Hebrew doesn't work like any other language on Earth. Every letter of the Hebrew alphabet has a unique meaning, and this allows speakers to piece together words in a way that resembles the chemical language, where symbols directly represent substances. In this video, we explore the fascinating world of Hebrew letter meanings and how they can help us understand the essence of words. For example, the letter bet means a house, and this can be seen in words like "bayit" (house) and "beit knesset" (synagogue, literally "house of assembly"). Similarly, the letter nun means a seed, and this can be seen in words like "netzer" (shoot, sprout) and "gan" (garden). This unique feature of the Hebrew alphabet has fascinated scholars and speakers for centuries, and it continues to be a rich source of exploration and discovery. Sometimes I forget that the concept of the alphabet was invented by the Canaanite people. Most other written language forms were pictographic at the time (i.e. to represent a man, you draw a stick figure of a man). But when the Canaanites developed the alphabet, they created a more abstract system that used individual letters to represent sounds. However, because the Hebrew language evolved from this more visual form of communication, it maintained some aspects of the pictographic writing system. This means that the Hebrew letters not only represent sounds, but also carry deeper meanings and symbolisms. In contrast, when the Greeks and Romans later adopted the technology of the alphabet, they removed many of these dimensions, reducing it to a simple system of arbitrary symbols that represent arbitrary sounds. Whether you're a language lover, a student of Hebrew, or just curious about the world around you, this video is sure to spark your imagination and leave you with a deeper appreciation for the beauty and complexity of language. I will say, I don't think that every single word in modern Hebrew can be broken down and analyzed using these techniques, but this concept does at least exist as a poetic ideal of the language; that you should be able to look at the symbols of word and understand the substance. Full Lecture from Rabbi Mordechai Kraft (@EMETOutreach ) "The Hebrew Language the DNA of Creation" https://youtu.be/HmHA-YMn_HQ 00:00 - Nylon: How English Names Work 01:10 - The Premise of Hebrew 01:28 - Aleph 02:10 - Bet 04:04 - The Chemical Language 05:08 - Genesis 1 06:09 - Examples 07:23 - Obsessed with Names