20. Resh | Paleo Hebrew Alphabet | Genesis in Hebrew, Counting Our Blessings, a Pop Quiz, and more
Reading Genesis 1:1 in Paleo Hebrew, and what it means to be blessed.
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Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction to the Hebrew letter Resh and the word Rosh
1:54 Genesis 1:1 in Paleo Hebrew
3:49 Word study: Arets (earth, land)
4:58 Singing Genesis 1:1
5:21 Looking for Resh in the biblical timeline
6:41 Pop quiz: How the root word rosh is used throughout the Bible
11:00 Look-alike root words
13:06 Consider the birds of the air
13:46 The Hebrew word Barak (to bless) & how GOD blesses us
14:52 How we can bless THE LORD
16:02 Keeping your head in the game
17:20 Song: How I Long to See the House
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Transcript:
Dawson: Today’s letter is resh, and it’s a picture of man’s head. If you think about how the word “head” is used in language today, you will have a pretty good idea of how Father uses the letter resh in Hebrew.
In English for example, we use the terms head coach and head of the department to speak of leaders. We call the top of a document its header or its heading. And if you want to know where a river begins, you look for its headwaters.
The letter resh is used in Hebrew words to means all of those same things, leader, top, and beginning. It’s also used to simply mean man and of course, head.
The Hebrew word that corresponds to the letter resh is the word rosh. So resh is the letter and rosh is the word. Both mean head.
We see the word rosh in the very first line of Genesis which is what I was singing at the beginning of this episode. We are going to read today from the Book of Genesis in Hebrew and see if we can apply what we’ve learned so far in the series to understanding Father’s words.
If you are just joining us and you don’t know any Hebrew yet, stick around. Genesis is a great place to start.
The first verse of Genesis reads, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” In the Original Hebrew, that verse would look like this. We are going to read this together and we will go through each of the words and we will do a word study of one of the words in here with the letter resh.
So starting at the top right, “Beresheet bara eloheem. Et hashamayim veet haarets.” This first letter beyt is a picture of a house, and the same way that you live in your house, the letter beyt is added to the beginning of Hebrew words to mean in.
Resheet is the Hebrew word for beginning. So behresheet means in the beginning.
Bara eloheem, this phrase means Eloheem created. One thing that you will notice if you are just starting out reading Hebrew is that the word order maybe different than you’re used to. In English, we would say, “John went to the store.” But in Hebrew, you would say, “He went John to the store.” And we see the same thing here in the first verse of Genesis. In English it says, “In the beginning, Eloheem created.” But in the Hebrew, it actually says, “In the beginning created Eloheem.”
And the very next words are going to tell us what it is that Eloheem created. The next words are, Et ha which means the, shamayim, heavens. Ve which means and et ha, the, arets, earth. This word arets is Father’s word for earth and land.
One meaning that the letters alef and resh both share is that they can both be used to mean strong.
The last letter here tsade is a picture of a man lying down. So put it all together, and this word arets is a picture of something incredibly strong that Father laid down for us. The earth if you think about it is strong enough for us to build on it, for us to dig through it. We can drive on it and it can withstand the weight of all of the people on the arets. So alef, strong. Resh, strong, tsade, laid down. The arets is something very strong that Father laid down for us, beresheet, in the beginning.
And also, beresheet, in the beginning, all mankind knew this language. They knew Father’s language. And one day soon, the Ruach Eloheem, the Spirit of God, is going to make it so that we all know His language again.
Carlos: Okay. So for a lot of us, being from the lost tribes, our pasts are a little foggy and we don’t really know what had happened but this timeline that we have on fathersalphabet.com sure gives it a brand new look.
Now, being this resh, I started looking for – all the way from Adam and it took 1,788 years before someone is born with a name that starts with the resh. And that’s our forefather, Reu. That would be resh ayin.
Dawson: Yes.
Carlos: So being a good instructor, what would those two letters mean?
Dawson: His name is based off of the word for friend in Hebrew.
Carlos: Reu.
Dawson: Reu.
Carlos: That’s pretty nice. Oh, by the way, he was born in the year 2400 BC exactly.
Dawson: We think.
Carlos: We think. Okay. Well, this timeline is pretty on.
Dawson: You know what’s one thing interesting about the timeline is if you go all the way to the end to our present day is you will see that it’s time for a pop quiz.
Carlos: Pop quiz! Here we go! Another one.
Dawson: Yes.
Carlos: Okay. Theb’banim have been wanting a pop quiz for a while now so …
Dawson: Yes. This is by request of the viewers.
Carlos: Yeah, by mass request.
Dawson: So the word in Hebrew that corresponds to today’s letter resh is the word rosh.
Carlos: Rosh.
Dawson: And at the beginning of the episode, we showed everyone what are the main meanings of the word rosh but I’ll go ahead and put that on screen for everybody. But you don’t need a recap because you are a Paleo Hebrew expert.
Carlos: Oh, here we go.
Dawson: So what I’m going to do is I’m going to …
Carlos: All right, folks. She is going to try to stump me.
Dawson: Yes. I’m going to read you a verse from the Bible that has the root word rosh in it.
Carlos: Okay. And you tell me what the rosh in that sentence means.
Carlos: Okay. Let’s do this.
Dawson: Okay. So the first one is “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy rosh and thou shalt bruise his heel.”
Carlos: Head.
Dawson: Yes.
Carlos: Ping! One for me.
Dawson: I will do that, yeah. Next one is, “And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower whose rosh may reach unto heaven.”
Carlos: Whose top may reach unto heaven.
Dawson: You got it.
Carlos: Folks, it helps to know the Bible too.
Dawson: Yeah. Yeah. “And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four rashim.”
Carlos: Four heads of the river.
Dawson: Yes.
Carlos: All right. I’m doing pretty good so far.
Dawson: So far so good. “And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month on the first day of the month, were the rashey of the mountains seen.”
Carlos: Rashey, the tops.
Dawson: Yes, you go it.
Carlos: Tops.
Dawson: This one is from Deuteronomy. “So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men, and known, and made them rashim over you, captains over thousands.”
Carlos: Leaders.
Dawson: Yes, you go it.
Carlos: All right. I’m doing pretty good.
Dawson: Now, this one is a two-fer.
Carlos: Atwo-fer, here we go.
Dawson: Yes.
Carlos: Okay. This is fun.
Dawson: There are two with the rosh root word. This is from Exodus. “This month shall be unto the rosh of months; it shall be the rishon month of the year to you.”
Carlos: The first month of the year.
Dawson: Okay. Good. Yes. What about the Rosh …
Carlos: It shall be the main month, the head month.
Dawson: Beginning.
Carlos: Beginning. You got me. So ping, one wrong.
Dawson: No, no. I give you half a point for that one.
Carlos: Half a point for that.
Dawson: Half a point, yeah. Next one is, “And he dreamed and behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the rosh of it reached the heaven.”
Carlos: And the top reached the heaven. See folks? Top, lead, leader, a head, the very tops, the best of the best.
Dawson: Yes.
Carlos: The beginning.
Dawson: Now, this one is really cool. It’s the last one.
Carlos: Let’s see.
Dawson: This is when the Prophet Micah is talking about when Father regathers the tribes of Israel and He says, Father speaking, He says, “I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah… … and their king shall pass before them, and YHVH at their rosh.”
Carlos: At their lead.
Dawson: At their head.
Carlos: At their head. Wow! That’s a great scripture.
Dawson: Yeah.
Carlos: All right. That was pretty good.
Dawson: Pretty good I would say. I would give you about a 99.5% on that one.
Carlos: Yeah. She got – now folks, guess what? I also have a pop quiz for Dawson. That’s a surprise, right? So it took 1788 years for Reu to be born.
Dawson: Okay.
Carlos: First one with a resh. It means mountaineer It means fellow. It means friend. It means fellow companion. It also means herder. It also means [0:11:16]mountain man.
Dawson: Yeah, that’s same word for shepherd and …
Carlos: Shepherd. Shepherd of sheep. Shepherd in the mountain. It means a lot of things. And a good friend.
Now, I notice in our Ayin episode, let me just flip it and it’s the same letters, resh ayin. But in this case, it’s evil.
Dawson: Yes.
Carlos: Now, could you explain how this happened?
Dawson: That is a great point. So in Hebrew, sometimes you will see a word that is spelled exactly the same as another word but it has a completely different meaning. And so, you need to take a look at the verse …
Carlos: Before …
Dawson: … what comes before and what comes after to know what is the word that you are dealing with. So yes, the letter resh ayin in some cases is the word evil.
Carlos: Evil. So just to clarify, I don’t want really a pop quiz here but …
Dawson: I’m ready. I’m ready.
Carlos: Okay. Let’s see the word.
Dawson: Okay.
Carlos: So the man was ra unto this other man because he stole his oxen.
Dawson: Evil.
Carlos: The man was reu unto this man because he helped him out and fed him when he needed it.
Dawson: He was a friend.
Carlos: The man helped the reu with his sheep.
Dawson: The shepherd.
Carlos: The man found a real reu that helped him through life in this man.
Dawson: A friend.
Carlos: Pretty good, 4 for 4. Nice pop quizzes.
Dawson: Yay! All right.
Carlos: Well, I hope the b’banim enjoyed it and we love pop quizzes here.
Dawson: Yashua told us to consider the birds of the air so we are going to spend a little bit of time doing that today. In our case, we will be considering the Blue Jays that seem to enjoy nesting under this umbrella. Yashua said that these guys don’t sow seed, neither do they reap or gather into barns. Yet, our Father makes it so that they have plenty of food wherever they go.
Consider also the lilies of the field, he says. They don’t toil or have to make their own clothes. Everything the flowers and the birds have is because Father provides it for them. They are blessed.
To bless in Hebrew is barak, beyt resh kaf. By the letters, it’s a picture of what Father puts in man’s hand. Barak is the word for to bless. Berakah is a blessing and birkot is many blessings.
Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.
These are just a few examples of the many birkot that Father has given us. We will inherit His earth. He is giving us the kingdom. He fills us with His righteousness. He gives us mercy and comfort and adopts us as His own children. We are really blessed.
It’s easy enough to see how Father puts things into our hands to bless us since He created everything and has everything to give. But what if we want to bless Him? This word barak also shows that it’s in man’s hand to bless the Lord.
King David asked Father to accept his prayers as incense and the lifting up of his kaf as the evening sacrifice. That’s taking the kaf that Father has barak and lifting them back up to Him to give Him thanks and to ask Him to do whatever He wants with whatever He has put into our hands.
Okay. So today’s letter is resh, which is the picture of a man’s head. So 60 seconds, any word or phrase you can think of that has the word head in it?
Dawson: Yeah, rua.
Dawson: No, head, like the word head in English.
Dawson: Oh, headache, heading, headstrong, ahead. I said headache. Yeah, I said headache. Heady.
Dawson: You know, I’ve been preparing for this segment for about a month and I couldn’t think of as many words as you’ve already said. What else you got? What else you got?
Dawson: Let’s see.
Dawson: Are you scratching your head?
Dawson: Yes, I’m scratching my head. I can’t think of anything.
Dawson: Should we head back home?
Dawson: Sure. Let’s head back home. Let’s go straight ahead.
Dawson: And with that, we are headed to the song portion of this episode. Next time around, we will talk about the Hebrew letter shin. See you guys.
[End of transcript]
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