Some of the hardest weeks of my life were spent in an intensive eight week Hebrew course at Princeton Seminary. For those two months, Hebrew was my life. Morning, noon, and night, my time was filled with mastering vocabulary, deciphering grammar, and conjuring up English translations for this very old, very strange language that the writers of the Old Testament used to describe their experiences of God. Because biblical Hebrew is not something one really has an opportunity to speak these days, the focus of this course was on developing a reading knowledge. We spent lots of time learning about what Hebrew says and means, but very little time practicing how Hebrew sounds. In fact, the only assignment we had in the vocalization of this ancient language was the first few verses of Genesis. Sin…