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Parent guide · Grade 1 Biblical Hebrew · Unit 4

Lesson 4.2 Tsade and Qof

Written for the parent. The Read aloud parts are written to your child; read them as they are. Do this parts are for you. Answers for you are marked Listen for.

At a glance

Time
3 sessions of 15–20 minutes
Goal
Point to tsade צ, its end form ץ, and qof ק, and say their names. Say tsaddiq (righteous), erets (earth), qol (voice) and qatsir (harvest). Say the letters from alef to qof.
You need
  • Yellow paper strips
  • A rubber band or yarn
  • A marker
  • A sketchbook or plain paper, and crayons
  • A King James Bible
Print
Worksheet A · the lesson page (it also has a short video (3:56))

Steps

  1. Do this together: Pretend you are in a wheat field at harvest time, cutting the grain and bundling it into sheaves. Swish, swish! In the Bible, a young woman named Ruth worked in a harvest field, and the owner, Boaz, was kind to her.

  2. Read aloud: The story. Ruth loved her mother-in-law Naomi and came with her to Bethlehem. To get food, Ruth gleaned in the barley harvest, gathering the grain the reapers left behind. One day the owner of the field, Boaz, came from Bethlehem and greeted his reapers: The LORD be with you. And they answered him, The LORD bless thee. The Hebrew word for the reapers, הַקּוֹצְרִים, has both a qof and a tsade in it.

    Read aloud: How Hebrew sounds. Tsade says ts, as at the end of cats. At the end of a word it stretches down: ץ, as in אֶרֶץ, erets (earth). Qof says k, a little farther back in the throat; it drops its leg below the line. Say TSAH-deh, tsad-DEEK, KOHF, KOHL, kah-TSEER.

    Read aloud: Say it and move. Hiss like a cat: ts, Tsade! Stamp your foot: erets! (earth). Cup your ear: qol! (voice). Swing a pretend sickle: qatsir!

  3. Do this: Say each word clearly; your child says it back twice. Point to a picture or the real thing when you can.

    • צ ץ (tsade) [TSAH-deh]: the letter tsade: ts as in cats
    • ק (qof) [KOHF]: the letter qof: k
    • צַדִּיק (tsaddiq) [tsad-DEEK]: righteous
    • אֶרֶץ (erets) [EH-rets]: earth, land
    • קוֹל (qol) [KOHL]: voice
    • קָצִיר (qatsir) [kah-TSEER]: harvest
  4. In a golden wheat field under a blue sky, a bearded man in a red cloak and a wide hat gestures toward a young woman in a violet shawl who holds a sheaf of grain; a young man with a staff stands beside him, reapers bend over the grain behind them, another woman cuts wheat with a sickle at the right, and a town and mountains rise in the distance.
    Ruth in Boaz’s Field, Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1828. Image: Wikimedia Commons, public domain

    Do this: Look at the picture together for a quiet minute before anyone talks.

    Read aloud: Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld was a German painter who later made hundreds of Bible pictures. Here Boaz, the owner of the field, meets Ruth for the first time and tells her to stay and glean in his field, where she will be safe.

    Point and find:

    • Find Boaz. What is he wearing?
    • Find Ruth. What is she holding?
    • Find the woman with the sickle.
    • What are the men in the middle doing?

    Ask:

    • “How does Boaz show kindness to Ruth?”
    • “Why do you think Ruth worked so hard?”

  5. Show: Which is he and which is qof? ה ק

    Say this: “Qof’s leg drops below the line.”

    Say this: “He stays on the line.”

    Answer: ה (right) is he; ק (left) is qof.

    Show: Find the end-tsade in אֶרֶץ.

    Say this: “The end is on the left.”

    Say this: “End-tsade drops below the line.”

    Answer: The last letter, ץ.

  6. Do this: Ask out loud. Let your child try first; help only after a real try.

    Ask: What does qol mean?

    Listen for: Voice.

    Ask: What does erets mean?

    Listen for: Earth.

    Ask: Say tsade.

    Listen for: TSAH-deh.

    3 more on the lesson page.

  7. Read aloud: Make a sheaf of paper wheat with harvest words.

    Steps:

    1. On each strip write a word: קָצִיר, קוֹל, צַדִּיק, אֶרֶץ.
    2. Bundle the strips like a sheaf of wheat and tie them.
    3. Pull out a strip, read it, and say what it means.

    Tips for you:

    • Qof drops its leg below the line; he does not.

    Done when your child can say:

    • My sheaf has four harvest words.
    • I can read each one.

  8. Do this: Your child picks one or more; you write the date.

    1. Write צ, ץ and ק. Draw a wheat field beside קָצִיר and the earth beside אֶרֶץ.

  9. Read aloud: Qof became the Greek koppa, and then the Latin and English letter Q. Tsade’s Greek child, the letter san, was dropped early, which is why English has no single letter for ts.

    • Mixing qof ק and he ה. Qof drops below the line.
    • Saying tsade as plain s. It is ts, as in cats.

  11. One person is Boaz and says “The LORD be with you.” The reapers answer “The LORD bless thee.” Then Boaz holds up a letter card; the reapers must name it before they can “reap” (take a strip of paper wheat). Swap roles.

  12. Say this: “Tell me what you learned today.”

    Listen for: Point to tsade צ, its end form ץ, and qof ק, and say their names.; Say tsaddiq (righteous), erets (earth), qol (voice) and qatsir (harvest).; Say the letters from alef to qof.

  13. And, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said unto the reapers, The LORD be with you. And they answered him, The LORD bless thee.

    Ruth 2:4 (KJV)

    In Hebrew, from the Leningrad Codex: <span class="heb-block" lang="he" dir="rtl">וַיֹּאמֶר לַקּוֹצְרִים יְהוָה עִמָּכֶם</span> Boaz greets his reapers, and they bless him back. Find the word for the reapers, laqqotsrim, the second word here: it has a qof and a tsade.

Spread over the week

3 sessions of 15–20 minutes. Stop while it is still going well.

  1. Session 1. Warm-up, then read and teach the new idea and the new words. Picture study and show how.
  2. Session 2. Practice together, then start the project. Finish the project, then the sketchbook.
  3. Session 3. Narration, the game and the Scripture.