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About Hazzan Linda Sue Sohn
About Hazzan Linda Sue Sohn
About Hazzan Linda Sue Sohn  ≼≽  2011 Master's Thesis  ≼≽   Chapter 5  ≼≽   5.6 -- "The Art of Torah Cantillation" by Cantor Marshall Portnoy and Cantor Joseé Wolff (2000)
2011 Master's Thesis
New Orthographic Methods For Teaching Novice Hebrew Readers

Quick links to thesis chapters:
Chapter 5. Review Of Resources Used For B’nei Mitzvah Training
5.6 -- "The Art of Torah Cantillation" by Cantor Marshall Portnoy and Cantor Joseé Wolff (2000)
 

"The Art of Torah Cantillation - A Step-by-Step Guide to Chanting Torah" is a methodical, well structured resource for teaching Torah cantillation. It comes with a CD, so that an accomplished Hebrew reader could acquire these skills independently without the aid of a tutor. There is a companion book for learning how to chant Haftarah text.

The Hebrew text is clear and consistently set in the same point size throughout the entire book. Ample exercises are available in every lesson and each lesson builds on the skills mastered in the previous lessons. Figure 10 below shows a page that gives the reader a chance to demonstrate mastery of etnachta (  ֑  ), sof‑pasuk (  ֽ  ), and katon (  ֔  ), phrases in several verses found in the book of Genesis. The page is nicely laid out with instructions on what to do, the practice Hebrew text, a translation and the same practice Hebrew text in Torah script without vowels.


Figure 10
Figure 10:
The Art of Torah Cantillation,,
pg. 35

Many of the te'amim are so large that they do not appear to be in the same font as the text and the vowels. If the authors used this exaggerated style for all of the te'amim, then this might be visually helpful to the novice Hebrew reader as an aid to distinguish the te'amim from the vowels. As it is, the appearance of some of the te'amim makes the text appear a bit odd to this author. The overall text layout is a bit tight in terms of spacing between words and lines for readers with any visual processing issues.


 
 
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