The magic of language

Today in Hebrew we learned about 30 new words. Our Hebrew teacher has a way of telling us stories about the language that makes it come alive. I was terrified of Hebrew before I got to school, and while it's still difficult it's also beautiful. We spent about half of the class reading from Genesis in Hebrew. Now, we could give you the gist, but we don't know what individual words mean, at this point it's just reading and listening. Getting your ears used to hearing the Hebrew and your mouth used to saying it. A few weeks into the semester Carson had us sing a verse from the Psalms in Hebrew, it was probably the coolest moment I've had in seminary. Hearing the language, the language that thousands upon thousands of people have read and sung before me, the connection to the greater world of faith was tangible. Today's experience was just as beautiful but very different. We were going over our vocab words and got to the word "Torah". Now, I imagine we're all familiar with the word, it is what the Jewish faith has as their holy book, we Christians call the Torah the Old Testament. Literally Torah means"law or The Law", this is where Carson makes the language dance. He was talking about how it doesn't mean the law like what you break when you get in trouble, it means the law as in 'the way home'. The things you do to find your way home. Home, naturally, being the Kingdom of Heaven. I know I'm not relating it well, you really have to just be there to absorb his passion for the language and translation and his love for it is just palpable.
Fast forward to 7ish tonight. For one of my classes I have to attend a church and teach some sort of lesson there. I'm going to be attending a lectionary* bible study and then teaching it for my class. So tonight I went and it was the first night and here is the first half of the passage we read (the second half not so important)

34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:

36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

And I read this passage and immediately thought of Hebrew. And thought of the translation of Torah, and of The Law being the way home, and of the greatest law, the greatest commandment to be loving God, loving yourself and loving your neighbor. It really just hit me how that is the way home. Love is the way home.

update...i emailed something like this to my hebrew prof and here is part of what he replied

"Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law (Torah) of Christ." That is the way home or there is no way and there is no home.



*A lectionary is a book or listing that contains a collection of scripture readings appointed for worship on a given day or occasion. So we're studying the bible passages that will be used on Sunday for the sermon.