Customer Reviews

Ha-yesod: Fundamentals of Hebrew

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this book because I grew frustrated with Haiim Rosen's "A Textbook of Israeli Hebrew". This is more like a typical language textbook. This book does use vowels, the lack of which is part of what I didn't like about the Rosen book. It has a good number of translation and reading exercises, which is what I look for because I find that it makes me retain the vocabulary. No complaints so far. The vocabulary, at least at first, does contain a number of words one would only use in school, but that seems to be pretty typical of textbooks. By far, the vocabulary is useful right from the beginning. Unless you are looking for something specialized, you will probably be happy with this book. I am.

This book is for the serious learner of Hebrew. Extensive verb drills, exercises, vocabulary.
But with several serious flaws: no answer key, no accentuation of words which do not follow normal accent rules, vocabulary list in back of book is not really a bilingual vocabulary-but rather shows what chapter word first appears(not very useful!), exercises and readings are stilted and not practical for modern Hebrew(no idiomatic phrases nor everyday conversation expressions).
If you can ignore the above short-comings, it is the best Modern Hebrew book out there today- (if only the Teach Yourself series would come out with their version of modern Hebrew..instead of Biblical!)

I am using this book currently and like it. I would suggest that the user of this book have some exposure to Hebrew beforehand if they are using it for self-study. The book is very thorough in coverage. I am not sure how well it can build conversational skills, and it has no ancilliary materials like CDs, or tapes. I appreciate the small size of the lessons (shi`urim). They are 3-4 pages, include a lesson vocabulary (and new words are not snuck in yet previous lesson vocabs are), followed by a diqduk/grammar section for new concepts introduced in the lesson, followed by a reading in pointed Hebrew.

The lesson is then quizzed and reinforced by targilim/ exercises that ask questions in Hebrew over the reading to be answered in Hebrew; an English section of 10-20 sentences to be translated into Hebrew; and then a section dealing directly with the grammar section. Examples: provide the correct form of the definite article, or pluralize a list of nouns and adjectives. Not every lesson includes this last section, but there may be 5-15 exercises in them.

Contents, intro, and (vocab)index appear in Hebrew also with the English. There are verb conjugations, a glossary of the vocab words, and some extra lessons in the back of the book.

The book is worth the reasonable price. My biggest problem is that there are NO answers to the exercises sections which a self-study person needs. Anybody have the answers? email me. ;-)

I chose this book as my textbook for my online Hebrew class at http://HebrewResources.com. The book is great, with one exception: there are few exercises. In other words it is not a workbook. Each chapter is 3 or 4 pages long, and there are 75 chapters. Each chapter introduces about 20 new vocabulary words. Several universities use this book as a textbook, and cover approximately 20 chapters for a first semester Hebrew courses. Thus, if you study one chapter per week, this book can carry you through 75 weeks of study, which is a great bargain!!! This book is modern Hebrew, not Biblicial (although there is a lot of overlap between the two). The book is not primarily a "conversational Hebrew" course. It does contain many elements of conversational as used in modern Hebrew; but it does NOT teach a lot of phrases like "Hello, how are you", "Where is the bathroom", and that kind of thing.

I've used "Ha-Yesod" at the University of California San Diego as part of our Judaic Studies first year course to learn modern Hebrew. Unfortunately, in contrast to other language textbooks, "Ha-Yesod" seems to be less professional and paradoxically awkward. For example, what native English speaker has ever heard of the word "copula," which appears and is defined in the first lesson? Or, why would the authors feel that the word "laboratory" is important enough to include in the fourth chapter? Although these examples seem trivial, I contend that they characterize the book. That is, the grammar sections are written in ways which do not facillitate language or grammar comprehension. The stories, which do only a mediocre job of expressing current Israeli culture (are there any stories or sections that include information about Israeli food, names, geography, history, or Judaism? this is a modern Hebrew textbook, isn't it?) require great patience to read given their lack of insight or relevant and significant information. Regarding the exercises, translating sentences from English to Hebrew is a great idea except that the content of these sentences seems to reflect the authors' cynical or pessimistic points of views. Many of the sentences are negative, insulting, or distasteful. I would never have expected sentences like, "She used to dream terrible dreams and therefore she used to scream at night." (Chapter 17, #15) or "Is it possible to teach a stupid man to be wise?" (Chapter 34, #7) in a book whose purpose is to establish the foundations or fundamentals of modern day Hebrew.

Despite my frustration with awkward vocabulary, difficult to understand grammar instruction, boring and redundant stories, or negative exercise sentences, "Ha-Yesod" nevertheless does have much to offer a motivated student. Perhaps it is for this reason, to aid a motivated or struggling student, that I have just produced its handbook or answer key. It includes translations of all the stories in Hebrew to English and completed exercise sections (answering in Hebrew the five story questions, translating the English sentences, and completing the third or occasional fourth sections) as well as completing the 'Additional Exercises' section found at the back of the most recent edition.

For now, "Ha-Yesod" remains one of the most popular Hebrew language textbooks. I can only hope therefore, that someone will capitalize on the large market of students eager to learn Hebrew and produce a more enjoyable and worthwhile text.

Good luck,

David Tenenbaum

I compared this to "Hebrew: A Language Course" by Bella Bergman, et al. in 3 volumes, and finally decided to work through both of them concurrently to teach myself modern Hebrew. The approach is different, but the staging and phasing is similar. Ha-Yesod is a more traditional and formal book, perfect for those who have taught themselves other languages and thus find it helpful to learn formal grammar along with vocabulary and idiom. Bergman, et al.'s book is more "fun," reinforcing the information with cartoons, crosswords, and quizzes. Both are full of bidirectional translation exercises. The vocabulary and grammar coverage is surprisingly similar, so by using both books together, I get cross reinforcement and faster results. However, either approach by itself is completely workable.

I read about 10 study books on Hebrew and needed to undersand language as soon as possible (since moved to Israel). This one was definitely the best that I enountered. My copy was used by number of peolple and it needed some effort to get it back. It produces a good balance between grammar/everyday language/verbs (that are the backbone for Hebrew study).
...

The only sad thing, that this book never had an audio reference - this will make it irreplacable.

I am using this book currently and like it. I would suggest that the user of this book have some exposure to Hebrew beforehand if they are using it for self-study. The book is very thorough in coverage. I am not sure how well it can build conversational skills, and it has no ancilliary materials like CDs, or tapes. I appreciate the small size of the lessons (shi`urim). They are 3-4 pages, include a lesson vocabulary (and new words are not snuck in yet previous lesson vocabs are), followed by a diqduk/grammar section for new concepts introduced in the lesson, followed by a reading in pointed Hebrew.

The lesson is then quizzed and reinforced by targilim/ exercises that ask questions in Hebrew over the reading to be answered in Hebrew; an English section of 10-20 sentences to be translated into Hebrew; and then a section dealing directly with the grammar section. Examples: provide the correct form of the definite article, or pluralize a list of nouns and adjectives. Not every lesson includes this last section, but there may be 5-15 exercises in them.

Contents, intro, and (vocab)index appear in Hebrew also with the English. There are verb conjugations, a glossary of the vocab words, and some extra lessons in the back of the book.

The book is worth the reasonable price. My biggest problem is that there are NO answers to the exercises sections which a self-study person needs. Anybody have the answers? email me. ;-)

This book starts from the very basics, but it helps you progress quickly with short lessons that teach new grammar concepts and vocab. You definitely need an additional learning tool to help you with speaking and simply producing your own sentences. Hayesod does not have much in the way of challenging you to generate your own responses in Hebrew. But if you are motivated, this is a great tool to help you focus your energy and learn a lot quickly.

I have tried many times before to learn Hebrew. It just wouldn't come. With this book, Hayesod:Fundamentals Of Hebrew.New edition,it all comes together. In my case I am lucky enough to have a wonderful teacher. He thinks this book is the best. So when the best teacher teacher, uses the best book, you know all conditions are there for the best results. This text gives the best results.
I feel very lucky to have this tool.
Ilene Paley
Richmond Va.