how to say “a virtue” in Hebrew
מַעֲלָה
This past Friday I featured Ehud Banai’s היום (hah-YOHM) – Today as a song thematically tied to the week’s Torah portion.
However, when thinking about it this morning a more appropriate song came to mind: Avraham Fried’s אַדְרַבָּה (ahd-rah-BAH), pronounced by the singer, AH-deh-RAH-beh. The word itself is Aramaic for just the opposite.
This song is a prayer several hundred years old (and thus its Hebrew is pre-standard) written the Hassidic master
, Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk. In it Rabbi Elimelech intimates a piece of advice: seek out the virtues – הַמַּעֲלוֹת (hah-mah-ah-LOHT) – of our fellows, rather than their vices or deficiencies – חֶסְרוֹנוֹת (khes-roh-NOHT). I think I featured this teaching a little while back, but not the word מַעֲלָה (mah-ah-LAH) – virtue – itself.
Likewise, חִסָּרוֹן (khee-sah-ROHN) is the singular form of vice, deficiency or lacking.
We’ve still got a few spots…
…in our state-of-the-art conversational Hebrew courses
…in our state-of-the-art conversational Hebrew courses
in Jerusalem, Efrat and Raanana.
