Izzy here. I used to check Facebook when I had a spare minute to kill. Then I quit wasting my time and started reading Business Insider articles instead. I thought you my fellow Hebrew enthusiasts would be interested to read an article they recently ran entitled "Here's Why It's So Hard To Learn A New Language As An Adult".
At the end you'll see some tips entitled "What to do if you want to learn a language as a grown-up".
Here's what I'd like you to do. Read the article here, then join the conversation and tell me what you're taking away from that article on a practical level here.
Clear's Story
Clear is following Yeshua and learning Hebrew - he also recently recorded his first Hebrew/English album, based on Psalm 119! Here's his story, with links to listen to his album for free.
Shalom Holy Language tribe! Are you ready for a personal story filled with adventure, intrigue and mystery? Well you will have to look somewhere else, sorry. My story, so far, can be summed up in four words, “from pain, to peace”. Growing up as a typical white kid in the US, I heard about Jesus all the time. I even asked him into my heart when I was only 5. However, it would take over 35 years of toil-filled existence before I would traverse the chasm of knowing about the existence of Jesus (on one end), to wholeheartedly desiring to know and “follow” Y’shua (on the other).
I will not bore or depress you with my many trials and tribulations, but I will summarize by stating that I am able to empathize with many people, in many tragedies of life. However, to this very day, I doubt that you could find even one person who has ever known me, that would say that I am or was, an angry or bitter person; but they would be wrong. Up until early 2012, on the inside (the place where only my Elohim could see) I was raging with anger and bitterness. Life had not been fair and it was all God’s fault! I would later realize that “my ways were not His ways”.
Through a series of very humiliating events, I was driven to make my final choice, His way or my way; no more fence sitting and no more “fake it ‘til you make it”. I chose His way and in the Father’s magnificent love and mercy He opened my eyes to Y’shua “Aleph-Tav Torah-ti” (My Torah). Then I realized that I was 100% right, “Life was not fair and it was all God’s fault” and 100% wrong, because it was not unfair in a bad way. In fact, it was because of His great love for me, that life was so difficult. Over and over again in the fourth chapter of the book of Amos, the Most High exclaims that He sent terrible trials upon His chosen people, in order to get the attention of those He loved; unfortunately, it says several more times, “yet, you did not return to Me.” With the scales removed from my eyes, this chapter hit me like a ton of bricks. I am so very thankful that the Father gave me enough chances to “return” to Him. He then replaced my pain, with peace.
Once I began to really follow Y’shua, which meant “following Torah”, I soon realized that Y’shua was actually leading me to serve the God of the Hebrews. For the first time in my life (even after serving over 15 years as a worship leader and youth pastor) I was introduced to the over 6000 mistranslations, in my English Bible, of the Father’s name. MIND BLOWING!! So this led me for the first time into a quest to understand some basics of the Hebrew language.
In my quest to learn the Father’s name, I stumbled across some Jewish songs and the first time I heard “Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” by Ofra Haza I was forever hooked. As a musician who already enjoyed writing in minor keys, I heard some of the most beautiful sounds that I had ever heard in my whole life, coming from the Hebrew language. Shortly thereafter I found Izzy on YouTube and my Hebrew journey has been full steam ahead ever since. I am so very grateful for Izzy and his very supportive family. I know how much time it takes to put together each one of those videos and he has done so many. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!! (Toda Rabah!)
In October of 2014 I released my first solo album “119”. Not only was it my first solo project, but it was also my first attempt at singing Hebrew. It is a collection of 22 songs completely covering all 22 sections of Psalms 119. The psalm sections are set to very modern music and are presented in a mixture of Hebrew and English. The study guide compliments this perfectly and can be used as a primer to learn the Hebrew Aleph-Bet. The styles of music are very well suited for reaching a new generation.
The great love I have for my 9 children has placed a tremendous burden upon me to speak truth to this current generation. Please allow me to humbly offer you these songs, along with a free Study Guide to Psalm 119 for your youth, college or young adult groups.
You can watch the videos here and download the study guide here.
You have a story too, and the tribe would love to hear it! Share here?
new lessons!
Modern Hebrew with Elihana Elia this Monday at 9EST/6PST, watch here!
Biblical Hebrew with Rabbi Derek Leman this Thursday at 8EST/5PST, watch here!
meme of the week
Hats off to Robert with Melek Design for this meme! Make your own Hebrew meme here or here and send it to meme@holylanguage.com and we'll share yours too.
On a personal note, Genevieve Tirzah and I drove from Saskatchewan, Canada down to Albuquerque, New Mexico last week. It took from Tuesday to Friday. Here's a pic of our little convoy. See my mobile studio behind the van? :D
Then on Sunday I drove out to Phoenix for the annual Messianic Jewish leadership conference, hosted by Jonathan Bernis and Jewish Voice Ministries International, which is where I am right now. I'll tell you more about that next week.
Also, one other little thing - a couple of you pointed out to me that Anneri's study notes to Hebrew Quest were missing the letter Bet. That's now corrected! Download your updated copy here.
In Messiah's love,
Izzy Avraham
Executive Director
P.S. I'm here for you and I would love to hear from you. But this email is unmonitored - so instead of replying to it, please contact me here. Thanks so much!
