Alef with Beth: Free Hebrew.Forever.

 

A happy introduction!

I'm excited about this week's edition and have been looking forward to making my way toward it on the ShoutOuts list. Finally, here it is!

Although I've kept it short, for your convenience, it's packed with great information on one of my most favorite areas of study. Enjoy!

Meet Beth!

Alef with Beth is one of four linguistics courses I’ve studied. After several months of working with it, it’s easily maintained as one of my top-two favs in this studies category. 

Why this one?

A few years ago, I decided to go back to college, majoring in Biblical Studies. I had no idea of the impact it would have on my whole life, in wonderful ways. Never in my life have I ever looked forward to college lectures like I have this time. I loved the fields I studied and worked in prior, but this one has hit different, hit deeper.

Since Biblical Hebrew wasn’t offered as a part of the curriculum, I began searching for an independent course for it. I’d started one a couple years before, but illness got in the way, so I set it aside for when I was more able to work with it. When I decided to resume, I thought I’d see what else might have become available during my recuperation. That’s how I found Alef with Bet (now Beth). 

It offered everything I hoped for. The lessons were well organized. They offered downloadable worksheets that could be printed or used in digital notetaking. Since I prefer to hand-write my school notes, the downloads have been a great help. They also provide downloadable sheets for practice writing, a huge benefit when learning a new alphabet that's very different than my own.

Just an FYI, English is a variation of Latin. Hebrew is an Aramaic-derived square script. It looks nothing like the Latin versions of letters. Learning to read and write it has been interesting and fun!

Tried and true

For the first time, while intentionally studying a foreign language, I was surprised that note-taking wasn’t needed during the lessons. Yup, you read that right. No notes for beginners. 

At first, you listen. 

Second, you repeat what you hear, along with the lesson. 

Easy-peasy! 

Later, you’ll listen and repeat as you move forward. In my case, with the beginner lessons, I started repeating the words as the lesson was spoken, which included some fun and adorable lesson prompts that helped me understand what I was learning. (I’ll include a vid shortly, to show you what I mean.)

By the time you're a few lessons in, the Hebrew alefbet will be introduced. At this point, trust me! You'll be impressed and excited over how many words you’ll be able to sound-out, recognize and spell in Hebrew!

A vid and links

Please check these out, so you can see for yourself.

Alef with Beth (1st lesson)

                                                                                    

                                     Get better acquainted with the founders!                                      

Check out their sister-program here at Free Greek. Forever.

And, its associated YouTube channel, Alpha with Angela

The Wrap!

I hope this has enticed you to check the info I’ve provided and that you, or someone you know, will benefit from them as much as I am. If you’ve got questions or would like to share your own take on the information, please leave us a comment. We’d love to hear from you!

I’m very, VERY pleased with this work-at-your-own-pace program and continue to steadily advance in speaking, reading and writing Biblical Hebrew. 

Another perk, even though I’m learning Biblical Hebrew, I’ve been able to recognize words and phrases I’ve learned in their modern Hebrew versions, both written and spoken.

Thanks so much for your visit today! Hope you’ve found the information helpful and will share the link to this post to anyone you know who might be interested in this totally and always FREE, elite Hebrew and Greek language learning system.

'til next time, shalom!

Angelia

Moringa: What is it and why use it?

 

Image via Ninetechno of Pixabay 

Moringa may be one of the most beneficial organic medicines you’ve never heard of. 

Don’t fret, though... I’m here to change that. You know it’s true–knowledge is power!

A little back-story

I used to take powdered moringa to help stabilize my blood sugars. It worked great until I was diagnosed with cancer and began chemotherapy. One of the side-effects of chemo, at least for many patients, is soaring blood sugars, and that was certainly so in my case.

My care team implored me to graduate to insulin. Wasn’t happy about it but I did. At some point during the year of treatment and the year-plus of recovery, I forgot about moringa. 

I’d written a post about moringa several years ago, but thought it wasn’t something I should continue with due to being on insulin and in a consistent struggle to keep my sugars closer to normal levels.

But recently, I got intel on moringa that’s gotten me excited about it all over again and for brand new reasons!

My brother and sister-in-law are pastors in Brazil, my sister-in-law’s native country. When their family relocated permanently to Brazil, they were able to invest in land in a fertile, mountainous region. This allowed them to plant and cultivate a large variety of fruit, nut and vegetable plants. Over the years, it’s grown into a truly magnificent food forest.

A few times a year, he and I engage in a virtual tour of the property. Many of the plants are also native to the Midwest USA, where we grew up, but he also has many plants that are native to tropical regions.  

On our most recent tour, I wasn’t only excited to see their trees, bushes and other plants, but also very excited to see two little monkeys climbing along a branch while we made rounds. 

That same virtual visit, he showed me their moringa tree. If I knew of it prior, I’d forgotten about it (a residual effect of chemo), and was very excited to learn that they regularly harvest its leaves. My sister-in-law makes tea from them. Moringa is a super-food that helps with a wide array of health challenges. So, I asked if they’d send along some pics of the process for me to share with you.

My sister-in-law, Bel. She's about to harvest some leaves from the moringa tree to make tea. 

The sprig she selected.

Here she's added some of the moringa leaves to a pot, along with freshly sliced pineapple and strawberries, also harvested from her garden.

The leaves and fruit have infused the water and now she's pouring it off into a cup.

The fragrant and delicious tea is now ready to serve! 

What sort of things is moringa used for?

I suppose this could depend on whom you ask. Moringa does a lot of good things for lots of people. That’s just how those broad-spectrum superfoods roll! 

Here’s a short list for you...

☙ Anemia

☙ Anti-depressant

☙ Bone health (reduces risk of osteoporosis)

☙ Blood sugar stabilizer (Used it myself for this and it worked great!)

☙ Chronic disease reduction

☙ Digestive health

☙ Increased energy levels

☙ Heart health (helps reduce issues with high cholesterol and hypertension)

☙ Hormonal balance

☙ Inflammation (anti-inflammatory properties help reduce pain and swelling)

☙ Lactation support (traditionally used to increase milk production)

☙ Liver health (antibacterial and antioxidant properties helps protect the liver from damage)

☙ Menstrual discomfort

☙ Skin (elasticity and wrinkle reduction)

Moringa is packed with antioxidants, minerals and vitamins, allowing it to help with overall health and immunity. However, be aware that moringa may interact with some medications, and you should investigate possible reactions and potential side-effects before using it.

I’ll note here that during the several years I used moringa, I never had an adverse reaction to it and I do plan to incorporate it again as a daily supplement.

"It is written..."

In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Revelation 22:2

The wrap!

My thanks to you for visiting today! I hope you found the info helpful and will share it with anyone you know who shares and interest in organic medicines. If you’re familiar with moringa, have grown it or used it, please share your experience with it in the comments! 

Until next time...

Shalom, shalom!

Angelia

The Bible: How’d they do that?

Image via ASPhillips

This isn't about religion...                   

This edition is about facts, peculiar ones. It’s a post that should be of interest to loads of readers, regardless of their beliefs, unbelief or affiliation with any type of religion.

It’s info that’s available in a wide array of videos and blog posts, but isn't common content that will populate the feeds of many folks outside the scope of history and Christendom.

That of course, doesn’t make it less interesting. It just means it doesn’t come up in their content suggestions as often, without a deliberate search for it.

Lots of people with or without religion are intrigued by peculiarity, and the following info is definitely peculiar. If your interests fall into one of the categories below, you qualify and maybe (probably) LOTS of folks you know qualify, too. 

It’s worthy information for anyone interested in...

☙ Anthropology

☙ Architecture

☙ Archaeology

☙ Engineering

☙ History

☙ Languages

☙ Literature

☙ Philosophy
☙ Religion

☙ Sociology

If your interests don’t include any of those categories, you’re welcome to stay and read along anyway.

This post falls into the new By the Way series, Facts & Fiction. You can find the categories listed in the sidebar and the number of how many posts each category (or genre) includes. A click on any of them will populate a list of the posts for you, should you like to read them.

Extraordinary aspects of the Bible’s composition

Here we go!

☙ The Bible was written over a period of 1,500 years

☙ The King James version contains 66 separate books

☙ The books were authored by 40 different people

☙ It’s a unified story written by a physician, a tax collector, kings, fishermen, priests, prophets, scholars, shepherds and warriors

☙ It was written in different nations on three different continents and in different languages

☙ Continents: Asia, Africa and Europe

☙ Africa: Egypt and Ethiopia

                ☙ Asia: Israel, Iraq, Iran and Turkey

                ☙ Europe: Greece and Italy

☙ It contains prophecies and shares wisdom

☙ Many of its prophecies have come to pass and continue to do so at present

☙ Many of the people, places and activities written about in it, continue to be validated and verified by current methods of archaeology and bio-technology

And there you have it. 

It really is peculiar and intriguing stuff! If you’d like to share your thoughts on this phenomenon or see an aspect I missed, please share it in the comments. 

The Wrap!

Thanks for staying to read the whole thing! I hope you’ll share this with any other peculiarity-lovin' folks you know! I admit to having a lot of fun writing in this genre and have several topics to cover in it, in upcoming posts

If you enjoy the content, subscribing is free. You can sign up for an email notification for each edition, near the top of the right sidebar and your information will never be shared, sold or loaned.

That’s it for this one...

Shalom!

Angelia

ShoutOut: The Pour Over

 

Image via ekohernowo of Pixabay

Journalism and coffee–a match made in Heaven!

I enjoy news–especially good news! By that, I’m not always referring to the Gospel, but I admit that most of the time, that’s the deal. However, I’m thankful for good journalism, even when bad news must be reported. 

A quality news platform never takes delight in reporting negative happenings. It operates with integrity and isn't driven to air the negative stuff in order to increase views and subscriptions. Sensationalism has no business in any journalism platform.

Good journalism should inspire thoughtful consideration and contemplation for possible improvements and solutions among their readers, what’s reported isn’t good. That could include raising awareness to help those in a difficult situation, collaborating with their communities and local governments to provide physical help where possible and the most powerful help of all, prayer. 

This type of reporting has been a rare thing for decades. Back in 1982, I landed my first newspaper job as a content proofer (and revisionist) for the Princeton Daily Clarion. Yup, it was a young, news-hound’s dream come true! My first shift began the night after I graduated from Gibson Southern. 

Over the next five months, I went from typing 20 words-per-minute to over 100, developed a lifetime love affair with rich coffee and listened to the truth in Don Henley's song, Dirty Laundry. It was a perfect breakdown of what was going on in a big chunk of newspapers, magazines and televised content around the globe.

Things haven't changed other than a consistently spiking increase in regards to a lack of integrity in a large percentage of journalism platforms. There’s more dirty laundry being shoveled to the masses than ever before and it's available in every format there is, maybe other than smoke signals.

Thankfully though, high-quality, real journalism still exists. There's a growing number of news platforms producing validated information and maintaining readership for it's professionalism rather than sensationalism. Integrity has everything to do with good journalism.

That’s why I’m excited to introduce you to one of my newer, fav sources of real, professional journalism, The Pour Over. 

Click here to visit their website and subscribe

Lemme tell you why...

To keep this short for you, I’m gonna compress it into a little list. 

☙ It’s a Christian operated platform

☙ The content is produced from a neutral perspective

☙ Its sources are valid

☙ It doesn’t rely on sensationalism to gain readership

☙ Truthful reporting is their standard

☙ It’s in digital format so it saves trees and can be read via any of your digital devices

☙ Subscribers get it delivered to their email in short versions a few times a week or the full version, once per week

☙ They have ads that are tasteful and their content is NEVER AD SATURATED

☙ It’s COFFEE THEMED (yeah–I’m smiling so big right now!)

☙ It’s FREE! (Still smiling!)

They also offer some very cool merch. 

The wrap!

Thanks for visiting!

I have high hopes that you’ll at least try them on for size and consider subscribing. They sincerely produce excellent journalism for anyone of any religious affiliation or lack thereof. 

Until next time,

Shalom, shalom!

Angelia

Facts & Fiction: The Resurrection of Yeshua

 Image via Congerdesign of Pixabay

A new series

This is the first post of a new series I hope you’ll find interesting, regardless of which side you lean toward, regarding fact or fiction. Comments are not only welcome, but encouraged, although keeping them civil is a must, else they’ll be deleted.

Let's begin with the method...

A Roman Death

A Roman crucifixion was brutal and there is no record anywhere of anyone ever surviving a full, Roman crucifixion. Yeshua’s great torture and death was witnessed by man on both sides of the fence–His disciples as well as His adversaries. 

Later, accounts of witnesses were written. They covered the entire ordeal from His arrest, to His torture, His death, His entombment and the sealing of His tomb, ordered by the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate.

Pilate didn’t stop there. To ensure His disciples didn’t steal the body and report He had resurrected, he instructed a massive stone to be placed at the entrance and to seal it as best as they knew how.

But, that wasn’t enough. Pilate ordered his official, procurator Roman seal on the stone. The seal would break if the stone were moved.

And, just in case...

He ordered it to be guarded around the clock by a contingent of Roman soldiers. It’s unknown how many were assigned to guard the tomb, but historians suggest a minimum of four soldiers were ordered to be on guard at all times, and about 16 soldiers were nearby in event things got rowdy, and to relieve the guards posted at the entrance.

By the way, (no pun intended), historians and archaeologists agree upon the estimation of the stone’s weight being between 1,500 and 2,000 pounds.

Early Reports

So, why do historians rely on early reports to support the authenticity of historical events? It’s because they can provide firsthand evidence of historical events, and an unfiltered perspective of what people observed and believed at the time.

They’re considered an essential aspect of historical research that historians use to establish an accurate narrative of past events.

I've listed several for you below that include both Christian and non-Christian documents.

Non-Christian Sources

☙ Flavius Josephus: In his work, Antiquities of the Jews (c. 93 AD), Josephus states that Jesus was crucified by Pilate.

☙ Babylonian Talmud: A rabbinic text from the 3rd to 5th centuries AD contains a passage that refers to Jesus's "hanging" execution.

☙ Tacitus: The prominent Roman historian Tacitus, in his Annals, references Christ's execution by Pontius Pilate and his belief in Christ as a historical figure.

☙ Mara bar Serapion: A Syrian philosopher from sometime after 73 AD, Mara refers to the "wise king" of the Jews who was executed by them.

Biblical Sources

☙ The four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all contain documentation describing eyewitness accounts of the torture and crucifixion of Yeshua.

☙ The book of Acts and all of Paul’s letters found in the New Testament contain information on not only the crucifixion and resurrection of Yeshua, but his own encounter with Yeshua after His resurrection.

A modern take

An existing report of the resurrection of Yeshua dates back to within three months of His crucifixion. In the Bible, 1 Corinthians 15 talks about the resurrection of Jesus, analyzed by Dr. James D.G. Dunn (United Kingdom) reported, “We can be entirely confident that this report was written originally, within months of the death of Jesus.” 

Witnesses Recordings

☙ It's documented that over 400 people saw Yeshua alive after his crucifixion.

☙ The first eyewitnesses were women.

☙ Yeshua was entombed in Jerusalem.

☙ The apostles first preached the news of Yeshua’s resurrection in Jerusalem.

☙ The Sanhedrin insisted the disciples stole the body, admitting Yeshua's tomb was empty. The tomb had been sealed and armed, Roman soldiers were stationed, night and day, near the tomb’s entrance. Their orders were to prevent anyone from removing the massive stone blocking the entrance and taking the body of Yeshua.  

☙ Despite having not believed Yeshua would be resurrected, the disciples made a 360° turn around in their belief after encountering groups of people who saw Yeshua, who later came to them, as a group and ministered to them, on multiple occasions before His ascension to Heaven on the Mount of Olives.

Finally...

Image via BRBurton23 of Pixabay

The wrap!

Thank you for visiting today!

I can only add that most Christians believe in the resurrection because we’ve had (and continue to have) very real, personal encounters with Yeshua, in a variety of ways and manifestations.

Once met, it cannot be undone. There is none like Him.

If you haven’t considered Him, sought Him or encountered Him, I pray you do. Only good can come of it and you will never, ever be the same in indescribably wonderful ways.

Shalom!

Angelia