciation would have had to been reimagined as no one would have been able to hear the original pronunciation. ?

If no one was there who spoke English and these three words were in a sentence (read, read, red) then how would the reader know how to pronounce it if they have never heard it spoken?

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Yes! This is the link to the section where he talks about the high priests head band: https://lexundria.com/j_bj/5.235/wst

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I disagree. We know the tetragrammatron consists of four consonantal vowels between Scripture and Josephus. Many people try to say the masoretic manuscripts filled in the vowels between consonants with adonai vowels. This proves that theory wrong. Adonai must have been a substitution for The Name in those texts. We do know how to pronounce these four consonantal vowels. I have not heard disagreement on the pronunciation of them AS VOWELS, only as consonants (i.e. waw/vav). Vav is eliminated as a posibility here because it has no vowel sound, unlike waw. These things were never lost, just barely mentioned. Did you know that when the rabbi who, for lack of a better word, created modern hebrew couldnt decide on how to pronounce waw/vav they took a vote and vav won. This is why modern hebrew is so different from biblical hebrew: the majority won. As is pictured in Scripture, majority rarely rules with Yah.

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The same God who made the butterfly made the deep sea gulper eel.

You don't have to personally prefer it, but you do have to acknowledge that, as the Bible says, it is objectively very good.

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Here's First Fruits Ministries sermon for the Sabbath on 3/15/2025, called "Purim 2025: Five Key Characters:"

YouTube:

If you missed this sermon or any other part of our most-recent sermon series, please be sure to watch.

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I just posted lesson 7 in the Common Sense Bible Study Essentials course at https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com.

Lesson 1: Preparing your environment and choosing your Bible.
Lesson 2: References and Mindset
Lesson 3: Why study the Bible?
Lesson 4: First Steps
Lesson 5: Intro to the Inductive Method
Lesson 6: Seven Principles of Hermeneutics
Lesson 7: The Inductive Method
Lesson 8: Common Bible Study Traps (in progress)
Lesson 9: ?

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Instructions for the Sabbath and the Tabernacle are linked because they both remove God's people from the world: one in time (Sabbath) and the other in space (Tabernacle). Like the weekly Sabbath, God's Tabernacle was a place set apart from all other places. It restored us to health, happiness, and God's presence, while uniting us as a community.

The commands about the #sabbath and #tabernacle both concern the building of a house: With the Sabbath, we commemorate God building a very big house for us. With the Tabernacle, we build a very small house for God.

#exodus 35:1
#vayakhel