Hebrew Language Mischief

We at Shma-Israel.org are perplexed and saddened at the way that Hebrew, the Spiritual Language of Elohim, continues to be denigrated within the Messianic community. Of all groups who ought to know better, it would be Messianics that affirm the Torah. Some might think we over-react to small errors of only trivial consequence, but we will show you that in fact these errors reveal either a latent contempt for a truly Hebraic expression or, at the very least, a presumptive indifference toward Hebrew.

What we can see is that Hebrew, the precise, chosen facility employed by Elohim to express his divine will, is now being treated as a sort of toy, a plaything, something “pretty to look at”, or even degraded into a “marketing ploy” to motivate people to do things or buy things. It ought to be, rather, revered as the holy language which Elohim anointed to communicate his Torah and the words of the prophets (Luke 24:44). However, in reality, it is not widely considered within the Messianic community to be a sufficiently worthwhile endeavour to actually learn Hebrew, except perhaps a search for root words in a concordance, or learning to “pronounce” the words of a Berachah, or to sing a well-known melody. But, dear brothers and sisters, we can not hope to recognise nor to understand the heart of Elohim that is revealed in his word until we should learn to read his communications using the rich language in which they were originated. No other language is capable of conveying spiritual ideas in a manner that compares to Hebrew, and this is why Adonai chose to use it. And this is why it is right to insist that it be used properly.

When we talk about reverence for Hebrew, this is what we mean. If any secular English speaker desired to comprehend the intricacies of the writings of Voltaire or Goethe, that person would not simply concatenate single-word dictionary definitions in hope of understanding the complex reasoning of the authors. He would doubtless realise that such a perfunctory, mechanical knowledge of French or German is in no way sufficient to that task. How much more, when dealing with the words of the Creator of the heavens and the earth, who is of infinitely higher wisdom than these authors, should we be inclined to think respectfully concerning the words and the author’s intended meaning? Should we not esteem Elohim’s words as being worthy enough to do what the most devoted students of Voltaire or Goethe do, which is to learn the native language in which they originated their thoughts?

We are not saying that Hebrew fluency is required in order to live uprightly. But we are saying that to live uprightly requires that one respect the words of Elohim and the anointed language in which they are conveyed. The examples below show disrespect for Hebrew by revealing this underlying and erroneous assumption: that Hebrew is simplistic, archaic, and utterly incompetent to form complex ideas in the manner of other languages. This artwork proves that the persons who made it, edited it and approved it all either believe that Hebrew does not use grammar to add anything to word meanings, or simply don’t care. Is this proper respect from people who profess to fear Elohim and keep his Torah?

Messianic Israel Alliance

Shown here is an artistically pleasing poster announcing an MIA conference. However, detracting from its visual appeal are several errors. Apart from the mistaken Tanach reference, an error which, by itself, could be overlooked, the Hebrew words say something completely different from "choose life".

This is an obvious occasion of someone desiring to write a phrase in Hebrew, but instead of simply referring to a Hebrew Tanach to authenticate the wording, they have inexplicably chosen to mechanically transcribe each of the phrase’s root words from a concordance. The actual words of Hashem, spoken through Moshe, for this phrase are
"וּבָחַרְתָּ בַּחַיִּים" (uvacharta bachayyim)
meaning "and you (masculine singular) shall [implied imperative sense, with pleading that you should] have preference for the life". This is not simply contrasting “living” as opposed to “not-living, or dead”, but preferring and desiring the life that is found in the mitzvot of Hashem. But that is a discussion best left for another time.

In the Tanach, the verb is conjugated for the proper tense and person, there is a preposition, and the noun is in the proper form. Yes, Hebrew is indeed a REAL language. As in English, there are nouns, verbs, subjects, predicates, verb tenses, and prepositions. Shades of meaning are routinely created by skillful use of all these grammatical forms, but the mechanical use of simple dictionary forms results in a completely altered or nonsensical meaning.

Even if the author of the poster had actually used the correct roots בחר חי , (rather than the misspelling), then it would still have conveyed a meaning that is substantially different from the verse itself. It would say, "He preferred to live", not "choose life". This is bad enough, in that it misrepresents the words of the Tanach. But what is worse here is that the phrase contained in the artwork is not "bachar chai", but "bechod chai". This is a completely different word. There is no Hebrew root בחד. This, then, is ב (preposition, in or with) and חד, which together with chai mean "to live keenly" or "live to pose riddles". Both of these suggest attributes of the serpent of Genesis 3 rather than anything heavenly. Words means things, and this poster says something much different than what we assume the authors intended.

Echad Ministries

In this entry page from the Echad Ministries web site we have another example of a Messianic ministry opting to just string together roots from Strong's concordance, apparently believing that this would express the scripture verse in Hebrew. Again, we are incredulous that someone would believe this language is so simple as to not have conjugations, tenses, and so forth that every other language has.

But even more dangerous than that simplistic viewpoint is that here, by just using the Strong's concordance entries, important words are omitted that change the verse to mean the opposite of what Hashem has said. This is, in our minds, a clear violation of the mitzvah to לא תִשָּׂא אֶת־שֵֽׁם־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לַשָּׁוְא (not bear the name/reputation/utterances of Elohim in vain/in fraud).

We have placed the actual Tanach verse above the web page version so that you can see that they are very different. The words that are missing are על (upon) and לא (not). In the same way that the English words "a" and "the" are not indexed in books, these common Hebrew words are not indexed by Strong's concordance. But, being common does not mean that they are not important to the meaning of the verse. Without conjugations and forms, and without these words, what this page actually says, and represents as the words of Hashem is

"A lifeless altar burned a fire continually" or "An extinguished altar burned a continual fire" instead of what is written, "A fire shall be burned continually upon the altar; it shall not go out".

Conclusion

We have demonstrated by these examples a culture of casual indifference toward holy things as practised by the Messianic Community. The irreverent disregard for Torah as well as other unbiblical practices of the Sunday church world seem to have followed them, albeit in different manifestations, directly into their Torah and Menorah adorned tabernacles. What can we say to these things? If any Messianic ministry feels so compelled to try to "appear" Hebraic by using a few interspersed fragments of Hebrew letters, should it not also acquire a commensurate respect for the majesty of the words they represent? And, even moreso, of the glory of the ONE who authored them?