מְבֹרָךְ, בָּרוּךְ[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ברוך-1.mp3″ /] To bless someone or something is לברך[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ברוך-2.mp3″ /], an active-intensive verb. Thus one who is blessed – the recipient of the blessing is the corresponding passive מבורך[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ברוך-3.mp3″ /] if he’s a male or מבורכת[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ברוך-4.mp3″ /] if she’s an female. This applies to non-human and non-living nouns as well: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ברוך-5.mp3″ /]שתהיה…
מִלְגָּה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/מלגה-1.mp3″ /] The Hebrew word for scholarship or stipend is מִלְגָּה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/מלגה-1.mp3″ /]. For example: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/מלגה-2.mp3″ /]אוּלְפָּן לָעִנְייָן מְחַלֵּק הַקַּיִץ שְׁתֵּי מְלָגוֹת, אַחַת לִסְטוּדֶנְט וְאַחַת לִמְחַנֵּךְ. Ulpan La-Inyan is giving out this summer two scholarships, one to a student and one to an educator. The root of מלגה is מ.ל.ג (m.l.g), which comes…
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/תופים-1.m4a” /]תֻּפִּים The Hebrew word for a drum is תוף[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/תופים-2.m4a” /], which rhymes with the word for beach or coast – חוף[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/תופים-3.m4a” /]. More than one drum? That’s תופים, as in the Biblical verse: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/תופים-4.m4a” /]ותיקח מרים הנביאה, אחות אהרון, את התוף בידה, ותצאנה כל הנשים אחריה, בתופים ובמחולות. (שמות ט”ו) And Miriam the prophetess, sister…
אַפְלָיָה Can’t read Hebrew yet? Hebrew roots that begin in פ.ל (p.l) and פ.ר (p.r), as a rule, have something to do with separation. The root פ.ל.ה (p.l.h) is one of those roots, and it appears most notably in the word for discrimination – אַפְלָיָה (sometimes spelled and pronounced הַפְלָיָה ). For example:…
In English, we talk about someone falling when they die for a cause. In Hebrew we do the same: הנופלים is one way of saying the fallen. For example: היום אנחנו זוכרים את הנופלים. Today we remember the fallen. Another, more distinctly-Hebrew word for one who has fallen in battle is חלל. For example: היום מרכינים…
לחוות For those who have attended the Mayanot Birthright trip, you may recall the name of the tour operator – הַחֲוָיָה הַיִּשְׂרָאֵלִית (hah-hah-vah-YAH hah-yees-rah-eh-LEET) – the Israel (more accurately, “the Israeli”) Experience. To experience is (lah-hah-VOHT). What happens to us happens to us. But how we respond to what happens to us –…