Melanie's a member of the Holy Language tribe, following Yeshua and learning Hebrew! You may remember her from when we shared her story not too long ago... Well now we would like to share her success story with you!!

I just this minute finished reading every word of the Torah in Hebrew. Izzy asked me to let you all know when my goal was accomplished, so here I am! This eleven-month journey has taken me from painfully sounding out each letter of Genesis 1:1 with a magnifying glass to help me differentiate the letters, to reading Deuteronomy 34:12 today fairly fluidly and understanding every word of that verse. No more magnifying glass now; in fact I know more and more words by sight as a whole without having to sound them out. Genesis was a great place to start, because the stories dragged me through the agony of my incompetency with Hebrew. The middle books were tougher, with many words that I didn't know (pertaining to temple services), and then Deuteronomy was a treat at the end. When I got back to the story-like narrative of it (similar to Genesis, in the ease of reading), I was home free—able to read less haltingly and understand many more words. It was like a reward for struggling through the middle books! I have a long way to go, and much more to learn, but I feel so grateful to the Heavenly Father to have been able to read the exact same text that Yeshua likely did in His life on earth. It was so rewarding to see little details that translators left out, and as a result to have a fuller understanding of what the Word actually means. Thanks to Izzy's brother and sister-in-law, David and Hannah for the motivation to do this! If you, too, have a goal to read some of the Scriptures in Hebrew, be encouraged. You may not see any progress for weeks or even months, but if you stick at it a little every single day (that's the key) you will eventually reap a harvest!

Shalom in Yeshua,
Melanie Ellison (www.LifeGivingLinen.com, www.chuckingcollege.com)

Please feel free to contact Melanie and wish her a hearty mazeltov for getting through the entire Torah in Hebrew! Do you have any goals or success stories with this beautiful language that you would like to share with the tribe? We would love to hear it...

Share here?

Join Holy Language teacher Rabbi Derek Leman right here for his next live class studying through the book of Ruth this Thursday at 8EST/5PST! Learn advanced grammar, interact with traditional Jewish commentary and thought, take away practical applications, and live chat with the other students.

The newest episodes of Hebrew Chapters are out! Will you read Genesis # and Matthew # in Hebrew with me?

Watch the trailers here LINK HERE and here LINK HERE or at the bottom of this email.

Or - even better! - join the Holy Language tribe and watch the full versions right here here.