hallelujah!

I want to make sure that each one of you, the readers of the blessings on the Hebrew Word of the Day, realizes that the call to prefer saying special blessings in Hebrew is not coming from a conceited heart. Without a doubt, the Lord harkens to any prayer or blessing in any tongue, and to the same extent, even to the mute who can only tap a prayer on a table. Hebrew, however, is without a doubt as well, God’s intimate tongue in which He gave his first Word to the world. In Genesis 1:3, He does not say: ‘Let there be light.’ English is too weak to fully capture the words that God says there. He says in pure Hebrew: ‘Be light!’ ‘Let there be’ is a weak phrase that requires mediation and suggests a pause between uttering the words and the action that takes place afterwards. In Hebrew, there is no such pause – ‘Be light’ and ‘there has been light.’ ‘Be’ is used as an imperative, a command that needs no external interference or gap of time. In other words, God’s word itself is the action and the result simultaneously! But furthermore…the word that God uses to create is HIS OWN NAME! More correctly, a main part of His name. ‘Be’ in Hebrew is ‘Ye•hi.’ It is made with the letters ‘Yood,’ ‘Hey,’ ‘Yood.’ Each letter on its own stands in Hebrew for God’s name. Moreover, when you put together ‘Yood’ and ‘Hey’ you get the name, ‘YA,’ like the ending of the phonetic, ‘Ha•le•lu•YA,’ ‘Praise God,’ (and forget the ‘J’ you see in the English spelling of this word. the sound ‘J’ does not even exist in Hebrew).

The complete essence Name of the Lord is spelled with the letters ‘Yood’ ‘Hey’ ‘Vav’ ‘Hey.’ You may have noticed that ‘Vav’ also appears in the Hebrew spelling of ‘HA•LE•LU•YA.’ It means a ‘hook’ today, and in ancient Hebrew, word pictures ‘Vav’ also means ‘a nail.’

You know that His Book – the Torah – was written in Hebrew and so was the Book of Psalms. This is His intimate tongue in which He writes, and this is the tongue in which David praises Him in his book, Psalms. Ha•le•lu•ya!