Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Abraham and Sarah - Names

וְהָיָה שִׁמְךָ אַבְרָהָםbut will be your name Abraham (Genesis 17:5)
[vehayah shemka avraham]
לֹא-תִקְרָא אֶת-שְׁמָהּ שָׂרָי: כִּי שָׂרָה שְׁמָהּ. you will not call her name Sarai: for Sarah is her name (Genesis 17:15)
[lo-tiqra et-shema Sarai: ki Sarah shema]
What will we do with a name? There are some lovely lessons about Hebrew in the above phrases - for a later lesson.

We are still at the beginning of a long process. One cannot be in a hurry. We will introduce the letter ה and we have a plan to hand out laminated names - I think we can put them in a pile and see whether the children can identify their own name. As you can see from this post, their names are differing lengths. I wonder what clues the children will use to find their own.

3 comments:

AnnaLouise Ford said...

SO here is this week's lesson.

Genesis, chapters 12-15 and 24.

Abram and Sarai start out at Ur, are told by God to move to Haran. The move to Haran along the great Euphrates. Then God told them to move to Canaan. Lot came with them. They got to Shechem and built an altar to God, because God had led them there and God stayed with them. They then came to Bethel, and they made an altar there too, because God was there, too. GOd told them to settle at Hebron, near the oaks of Mamre. God told Abram that he ould have a son with Sarai and that the members of their family would be as many as the the grains of sand in the desert or stars in the sky. God changed their names to Sarah and Abraham. They had a son and named him Isaac which means "laughter". Sarah died at Hebron, and Abraham sent his helper back to Haran to choose a wife for his son Isaac. The helper found Rebekah and brought her back to be a wife for Isaac. After Isaac and Rebekah married, Abraham then died. Isaac and Rebekah had children, and their children had children, and this went on for thousands of years until your grandmothers and grandfathers had children, and these are your fathers and mothers - you are part of this great family.

AnnaLouise Ford said...

The words that I think are important, if you want to introduce them, are as follows...

Ur
Haran
Hebron
Isaac

and of course the names Abram - Abraham and Sari - Sarah.

Bob MacDonald said...

Nice - thanks. I think I will stick with Abraham and Sarah as two examples. I want to hand out the children's names and point to the h's in their names. Haran חרן like Hebron חברון is the stronger more gutteral Ch rather than H ה - this latter letter, called 'he', the fifth, has a little space in it, where chet, the eighth letter has none.

I will have the Hebrew Bible with me and may, if it seems feasible, use it to show the text where Abraham's and Sarah's names are changed.

(Interestingly, ruach, the Hebrew for Spirit, has chet, not 'he' so the idea that h represents the spirit - though fun, is not exactly accurate.)

Ur אור looks exactly like the Hebrew for light! I think it too early for this lesson in 'seeing' homonyms!