HEBREW · STEP 6
Read Torah
Meet two letters and read a familiar name from its actual sounds.
Bring two vowels with you
Keep using modern Israeli pronunciation. Read from right to left and let the marks, rather than the English spelling of a familiar word, guide you.
Read שָׁלוֹם. Where are its a and o?
sha-LOM, peace. Qamats beneath shin gives a. Holam with vav after lamed gives o. Vav helps write that vowel; it adds no v sound here.
Both vowels return today: a as in father and a steady o, “oh.”
Meet resh
Resh
The r sound
Notice the top stroke and the stroke descending on the right. Use r, not the whole letter name, when blending.
Put resh together with vowels you know. These are practice syllables, not vocabulary words.
Read רָ, רֵ, and רִ
ra, re, ri. Qamats gives a here, tsere gives e as in ten, and hiriq gives i as in machine. The consonant remains r.
Meet he
He
h as in home
He has an extra short stroke on the left, separated from the top by a gap. Compare ר with ה. That small stroke helps you tell the letters apart.
When he supplies a consonant, blend h with its vowel. For example, the practice syllable הַ is ha.
Read the practice syllables הֵ and רֵ. What changes?
he and re, both with e as in ten. The first consonant changes from h to r; tsere stays the same. Here he represents the sound h + e, not the English word “he.”
He can also help mark a vowel at the end of a word, without adding h. You will see that job in today's word.
A dot in a letter you know
Our word begins with תּ: tav with an inside dot, a dagesh. In the modern Israeli pronunciation we are using, tav gives t with or without this dot.
You already learned that the inside dot changes bet's b/v reading. Dots do not have an identical effect in every letter.
Compare תוֹ and תּוֹ. How do you read these practice syllables?
Both read to. Tav gives t, and holam with vav gives o. Notice the dot in the second spelling while keeping the same t sound.
Join to and ra
to + ra = to-RA
Torah: teaching or instruction
- Start on the right: tav with holam-vav gives to.
- Move left: resh with qamats gives ra.
- The last he helps mark the final a vowel here. Add no h sound and no extra syllable.
The qamats is beneath resh, not beneath he. He keeps its usual shape at the end; it has no special final form like mem or nun. In this word it supports the vowel rather than closing the syllable with a consonant.
Say two syllables, with the stronger beat on the second: to-RA. The final a stays the a of father.
Cover the sound hint. Read תּוֹרָה and point to what writes each vowel.
to-RA. Holam-vav writes o. Qamats beneath resh gives a, with he helping mark the final vowel. There are two vowel sounds and two syllables.
A learner says “to-ra-ha.” Which step needs repair?
The ending. The final he in תּוֹרָה adds neither h nor another a. Return to to + ra. This is the ending of this word; do not turn it into a rule that every he is silent.
Find Torah in Torah
Near the end of Deuteronomy, Moshe, Moses, blesses our people. This verse speaks of the Torah he commanded us and calls it the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob. Read the first Hebrew word, on the right, in this excerpt. Use the English for the surrounding words.
תּוֹרָה צִוָּה לָנוּ מֹשֶׁה
Moshe commanded us Torah.
Which word can you now decode? What does it name here?
תּוֹרָה, to-RA. It names the Torah Moshe commanded our people. You read that word from its letters and vowels; the English supplies the rest of the excerpt.
The word Torah can mean teaching or instruction. Here it refers to our received Torah, not just any lesson. Revisit Our books to place Torah within our larger library.
Read, remember, return
Close the answers and read these words as a list, not as a sentence. Give each meaning:
- שֵׁם
- תּוֹרָה
- אֵם
- שָׁלוֹם
Check the list and compare the endings
shem, name; to-RA, Torah, teaching or instruction; em, mother; sha-LOM, peace. Three end with a sounded m. Torah ends with the a vowel; its he adds no h.
On paper, copy Torah once, cover it, then write it again from memory. Read what you wrote before comparing.
What should your written word contain?
תּוֹרָה: tav with dagesh, vav with holam, resh with qamats, and he. Keep the vowel under resh and the gap in he. If one part differs, correct that part and read the whole word again.
Tomorrow, read the source's first word before opening an answer. Explain why the last letter adds no extra syllable.
Explore the sources
Resh, he and modern tav pronunciation, Chabad · Letter roles and final he, University of Vermont · Torah: form and meaning · Deuteronomy 33:4