A Karaite tool-kit for teaching Hebrew grammar

Abstract

Medieval Karaites advocated independent interpretation of the Scripture and considered grammatical knowledge indispensable for understanding the true meaning of the Bible. A distinctive stage in the development of the Karaite grammatical tradition is constituted by pedagogical grammars of Biblical Hebrew intended for beginning students. These grammars concentrate on verbal morphology and employ numerous didactic strategies designed to facilitate learning and equip students with tools for the independent investigation of the biblical text. The present article describes the Karaite framework of presenting the verbal morphology of Biblical Hebrew and studies didactic tools developed in Karaite pedagogical grammars, including lucid sample paradigms, the gradual character of presentation, rules of derivational relations, systems of mnemonics, algorithms of parsing verbal forms, and model analyses of biblical passages.