[Faith-talk] Learning Hebrew

[Drenth, Joe]

Hello Stefan and list,

My reason for asking for the raised-line drawings of the alphabets is to
be able to learn the true shapes of the characters along with their
names and sounds; I'm not proposing to write with them or anything like
that.  I'm trying to take the first step in learning those languages,
and that seems to me to be understanding the alphabets and how each
letter is used.

Please pardon my ignorance when it comes to knowing that the Braille
equivalences of certain characters are like English, because so far I
haven't been able to acquire the resources to make that connection -- I
will soon contact the Hebrew Braille group you mentioned and see what
they have to offer, but for now all I've been able to find are a few
websites with graphics for the original characters and insufficient
descriptions of the characters to make a reference for myself.  I asked
this list what other people use or used, but so far all I've heard are
of a few things that are no longer available.  If God does draw me
toward the ministry, I fully intend to learn the original languages of
the Bible for my own deeper understanding of the original texts -- not
just to pass tests -- and I'm trying to figure out how in the world a
blind person is supposed to do that!

Regarding the links I had in my first email, I no longer have a copy of
that email, but they were just sites I reached after poking around the
Bartimaeus site and probably included the Hebrew Braille Institute, too,
although I didn't readily come across any materials they offered in
briefly searching their site, but maybe I just didn't look in the right
spot, or maybe I have to call them or pay them before getting their
resource list.

Anyway, thanks for your suggestions, and I plan to pursue them as far as
I can.  It's a shame that RFB&D has essentially tossed a large number of
books out the window with no replacement in store, unless we're lucky
enough to eventually have our books of interest converted from cassette
to CD.


Sincerely,
Joe

-----Original Message-----
From: faith-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:faith-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Stefan Slucki
Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2008 6:29 AM
To: Faith-talk,for the discussion of faith and religion
Subject: Re: [Faith-talk] Learning Hebrew

Hullo Joe and everyone,

Firstly, Joe, rfb&d will no longer circulate casettes as of July 2007 --
that's my understanding.

Secondly, as far as raised-line depictions of the Greek and Hebrew
alphabets (notice the slick combining of Greek and Hebrew in that word
we take so for
granted?) as a mere braille user why bother? In braille, the Greek
epsilon and the Hebrew segol are the good old dots 1,5 -- English "e",
much easier than trying to fiddle with those raised-line thingies which
I find decidedly unhelpful.

Cum'on you braille enthusiasts ... Linda ... Penny ... David etc etc you
agree, don't you?
The only time I could see an advantage in struggling with the
Greek/Hebrew written script is when you come to that most satisfying
part of most seminary courses 'textual criticism' which I found as dry
as our Aussie drought when I went through it.
So stick with braille and you can't go wrong!

Thirdly, there is the Greek braille New Testament which I bought from
the Marburg West German Institute for the Blind -- we're talking 25
years ago so I'm not sure if they still have it.

Some pastor friends of mine use various Bible software programmes which
transliterate the original texts into anglicised forms so Jaws/WE can
read them.

Fourthly, I've already said that I used braille to do my Greek/Hebrew
exams using the Greek NT from Germany and the Hebrew OT from the Jewish
Braille Institute.

How did they test me? A passage was assigned for me to translate:  I
read it from the Bible onto casette parsing as best I could and then
offering exegetical comments. I had portions of the Psalms, Isaiah
Genesis and Deuteronomy to do.

Fifthly, most seminaries have dropped mandatory requirements for Hebrew,
these days -- why there's even been an unsuccessful move within my
denomination for that whilst Greek is still compulsory.

I have found Trench's "New Testament Synonyms" and A.T. Robertson's
"word pictures of the New Testament" very helpful as the transliterated
Greek helps one get into the text. There are also numbers of New
International Commentaries on the New Testament books available from
rfb&d which do comment on the Greek text but you are focussing on the
learning of the languages.

Sixthly, may I suggest you contact both Greek and Jewish cultural
organisations in your area and your nearest agency for the Blind which
might produce those drawings for you -- if you really want them.
National Braille Press would be a good place to try.

Now, Joe, could you repost to me the websites you mentioned in your
original
email:  there was www.bartimaeus.org and a couple of others.

Many thanks and best wishes,

Stefan Slucki. 

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