Library Page

  Shalom
  to you,

Wellsprings of Torah,  www.TorahWellsprings.org
Rick Wills - Messianic Elder,  Mishareth@TorahWellsprings.org

You might enjoy this sample of Yemeni Chant, Deror Yiqra
Credits are posted at the bottom of this page.

Concerning these publications...

    Please consider that, although these documents are provided to you free of charge, there is a ministry that is laboring for their productions. Therefore, any financial donations that you can give to the "Wellsprings of Torah" congregation will be deeply appreciated, and your contribution will support this and other projects.

    As a congregation we are involved with more than Website publications. We are involved with our local community by providing spiritual guidance, exhortation and structured worship. Our objective is to be servants to one another, and to exalt Hashem, Ruach Haqodesh, and Mashiach-Yeshua.
 

Grammar ...  Dikduk (Grammar).pdf
                                    Yemeni Pronunciation Chart.pdf
                                    Pronunciation Guildlines.pdf

    Grammar is more a system of pronunciation than it is sentence construction.

    Hebrew is more of a speaking language than a written one. It wasn't until after the coming of the Messiah, and the destruction of the Temple and Israel's exile, that they began to write the vowels into their texts. As long as they had been a nation of inter-connected communities, their verbal skills were always monitored and refined. But when they were dispersed to all the nations of the world, there was a concern that words might be mispronounced. So they contrived a method of demonstrating proper vowels for specific applications of words. These representations of their vowel system were called Nikud, and they consisted of small marks or dots that were usually placed under consonant.

    Their grammar rules were similar by nature, in that they are only concerned with pronunciation. The order of verbs, adjectives and nouns, is less important than soft and hard sounds of consonants and their vowels. This is chiefly due to the nature of the Hebrew language being completely verb oriented. There really aren't any adjectives or nouns -- just verbs.

    These two elements of their speech, a focus on soundings and actions, is what has built the Hebrew emotional and mental landscape. Their voice (pronunciation) is important, so their words are significant. Likewise, their behavior (verb/action) is important, so their works are equally significant. We see this in the nature of how God commanded them to observe his laws -- Deu. 6:7, "speak these things when you are sitting, when you walk, when you lie down, and when you rise." In this God is telling them that their speech and their actions will be both linked and harmonious.

    Their harmony of speech is called Dikduk in the Hebrew. It means, "the exact way of things." The following are some of  the rules of Dikduk. You should not study these until you are very comfortable with the individual sounds and symbols of the Alef-Beith. These rules convey the nature and dynamics of Alef-Beith in application.

Alef-Beith...  Yemeni Pronunciation Chart.pdf
                                   
    The Hebrew Alphabet is a collection of images that relate to our world.

    The above download link is a pronunciation guide that employs the Yemeni manner of vocalization. It is more complicated than Modern Hebrew pronunciations, but I have found it to be very conducive to chanting and singing the Torah. Likewise, its vocal distinctions provide more intelligence for ancient Torah words that have been abandoned by Modern Hebrew due to ambiguities caused by modern language simplifications.
 

P'shitto/DuTillet Mattai
Aramaic-English Interlinear
of the Gospel of Matthew

    This is the Aramaic/English interlinear version of the Gospel of Matthew (with vowels in the Aramaic). Matthew is believed to be the oldest book of the Chadasha (New Testament), and this Peshitto version (also called Peshittoh and Peshitta) is assumed to be its original format -- being Aramaic. This Aramaic version uses the Hebrew script, but it is a letter by letter, and vowel by vowel copy of the native Peshitto (barring scribal errors). This is possible because Hebrew and Aramaic are transposable for writing format, but the Aramaic vocabulary occasionally differs in meaning from that of Hebrew.

    Reading this interlinear Peshitto/DuTillet, you will discover many poetic and profound forms of the Aramaic idiom that have been lost in Greek and English translations. And, with this English translation, I have attempted to communicate as many of those forms as possible, but you will want to learn Aramaic in order to truly appreciate them. To help facilitate that effort, the above alphabet pages are a good place to start for learning both Hebrew and Aramaic.

    Along with the Aramaic and English, I have also included the DuTillet transcription of Matthew, transcribed by Tim Hegg (www.TorahResource.com). Its origins are not certain, but it was discovered in 1553 by Jean DuTillet (the Bishop of Brieu in France), among the confiscated manuscripts from Jewish communities in Rome. Whether the DuTillet Matthew was translated from the Greek, or prepared from another Hebrew document, or even if it is the record of a unique oral tradition, is unknown and can only be speculated upon by means of its vocabulary and phraseology. But today, next to the Peshitto, it is one of our oldest Hebrew records of the Gospel Testimony.

    Please note:  This is a document in the Adobe PDF format, and you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it. If you go to Downloads, you will find a link for downloading the viewer program.

    Download the Mattai (775 kbs):  Peshito-DuTillet.pdf

    This file was last updated 11-30-04.