Lesson 3 · Stage 1

Let there be light

Understand the dagesh, read vav as a vowel, and read Genesis 1:3

וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים יְהִי אוֹר וַיְהִי־אוֹר

wayyōmer 'ĕlōhîm yəhî 'ôr wayhî-'ôr

"And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light." (Gen 1:3)

Every letter in this verse is one you already know. What is new is how they behave: a dot that changes or doubles a letter, and vav acting as a vowel.

1. Four new letters

That gives you four of the five final forms: ם ץ ך ף. The last, ן, comes in Lesson 4.

2. The six "BeGaD KePhaT" letters

Six letters have two pronunciations, hard with a dot and soft without. Their names make a memory word, begadkefat: ב ג ד כ פ ת.

In practice you only need to hear the difference in three: b/v, k/ch, p/f. The other three sound the same either way today.

When is it soft? A begadkefat letter goes soft right after a vowel sound. At the start of a word, or after a consonant with no vowel, it stays hard and takes a dot. That is why it is בָּרָא (start of a word, hard) but אָב (after a vowel, soft).

3. Two jobs for one dot: dagesh

The dot inside a letter is called dagesh. It does one of two things.

Dagesh lene ("weak"): only in the six begadkefat letters. It just makes the letter hard: בּ = b.

Dagesh forte ("strong"): in almost any letter. It doubles it: שּׁ = šš, מּ = mm.

How to tell them apart: if a full vowel comes right before the dot, it is doubling. A letter can't be soft and hard at once after a vowel, so the dot must mean something else.

A dagesh forte inside a begadkefat letter does both jobs at once: בּ in שַׁבָּת is hard and doubled.

4. Vav as a vowel

If a vav has a dot on top or in its middle and no other vowel, it is a vowel. If it has its own vowel, it is the consonant v: in דָּוִד (dā-wid, said da-vid) the vav carries a hireq, so it is a consonant.

5. The maqaf

The short line high between words in וַיְהִי־אוֹר is a maqaf, a hyphen. It joins two words so they are said as one unit with one stress. It doesn't change their meaning.

6. Reading the verse

In וַיְהִי the doubling of the yod drops out because the yod has only a shewa. Hebrew often does this, so read way-hî, not way-yə-hî.

7. Syntax: the narrative chain

Look at how the verse starts and ends: וַיֹּאמֶר "and he said" ... וַיְהִי "and there was". Both have the same shape: וַ + a doubled letter + the verb. This form is called wayyiqtol, and it is the backbone of all Hebrew narrative. Each one moves the story one step forward: and then... and then... and then...

Genesis 1:1 used a plain verb, בָּרָא. From 1:3 on, the creation account runs on a chain of wayyiqtols: and he said, and there was, and he saw, and he separated, and he called. When the chain breaks, the writer is usually pausing to give background or contrast. Learning to see that is one of the biggest steps in reading Hebrew well, and it is a main theme of Stage 3.

Between the two wayyiqtols sits יְהִי, "let there be". That is not a narrative step but the words God speaks: a command form.

8. Read these

Exercises

Type your answers in plain letters: sh for š, a for ā; hyphens and accents don't matter.