Teach Yourself to Read Hebrew

I just started studying this book today (Sunday, May 29, 2016)and I'm on chapter five already, which is a little over halfway through the alphabet. Thus far this book has made learning Hebrew far easier than I ever imagined by building on the aleph bet a few letters at a time. I will try to remember to update my review as I finish to give a full account of my learning experience. Thus far I'm extremely happy and very excited to be one step closer to learning a new language. THANK YOU! UPDATE, MAY 31, 2016: I finished this book last night and was able to transliterate the Kaddish prayer included at the end with almost no effort. If you want to learn how to read and pronounce Hebrew I cannot recommend this book enough! It does not teach any grammar beyond explaining why some of the marks are not pronounced because they are for grammatical purposes and not pronunciation. Though it is not a dictionary, it also teaches some popular words in Hebrew, such as camel, succot, shabbat, etc. It is very much worth the time, money and effort to use this book. The lessons build on each other as you learn, and do so well. I am purchasing these for other people to learn or refresh their own ability to read/speak this beautifully powerful language. Note : I devoted the majority of my time over two days learning this, which may not be feasible for people who do not have as much free time to devote to study as I do, so others may not necessarily be able to accomplish learning it that quickly, but I had a competition within myself to see if I could, as someone who was unable to read any Hebrew at all, learn to read it within 24-48 hours, and I did. Anyone else who is attentive, patient and diligent should be able to get through this book quickly.

Amazing little book! Barely half-way through, I was able to read and pronounce real Hebrew words! Of course, the language vocabulary in itself has to be learned separately. But this is a real start at learning to read and write Hebrew. The book is beautifully done and easy to follow. At later times, I would find out that the actual pronunciation of some words were different than how I had thought them to sound while learning them - the point being though, I was now able to make real sense of real letters or words and also to read and write them out! In times past, I used to look at the Hebrew alphabets in despair, wondering how and if I was ever going to understand the language. If I had a word which I wanted to learn presented somewhere, I used to try hard to memorize the "pictures" the word makes, to be able to recognize it later on - and was almost convinced anyone who could actually read the letters of that or any Hebrew word must have been endowed with very extraordinary and special abilities! After just some chapters in this book, I could already discern various word settings and my overall feel for the language was greatly improved. As presented in this very neat book, I believe anyone can be up and running much more steadily in a short period of time. For someone just beginning to learn Hebrew, I most highly recommend it!

This is an excellent book for self-study--the best I've seen. The instructions are clear and there is a lot of practice material. Each lesson includes material which has been covered, thus reinforcing learning. Printing the Hebrew characters is a part of this book. Exercises help fix the letters and words in your mind. Vocabulary contains prayers from the siddur (prayer book) There are answer keys in the back. The back cover unfolds to reveal a chart of all 22 letters (all of which are consonants), including final forms for the five letters that have them. Both print and cursive forms for each letter are shown. Vowel points are also a part of the chart. The last page of the book states that after finishing all the lessons, you can read any prayer in the siddur. It suggests other books that will further your study, e.g., prayer book Hebrew or Biblical Hebrew. Though the publisher doesn't have modern Hebrew, the page states that after completing this book, you are ready for Modern Hebrew; and that books can be obtained from other booksellers. However, I am disappointed. The book mentions accompanying tapes to ensure proper pronunciation. I checked, but the tapes are not available on the EKS web site BUT, what is available is another copy of this book with 3 accompanying CD's. If I'd known this before I ordered, I would have spent my money more wisely. I assumed that Amazon would have the latest edition.

What a great book (and CD set)! This book does exactly what it sets out to do. The course allows you to TEACH YOURSELF TO READ HEBREW. It does not teach you Hebrew grammar. It just decodes the alphabet with vowel signs to allow you to read and speak the words. CAUTION: You must buy the book plus CD version to get the most out of the experience. Teaching is done in several ways. READING - You have ten chapters teaching all consonants and vowels and word structure with exercises and readings. HEARING - The whole book is recorded. You can hear all the reading lessons. Pronunciation is clear and well recorded on three CD's. WRITING - You are taught block print writing as you go along. Believe me. You will learn to read and speak the words of Hebrew. You can, if you wish, then begin a serious learning of Hebrew grammar without reading skills problems. Another bonus is a smattering of optional "Words from Our Tradition" vocabulary (five or six words a lesson). In four to six weeks you will be reading and speaking comfortably. Then a thirty minute review period once a week with the book and CD's (The day of services?) will keep you sharp. NOTE: The pronunciation used is Sephardic, the pronunciation of Israel and most temples and synagogues today.

A Ukrainian-Jewish scholar is tutoring a small group of English-speaking preteens and adults to read Biblical Hebrew with "Teach Yourself to Read Hebrew" as the required textbook. Each chapter in the booklet has basic information on how to pronounce and write Hebrew letters. Brief meanings of certain Hebrew words are given at the end of most chapters. Answers are provided for certain exercises in the back of the booklet. For additional information, the back cover foldout organizes in chart form the pronunciations, letter names, and written forms of the consonants and vowels as well as the numeric values associated with each consonant. Included in the book and CD set are three audio compact discs covering most of the written material chapter by chapter. With a competent tutor, the revised edition of "Teach Yourself to Read Hebrew" Book and CD Set is a recommended resource that enables students to read and write Hebrew without being bogged down with unnecessary technical information. Unfortunately, important information is missing. For example, in "Teach Yourself to Read Hebrew", the vowels Tsere and Segol are pronounced differently. However, many Israelis pronounce both vowels in the same way but with different sound lengths. That is why it is advantageous to have a tutor who knows Hebrew to fine tune the material being taught from the booklet and compact disc. Please note that the set is not geared for translating Hebrew or memorizing conversational Hebrew phrases and sentences.

This book is marketed as a self-study course for the adult beginner. Having not read or studied Hebrew since I was a teenager (over 25 years ago) the book's 10 lessons had me reading and writing the language as well as when I did for my Bar Mitzvah after three weeks of 3-5 hours of study. I was very pleased about this. I can easily read and write Hebrew again! I am not very "book smart" so I would expect similar or better results with most people who purchase this book and put forth the effort. The reason I purchased this book was as a home study manual to enable my son who is turning 11 to catch up with his Hebrew studies. We live in a rural area that is a long drive from the nearest synagogue. He's been involved in the usual activities that boys are, and Hebrew was not one of them. We have worked through half the book, and I am very excited and pleased with his progress. He will be able to enroll in Hebrew classes at a synagogue this spring and know as much about the language as the kids who started their education two years ago thanks to this wonderful book. Therefore, this book is fabulous for teaching the reading and writing of Hebrew to children too.

Good book to teach yourself or others to read Hebrew.

I have only gotten through the first chapter, but the way the lesson is organised is really working for me, especially as I bought the audio from Audible (on Amazon). I would never have guessed that I could actually learn to read Hebrew, but with this program, I am actually making progress. Was recommended by a friend.

Great book. We are enjoying it and learning g so much

Fantástico pero debes comprar el audiolibro también. Lo venden en Audible y no es caro. Vale mucho la pena.

A really fine method of getting the basics of Hebrew. The book starts off at a sensibly easy stage with basic letters and meanings, and lessons on learning how to write the letters. Each lesson leads the reader on carefully. If one sticks to the instructions in each lesson and knows it fully before moving on to the next, the end result is inevitable: The reader has a solid foundation to move on to a higher levels. What I thought was a brilliant idea is the leaving out of technicalities and grammatical fine points. All that can come later. This book is a great first step in learning Hebrew.

excellent for beginners to learn hebrew.

Excellent!