I just received my copy of Nava Bergman’s The Cambridge Biblical Hebrew Workbook: Introductory Level (Cambridge University Press, 2005; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com). There are many features of this book that are quite appealing, such as its application of modern language acquisition techniques to make learning biblical Hebrew “an active and inspiring process.” While the Workbook is intended to be used together with an introductory Biblical Hebrew textbook, after examining it, I am not sure how that would work.
The Workbook is actually only one component of an introductory Hebrew “study-kit” written in Swedish that includes this workbook, a textbook, and an audio-CD package with word lists, exercises, texts and biblical songs. It’s too bad that the other components were also not made available in English. The primary problem I see with trying to use this resource with another grammar is that the terminology, explanations, and exercises would almost certainly differ on many points with any other introductory grammar, which would only cause more confusion for your students. (If you have used this work or are planning on using it, I would love some feedback as to how it worked in your class)
On this note, Frederick Greenspahn has an article called, “Why Hebrew Textbooks Are Different From Those For Other Languages” on the latest SBL Forum that is worth a read. Greenspahn rightly, IMHO, takes many of the introductory Hebrew textbooks to task for being far too complicated and out of sync with similar textbooks for learning other foreign languages. He also notes that while there has been a proliferation of introductory grammars in the last decade, “The fact of the matter is that they are all fundamentally alike.” He surmises that “the real reason for this proliferation has less to do with the emergence of new philosophies than with the pressures of the marketplace, whether on faculty who need to publish or on publishers who hope that textbooks will be a lucrative product.”
In his criticism of the technical nature of so many introductory Hebrew grammars, Greenspahn ponders why this is the case. He contends,
The obvious beneficiary of presenting Hebrew and the Bible as too hard for beginners is the guild of “experts,” whose authority is enhanced by emphasizing the difficulty of the material they have mastered. In other words, it is to our advantage to present the language in as difficult a way as possible. The harder it appears, the smarter we must be and the more essential we become for anyone who wants to know what it says. We reinforce that message every time we use a technical term or mention an exotic language, demonstrating our access to information that introductory students cannot hope to match.
I am not so sure I buy his explanation. Most introductory Hebrew teachers want to instill a love of the language in their students, rather than awe them with their amazing knowledge of the Canaanite shift (and no, it isn’t a dance). That being said, I have heard enough horror stories about introductory Hebrew classes to know that there is some truth to his criticism.
Reading Greenspahn’s article confirmed my choice of using Bonnie Kittel’s Biblical Hebrew: Text and Workbook for introductory Hebrew classes. While it is not an ideal textbook, it serves beginning students well by not inudating them with technical explanations and endless paradigms. It’s goal is to enable students to read the biblical text, plain and simple. I wish I could say the second “fully revised” edition of Kittel by Victoria Hoffer appears to be vast improvement of the first edition. While it makes some improvements in its appearance and explanations, the lessons and exercises are essentially the same (I will provide a full evaluation after having used it in my class). That being said, I think it is still one of the best introductory grammars available (even though it doesn’t meet all of Greenspahn’s standards).
For more information about available introductory Hebrew grammars, see my survey here. For resources for using Kittel’s grammar, go here.