BMitzvah ProTM

Owner’s Guide


Shalom Friend,

Thank you for using BMitzvah ProTM, the #1 Bar/Bat Mitzvah training program for professionals!

The main purpose of this program is to help train your students for their Bar/Bat Mitzvah, and help to make your collective experience a positive and rewarding one. BMitzvah ProTM contains the complete set of weekly Haftara and Torah portions, the blessings before and after the readings, and a special tutorial for learning the cantillation. BMitzvah ProTM has special features that will help your students pronounce every syllable of every word in Hebrew, and learn the melodies at their own pace and in a comfortable musical key.

One of the most important features is that you can print out any verse or portion in Hebrew, with/without vowels and trop, in any size font you choose, and for those that need extra help you have a whole range of transliteration options which makes teaching and learning to read Hebrew even easier.

Wishing you great success.

Sincerely,
Your friends at levlogo


Install

Insert CD in drive. Setup program should start automatically. If it does not, click Start | Run and type D:Setup and click OK, assuming D: is the drive letter.
Substitute drive letter if different.

Register

The program must be registered. This is so that we can give you the best support possible. Double-click on the BMitzvah ProTM icon. Find the 8-digit Serial Number on the top-left corner of the Registration screen and click here: Register Program to fill out the form. You will receive a license within 24 hours.

Your registered program will only work on the computer which generated the serial number in its current configuration.
You may purchase an additional license for $10.00 from Lev Software. (See support section for Lev Software contact information.)

Running the program

Click on your BMitzvah ProTM icon, and you will see the LEV SOFTWARE banner on your screen and hear beautiful classical music by Bach playing. Enjoy listening to it, or go right into the program by clicking your mouse.

How to best use "BMitzvah ProTM"
Read:

When Hebrew appears on your screen, try to read it. Hebrew is read from right to left. If you need help reading a word, left-click on that word. You will hear the syllable spoken, and see the transliteration of that syllable on the bottom-left of your screen. You may also see the transliteration of each syllable directly under each Hebrew syllable, when the transliteration button is clicked.

To hear more than one syllable, left-click where you wish to start, then click on one of the speech icons. Repeat over and over by clicking the speech icon.
You will learn how to read Hebrew by associating the shapes you see highlighted with the sound you hear.

Understand:

Right-click on any Hebrew text, and you will get the English translation of that verse in the middle of your screen. Click again to go to a different verse.

Print:

You have many options when it comes to printing your selected Prayers:
Hebrew with/without vowels, Hebrew text only, Hebrew with English transliteration.
Click on the Transliteration icon to turn the feature on and off and make your selection from all the options. Experiment with re-sizing the window, transliteration under or on the side, and the size of the font, found under the Options Menu item.

Resizing the Box:

BMitzvah ProTM can be open while using another program. You can resize the box by clicking on the resize icon, then play around with the size by putting the cursor on the edge of the square (see the double arrow) and move in or out, depending on the size you would like. Move the square to the place on the screen you would like, and continue to resize it according to the Prayer you choose.

Open File:

screen image Click on file, then open, or click on the first icon on the left, and it opens automatically and offers a selection of text and trop options. Make your choices.

Text selection:

Choose from Torah or Haftara text.

Trop Selection:

Choose from 3 trop styles: European Ashkenaz - Binder; North American - mixture of Binder/Rozovsky; and Israeli Yerushalayim - Sephardic Israeli.

Fonts:

If the letters on the screen don't look right, the Font is not made available to the program by Windows.
To fix this, follow this procedure:

  1. Minimize the Hebrew Window.
  2. Go to Windows Control Panel and select Fonts.
  3. Find "Benny" (True Type), right-click, and choose Properties. Then click OK and exit.
  4. Bring back the Hebrew program. If you see normal Hebrew, you're done. Exit Fonts, and Control Panel.

If you did not find "Benny" in step 3 above, or if you still see non-Hebrew, re-install the Benny font by going to Start | Settings | Control Panel | Fonts | File | Install new font. On the bottom where the yellow folders are, click on the C:Program files/lev/IcanRead folder. On the top you will see "Benny true type", single-click on it and click on OK, exit Fonts and go back into program.

If you don't have Install New Fonts on the Fonts File Menu, call for Microsoft Windows support.
If you can't locate the Benny Font, use Start | Find to locate benny.ttf

Musical Options:

screen image Select the instrument you want, and experiment with the many MIDI instruments offered and enjoy the variety. Select your desired tempo by moving the right and left arrows. Select your musical key by moving the right and left arrows.

Trop melody:

Click the mouse on the beginning of the phrase you would like to hear, then click on the musical notes icon and it will play the melody. Music starts at the point in the Hebrew text where you last clicked. For Auto RePlay click on the icon again.

Hebrew without vowels:

Click on Hebrew, then vowels view on/off, and watch the vowels disappear. Click on it again and watch them return.

Hebrew without Trop:

Click on Hebrew, then trop view on/off, and watch the trop disappear. Click on it again and watch them return.

Printout Transliteration features:

screen image Click on the Transliteration icon and make your selections for the printed transliteration. These features control the way Hebrew and transliteration appear on paper.

You can control the placement of Transliteration either to the left of the Hebrew or under each Hebrew line. There is an option to print transliteration under each Hebrew line in "reverse" so that even the transliteration is read right to left. You can also control the way transliteration is formatted ALL CAPS all lower case or First Letter Capitalized. Chet/Khet are supported as well as Ay/Ai, and Ey/Ei.

Experiment with the font sizes and paper directions, and resize the window, so that the Hebrew and transliteration do not coincide when you select "left of Hebrew".

On Screen Transliteration:

To use this feature, click on the Transliteration icon. Check Transliteration On. Now, every time you click on the Hebrew screen, a small window appears below with the syllable's English transliteration.

Translation:

Right-click on any Hebrew text and you will automatically get the translation of that particular verse in a box in the middle of your screen. You can move the box to a different location on the screen if you wish.

Color:

screen image Click on Hebrew | Color | Choose Letter/Sounds/Trop Sequence, click on OK. The Color Palette will appear and you can select your color of choice. Click OK and watch as your selection gets applied instantly. The best colors to work with are: red, royal blue, light green, and light purple. To clear or change colors, click on Cancel.

Hebrew Pronunciation:

screen imagescreen imageThere are 2 speech icons, male and female. In case you haven’t guessed, male has the mustache!
Speech starts at the point where you last clicked. For Auto RePlay, click on the icon again.

Speech Delay:

Under Options, you can slow down the speech by increasing the delay value (max 20), or speed up the speech by decreasing the delay value (min 0). Use the slide bar or the arrows to change the values, then press OK.

Record your own voice, syllable by syllable, with the Recording Studio

screen image The Lev Hebrew Syllable Engine uses a "synthesizer" to sound each syllable. You can record your own syllables and the Engine will pick them up automatically.
You need a microphone to record your own voice. Lev provides a basic recorder. You can also use any other recording application such as Sound Recorder that comes with Windows.

Click on Record and the Syllable Recording Studio comes up. Click on any syllable, for example - A -, and hear the default voice pronounce it. Try your best to match the pronunciation. To record your own - A - , click on Start Record. The tool bar then appears and gives you a message, click OK. With your microphone ready, press the red button. Record syllable - A - and quickly click on the black square on the left to stop. Playback your recording by clicking on the play button and if you want to keep it press save record. The ~ appears to the left of the saved syllable on the chart. If you want to record it again, click on the right-most button, new file, and record over and over until you are satisfied. Then click on the next syllable of your choice. Record all or as many syllables you would like, then play the text and enjoy!

Print:

screen image Click on the printer icon, or click on File and then Print.

Enjoy BMitzvah ProTM and please let us know how we can improve the program to make it easier for you to use. We appreciate your support and look forward to serving you for many years to come.


System Requirements -

Multimedia PC running Win 95/98/Me/2000/NT/XP/Vista/7.

Support -

Contact Lev Software by email, telephone or mail:
Email:support@levsoftware.com
Mailing Address: 693 Racquet Club Rd. Weston, FL 33326