I thought I was too old to make this dream come true

My fascination with Sarah’s story is matched only by my fascination with dreams. Today’s installment brings both of those passions together. Plus inspiration to keep your dreams alive!

Welcome back to The Life of H: Sarah, Reimagined, where I am translating Sarah’s story, verse by verse, from biblical Hebrew into poetic and restorative English.

Today I share my translation of Genesis Chapter 20 verses 3-5, in which after Abraham apparently hands Sarah over to King Abimelech as another wife or concubine, God confronts the king in a dream.

Keep following along week-by-week to learn what I think is really going on here!

But first! Let’s celebrate.

A year and a half ago, the idea that I might ever have the skills to translate Sarah’s story from biblical Hebrew would have been no more than a pipe dream! In fact I was convinced that I’m too old to learn a new language. That boat, I thought, had certainly sailed.

But, I finally decided that old as I am, I’ll never be this young again. So, as Hillel famously said, I decided: If not now, when?

As you know from reading this publication, for the past 16 months I’ve been plodding along in a Biblical Hebrew Certification Course through the Jewish Theological Seminary.

And this week … I graduated!🌟🚀🌟🚀🌟🚀🌟🚀

Don’t be fooled by this photo. I enhanced my Zoom-box with a screenshot of a past graduation to honor the occasion. But the joy of the celebration is genuine.

Rabbi Akiva and me

I had low expectations for my ability to follow along in the course (I had very little knowledge of Hebrew beyond knowing the alphabet and a handful of prayer-words to start) let alone reach my goal of being able to translate Sarah’s story for myself.

But on the first day of our course, and again at our graduation, our teacher shared the story of Rabbi Akiva, a great scholar and sage of the first century.

At age 40, Akiva was an illiterate shepherd who had never studied anything in his life. And yet, he was thirsty for knowledge.

Rather than become discouraged, he was inspired by observing a well in a field. It didn’t appear overnight, he concluded; it was created over time by an accumulation of drops of rain hitting stone.

Drip by drip, soft water carved solid rock.

“Drip by drip,” our teacher encouraged us, “you will learn to read and translate biblical Hebrew.”

And so we did! For our final projects, my classmates and I each translated a chapter of the Torah. I’ll be sharing mine with you, here, over the next few weeks.

If I thought I was too old to learn biblical Hebrew, I was humbled and inspired by our class’s graduation speaker, a woman in her mid-80s who passed the course with flying colors! (Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash)

What dream have you put aside because you thought it’s too late or too difficult to accomplish? Maybe it’s time to claim that dream: One drip, one step, at a time!

When the dream speaks …

In today’s audio I read my poetic and restorative translation of Genesis Chapter 20, verses 3-5. After Abraham apparently hands Sarah over to King Abimelech as another wife or concubine, God confronts the king in a dream. Listen in, and then keep reading to learn how I came to the admittedly unconventional (you might even say radical) conclusions that appear in my version.

Check out this Table of (evolving) Contents to catch up on any verses you might have missed.

About that paywall

Some of the best stuff, including the translations and poems, are behind a paywall. That’s because while this is a labor of love it’s also hard work and valuable work. If you believe in this project and want to support it (in any amount!) become a paying subscriber.

(If the standard price prevents you, use this link to pay-what-you-choose.)