סְעָרָה If you’re living on the east coast of the United States, or perhaps in Norway or London or Brazil… you know quite well what a storm is. In Israel we almost forgot this year – that is, until Friday when it started pouring in Tel Aviv. The Hebrew word for storm is…
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/אשמח-ב-1.m4a” /]אֶשְׂמַח! In English, most feelings are adjectives (with a notable exception of to love): I am happy, she is afraid, they are angry, etc. In Hebrew, they’re verbs: לשמוח[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/אשמח-ב-2.m4a” /] – to (be) happy לפחד[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/אשמח-ב-3.m4a” /] – to (be) afraid (also in English to fear) לכעוס[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/אשמח-ב-4.m4a” /] – to be angry So if your friend invites…
having trouble seeing the print? לְהַסְכִּים Learn to Speak Hebrew… With Us They say that the second Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed as a result of senseless hatred. Somehow, these days marking the anniversary of that and other Jewish calamities has a way of getting people in Israel quite edgy. Something that…
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/משכורת-#.m4a” /]מַשְׂכֹּרֶת Those of you who are into Jewish theology may be familiar with the idea of שכר ועונש[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/משכורת-#.m4a” /] – reward and punishment. שכר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/משכורת-#.m4a” /] means reward, as well as wage. A wage that comes on a regular basis is משכורת[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/משכורת-#.m4a” /] – a salary. For example: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/משכורת-#.m4a” /]גובה המשכורת שלך, שרה, יהיה תלוי…
לפסוע The Hebrew word for the Passover holiday is פֶּסַח (PEH-sakh); the word itself means passing over or skipping over, so that G-d skips over the homes of the Israelites on His way to smite the Egyptian firstborn. The Pascal sacrifice is named after this event, this movement by G-d. Hebrew verbs most typically have a…
שלב, במה There’s the stage that people perform on, and the stage that is similar in meaning to rung, level, etc. The stage where plays and concerts take place is a בָּמָה (bah-MAH). Likewise, a director of a show, or a film for that matter, is a בַּמַּאִי (bah-MAH-ee). The plural is בָּמוֹת (bah-MOHT). …