Author

About Chaim Bentorah Ministries

Mission Statement

We are a ministry dedicated to encouraging Christians to study the Word of God through the original Hebrew language, fostering a dependency on the Holy Spirit to lead the Believer into a deeper knowledge of the Word of God. Feeding a growing hunger among Believers to study the Biblical languages in order to gain deeper insight into the heart of God, resulting in growing in greater intimacy with Jesus.

About Chaim

Chaim received his B.A. degree from Moody Bible Institute in Jewish Studies and his M.A. degree from Denver Seminary in Old Testament and Hebrew and his PhD in Biblical Archeology.  His Doctoral Dissertation was on the “Esoteric Structure of the Hebrew Alphabet.”  He has taught Classical Hebrew at World Harvest Bible College for thirteen years and also taught Hebrew for three years as a language course for Christian Center High School.  He is presently teaching Biblical Hebrew and Greek to pastors in the Metro Chicago area.

Chaim has a book and manual entitled Learning God’s Love Language publish by True Potential Media which offers a guide for anyone regardless of their background to do Hebrew Word studies. He also has a book of animal stories entitled Biblical Truths from Uncle Otto’s Farm. These are stories he told when he worked his way through Bible college as a ventriloquist. His first book Hebrew Word Study Revealing The Heart of God published by Whitaker House has been listed as a best seller on Amazon  and he has just signed a contract with Whitaker House to publish a second Hebrew Word Study Revealing the Mind of God to be released in the fall of 2019. This is his third book with Whitaker House the second book is A Hebrew Teacher’s Journey into Silence to be released in the fall of 2017. These books are not the usual type of Word study which Christians are familiar.   He leans very heavily upon Jewish teachings and their use of the Esoteric Hebrew and presents it in a devotional format to address the emotion context of each Hebrew word.

Chaim attended undergraduate and graduate school during the time that the New International Version of the Old Testament was being translated.  Every Hebrew instructor he studied under was involved in the translation process.  His classes focused on the methods of translation and the particular passages that these instructors were assigned by the NIV translation committee.   He was one of two students who were involved in an advanced Hebrew study under Dr. Kalland at Denver Seminary whom Chaim Bentorah considered to be his mentor.  Dr. Kalland was on the executive committee for the translation of the NIV and it was in this study that Chaim Bentorah was exposed to the inner workings of the translation process. He remembers becoming very discouraged over the lack of depth in many of the renderings and as a result his teacher encouraged him to seek out Jewish rabbis and discuss their theories of translation.

Chaim managed to have discussions with orthodox and esoteric rabbis and from them he learned that you could translate the Hebrew not only word for word, but letter by letter.  Although he never incorporated their methods of study and translation in his own teachings while he served as an instructor in Classical Hebrew at World Harvest Bible College, he did spend the last thirty five years reading and translating from the Talmud, Mishnah and other Jewish sacred books the methods of study that rabbis through the centuries have recorded from Jewish literature.

A number of years ago he began to send out daily devotionals/Word Studies through e-mail to about 150 of his former students.  Each devotional took a passage of Scripture and did a study on the key words of each verse.  In these studies he began to use the tools he learned from his research and discussion with rabbis translating letter by letter for many words he was studying. He would often spend six to eight hours a day in such studies.

Chaim is presently devoting his time researching Hebrew words from the Semitic languages and teachings in the Jewish Talmud and continues to write daily word studies that are posted on this site in a devotional format.  He teaches classes in Hebrew word study on the subscription based Access Website and is preparing to offer college level classes in Hebrew grammar, Aramaic and Greek in live online classes which will be offered on his Access Website.

ABOUT BENTORAH

Laura Bertone is the “Bentorah” of Chaim Bentorah. She has served in ministry for thirty years and has been Chaim’s study partner for over a decade. She is currently going through the process of certification to become a foster parent, as well as carrying on the administrative work of Chaim Bentorah Ministries and assisting Chaim in his word studies She is the co-author with Chaim on the newest book with Whitaker House, Hebrew Word Study Revealing the Mind of God which is to be released in the summer of 2019. Additionally, she is preparing podcasts and live classes on dream interpretation using the Bible and Hebrew as a basis for the interpretation. Laura has a passion for holistic living and nutrition and how it is reflected in the Hebrew language. She will be offering classes on the All Access subscription site on dream interpretation, and the holistic nature, beauty, and design of Biblical Hebrew.