הִתְלַהֲבוּת This one’s for Yehoshua. A while ago I did a piece on the Hebrew word for exciting. The word for excitement is הִתְרַגְּשׁוּת (heet-rahg-SHOOT), employing the root ר.ג.ש (r.g.sh), the Biblical Hebrew concept of emotion. When people get excited, they’re filled with emotion. לְהִתְרַגֵּש (leh-heet-rah-GHESH) is to get excited, but also to…
לִנְכוֹחַ To bear witness in the legal sense is לְהָעִיד. It’s a technical term. But to be witness to an event, such as those that took place in 1967, is to overpowered by their magic. It’s to be present at such an event – לִנְכוֹח (leen-KHOH-ahkh). I was not yet born in 1967,…
לְהַכְנִיס Tonight in downtown Jerusalem two vans blocked the road with a hundred or so people dancing and singing around them. The vans were blasting music and were decorated thus: What was all the commotion about? Hidden behind the dancing men in the picture above is a סֵפֶר תּוֹרָה (SEH-fehr toh-RAH)…
לְמַנֵּף A crane or a lever in Hebrew is a מָנוֹף (mah-NOHF). To leverage – to use resources to gain a desired outcome (rough definition) – is לְמַנֵּף (leh-mah-NEF) in Hebrew. It’s an active-intensive פיעל (pee-EL) verb. Check out our Summer 2011 classes for adults as well as teens in our…
לְחַבֵּר, לְהַלְחִין Level 1 class in Tel Aviv starts Sunday evening. For more info… My roommates and I put together a Hebrew cover version of U2’s smash hit from the 90’s, “One.” The slide show is nice. My voice is the one that’s off key (ten years ago such a thing wouldn’t…
גִּיל הַהִתְבַּגְּרוּת Check out Ulpan La-Inyan for teens in our four locations. In yesterday’s dose of Ktzat Ivrit, I introduced נַעֲרוּת (nah-ah-ROOT) as adolescence and נַעַר and נַעֲרָה (NAH-ahr, nah-ah-RAH) as adolescents. Thinking it over (especially after Adam pointed it out to me this morning on the radio), I’m realizing that a better…
נַעַר, נַעֲרָה, בֶּן טִפֵּשׁ עֶשְׂרֵה I write the following entry in honor of the Ulpan La-Inyan summer classes opening just for teens in our four locations around Israel. Our three-week classes start at 11am, after a good night’s sleep, and end at around 1 so that there’s plenty of time for…
אַחְוָה Last night I had the honor to attend the wedding of my friend and colleague, Mark Rebacz, to Sarah Kornbluth. Among the blessings recited over a cup of wine at a Jewish wedding is one detailing various elements of goodness the guests wish upon the newlywed couple. One of those elements is…
אֵין בְּעָיָה! עַל לֹא דָּבָר! In other languages that may sound familiar (or native!) to you, we’ve got no hay problema (Spanish), pas de probleme (French), etc. In English, it’s no problem! But it’s got at least two meanings: there’s no problem at the beginning of a statement – as in, No problem, I’ll fix that – and no problem…
לְרוֹקֵן Perhaps you know the Hebrew word for empty – רֵיק (rek or REH-eek). For example, הַבַּיִת רֵיק – the house is empty (hah-BAH-yeet rek). Likewise, emptiness or vanity is רִיק (reek), used in Modern Hebrew to replace the foreign word for vacuum – וָקוּם (VAH-koom). The word for to empty something, however, is a more recent addition…
אֶל עַל It’s very likely that you’re familiar with Israel’s flagship air carrier, El Al, especially if you’ve made aliyah through the Jewish Agency or Nefesh B’Nefesh. The idiom אֶל עַל (el AHL) means upward or skyward. I came across this term today as I began reading an article on Ynet about Obama’s speech…