Product Description

Understanding Hebrew is the key to experiencing the richness of Jewish prayer. Prayerbook Hebrew the Easy Way teaches the Hebrew found in all Jewish prayerbooks. Designed for students who can read Hebrew words but do not know what they mean, this text explains grammar so simply that the non-academic community can easily understand it. Twenty-one lessons include:

Oral reviews
Vocabulary lists
Prayerbook selections
Handy grammar and verb charts
Exercises

Prayerbook and vocabulary selections are based on several Jewish traditions. This self-paced text is suitable for beginning and intermediate students and is perfect for adult learners.

A supplement to this book, Prayerbook Hebrew the Easy Way Companion Audio Tape Set, is also available.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #351412 in Books
• Published on: 2000-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback

Customer Reviews

Fear-free!
As a child, I tried to learn and it didn't stay with me. What did stay was a fear that understanding prayerbook Hebrew was something I couldn't do. Well, judging by the excellent reviews, I bought this book. And lesson one made me sigh with relief. I *can* learn this!

Please note that you need to know the Hebrew alphabet but then you can move right along.

Very Easy-to-Learn Hebrew Manual
This book does not require any complicated grammatical prerequisites. You don't have to have headache to cram up the declension and the conjugation of the nouns and verbs. If you just follow the lessons, you will soon be accustomed to the practical Hebrew liturgy. This is a well designed excellent manual for learning Hebrew for the beginners.

Book is good; tapes could be better
I bought both the book and the accompanying tapes.

The book introduces no more than 10 vocabulary words, a grammatical concept, and reading from a prayer. By the time you're finished, you understand basic constructs of Hebrew thought, and several important prayers, including the Sh'ma, the Aleinu, and V'ahavtah.

It presupposes only that you know basic Hebrew pronunciation of the alefbet and vowels.

I really like the book, but I'm disappointed with the tapes, which I would have preferred to have been read by an Israeli speaker. Still, I may be too picky on this aspect, since it's designed to help you with prayer, and not with getting along in Israel. One thing that might help is if the tapes separated the grammar lessons from the prayers. I would be willing to listen to a tape of prayers in the car, just so I could get an idea how they sound, especially if the prayers were chanted.