In my last post I started by showing you the Construction set where I got way too goofy talking about how Hebrew is 'built' and then finished by sharing a half-hour video compilation of Hebrew Quest highlights with you. If you watched that then you already saw this third set, which is supposed to look like a Middle Eastern tent. And yes, I did try to dress the part. And no, I don't dress like that in real life. And yes there have been people who thought maybe I did which is the only reason I'm mentioning it.
Anyways this was where we actually got into reading Hebrew together. I always started by lighting my clay lamp and reading this verse comparing the Torah to a light and God's commandments to the lamp that holds the light; it was a really nice little ritual. After that we worked verse by verse through the passage. First I'd slowly read through the Hebrew. Then we'd go back over each word and break it down and identify prefixes, suffixes, and three-letter verbal roots. Then finally at the end we'd read over the whole passage again at a comfortable pace to consolidate it in our minds. This was actually how I learned Hebrew back in the day and it worked really well for me. I don't think I mentioned this yet but if you're interested to hear more about why I was so passionate about teaching myself Hebrew and how I did it, I tell that story in the fourteenth lesson of Hebrew Quest.
I mentioned earlier that I found something special in my Grandpa's office at the Baptist church he used to pastor, but I didn't tell you what it was yet. It was the Hebrew grammar he learned from back in the 40s, all marked up with his pink highlighter. I actually used that book as the basis for my grammar lessons and was also able to scan and make it available as a PDF for my students, all of which was very special to me.
Since the release of Hebrew Quest we've developed several things to make the experience even better. Some people weren't able to watch the lessons online; others wanted to play the lessons for a group. We responded by producing a DVD version of Hebrew Quest which has already been shipped to hundreds of people all around the world. We also noticed that some students were having a hard time staying consistent with their lessons and making it to the end of their Quests. We solved this problem by creating a set of automatic emails in which new students get a friendly weekly email inviting them to join me for a lesson and making it irresistible with sneak peaks and quick links to start watching right away. Another problem we solved was the challenge of remembering the hundreds of words covered in our hours of Hebrew reading. We created a massive course on Memrise, which uses the flashcard method and a gaming format to memorize vocabulary and can be played on computer or phone. One other change which deserves mentioning was that we went from just being an online "Institute" educating individuals to a "Tribe" of students learning together and becoming real friends...but that really is a story that deserves its own post. See these developments for yourself on the Hebrew Quest pages here: https://holylanguage.com/quest
So that's the story of Hebrew Quest, from a little course that a green kid taught in living rooms across Saskatchewan to an online program through which tens of thousands of people in over a hundred countries have encountered the Jewish Messiah. And who knows, maybe that's just the beginning.