how to say “to jump through hoops” in Hebrew
טֶבַע הָאָדָם, הַטֶּבַע הָאֱנוֹשִׁי listen and repeat Can’t read Hebrew yet? In observance of the Jewish holidays, I took off some time from blogging. Now it’s back to the routine, with a dose of Hebrew that brings themes of the holidays together with themes of the Torah portions being read these weeks by…
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/מפעל-חיים-#.m4a” /]מִפְעַל חַיִּים Even if you have no Hebrew background whatsoever, you’ve probably heard the toast, !לחיים[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/מפעל-חיים-#.m4a” /] – to life! חיים[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/מפעל-חיים-#.m4a” /] is life, while מפעל[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/מפעל-חיים-#.m4a” /] is literally a factory, but also an enterprise or undertaking. Thus מפעל חיים[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/מפעל-חיים-#.m4a” /] is someone’s life’s work or lifework. For example: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/מפעל-חיים-#.m4a” /]הקורונה…
בּוּרְסָה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/בורסה-1.mp3″ /] The Hebrew word for stock exchange, בּוּרְסָה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/בורסה-1.mp3″ /], originates in Ancient Greek, as it does for the same word in other languages as varied as German, Farsi and Italian. In Ancient Greek, the word refers to a pouch made of leather, which evolved into what we call today a purse. The word bursa came…
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/אתה-חי-בסרט-1.m4a” /]אַתָּה חַי בְּסֶרֶט Someone makes you an offer that in their mind you can’t refuse – but you can, and easily. You might say to them, “dream on” (well, in the 90’s you might have), indicating that they’re are living in a dream world and are totally wrong in their judgment. A Hebrew…