I'm told to "forget it, it's America."
"It" is Jews who stand up as representatives of the congregation and read - quite well - the Hebrew prayers yet DON'T COMPREHEND WHAT THEY ARE READING..
To this scrivener, it is bad enough that they don't know basic Hebrew, but to lead the services sans any understanding of the prayers is chutzpah.
It's not a matter of failing to comprehend a word here or there; these folks can't put together a simple Hebrew phrase. Tell them
and you get a blank stare. Check (תבדק) if there is (יש אם) someone (מישהו) on the way (בדרך) (to complete the minyan)?
All the words above are found in the sedur with the possible exception of the future tense תבדק.
The kids study humash; in yeshiva the emphasis is on the talmuds and the language is largely Aramaic.
Nothing wrong with studying Biblical Hebrew or Aramaic, but most students of those languages can only read them; they cannot SPEAK them or UNDERSTAND them.
In my not-at-all-humble opinion, "Hebrew" school is a misnomer.
I DO know some American young people who do speak/comprehend Hebrew, but they are in the minority. I'm not sure from whom they learned Hebrew, but for some, Hebrew is their first language.
My spouse is a Jewish educator in all respects of the title. She tells me Biblical Hebrew is NOT the same as "modern" Hebrew.
No argument from me when it comes to tenses - past and future are reversed between the two Hebrews.
But the WORDS; the Torah's words are for the most part alive and well in modern Hebrew.
Consider the opening verses of Lech Lakah:
For the most part, anyone who learned basic Hebrew, including future tense, and who can identify a word's root (shoresh) ought to be able to at least "get the gist" of the words.
Some words are "hidden" by their prefixes and suffixes, but with a little effort the reader can uncover the shoresh. For example, anyone who regularly prays the New Moon service can extract מולד with its partially hidden three-letter shoresh, ילד from ממולדתך (from the land of your birth).
Likewise אעשך -"I will do for you."
There will be words that the typical ulpanist or eighth grade Hebrew language student will ponder and head to a dictionary, but I contend that MOST of Biblical Hebrew, if Lech Lakah's opening verses are any example - and I think they are - should be understandable. (I am not a "typical" ulpanist* - I was in the "slow learner" class; nothing to brag about, but something to give hope to others.)
I don't expect anyone - certainly those who, like this scrivener, have Hebrew as a second or third language - to read and comprehend at the speed of the Torah reader; that's why we have a week to take our time with the portion. An aliyah each day, with one day doubled up.
Reading the aliyot will improve your Hebrew reading skills AND your understanding of what the Torah is telling us. A win-win situation.
Now, I'm going off to practice what I preach.>
* Kibbutz Netzer Serini, Be'er Yakov, Spring 1975/P>
