.  Although this may sound nice, I have several reasons why it is neither necessary nor practical.  We already have excellent translations that we use to put the Scriptures into that of the people. A pastor's "off the cuff" translation would be different enough to the translations that people read in their Bibles as to cause confusion - especially if he/she gets it wrong, for there will be no "editorial committee" on hand to help.  Does the average pastor have the skills to do an "off the cuff" translation? Some are very good, most of us "get by". Especially when it comes to the hapax words which number at least 0,000 in the Hebrew Bible. And translating Hebrew poetry is an art in itself.  As pastors, preachers, we sometimes/often/always (take your pick) use the original in our preparation, and as a result our own translations are already present (as needed and required) within our messages.  Hebrew and Aramaic were similar enough so that people could follow - if not the full meaning - then at least the sounds. And, as I understand it, the men at least already had some training in the reading and understanding of Hebrew. This is quite unlike people in our congregations who normally have no training in Greek or Hebrew. As a result, for most people, hearing a lengthy, or even a short, passage read out in the original tongue would be "dead time".  Without training in the original language, who is going to read it in order to get the best approximation to what it would have sounded like? Only the pastor/minister/priest. This would prevent others from participating in the worship through the reading of Scripture.  Although this may sound nice, I have several reasons why it is neither necessary nor practical.  We already have excellent translations that we use to put the Scriptures into that of the people. A pastor's "off the cuff" translation would be different enough to the translations that people read in their Bibles as to cause confusion - especially if he/she gets it wrong, for there will be no "editorial committee" on hand to help.  Does the average pastor have the skills to do an "off the cuff" translation? Some are very good, most of us "get by". Especially when it comes to the hapax words which number at least 0,000 in the Hebrew Bible. And translating Hebrew poetry is an art in itself.  As pastors, preachers, we sometimes/often/always (take your pick) use the original in our preparation, and as a result our own translations are already present (as needed and required) within our messages.  Hebrew and Aramaic were similar enough so that people could follow - if not the full meaning - then at least the sounds. And, as I understand it, the men at least already had some training in the reading and understanding of Hebrew. This is quite unlike people in our congregations who normally have no training in Greek or Hebrew. As a result, for most people, hearing a lengthy, or even a short, passage read out in the original tongue would be "dead time".  Without training in the original language, who is going to read it in order to get the best approximation to what it would have sounded like? Only the pastor/minister/priest. This would prevent others from participating in the worship through the reading of Scripture.  