Life as a daughter of a Rabbi was anything but “normal” (well, at least in my opinion!) We weren’t allowed to watch television on Friday evenings or Saturdays, because it was the Jewish Sabbath (Shabbat). Every Friday evening I had to accompany my father to the Synagogue, where everything was read in Hebrew!

I suppose that is where my exposure to Hebrew reading first started. As I sat in the Synagogue, someone would always show me the place in the siddur (prayer book) and give me some Hebrew reading tips to help with pronunciation (quietly of course).

After Synagogue we would go home for the Sabbath meal, and sing songs and read prayers that required me to read Hebrew. As you can see, I had a lot of exposure to reading Hebrew! I think there was some benefit of not having TV available to us, we would sit around and chat, and then eventually I would go to bed and read my favorite novel for ages (one of my favorite memories).

On Saturday morning, we would go back to Synagogue for the Shabbat morning service, and by the time I got older, I was grateful that I had the opportunity to learn how to read Hebrew.