לְהִתְכּוֹנִן, לְהָכִין The Hebrew root כ.ו.נ (k.w.n), the concept of foundation, can be found all over the place in such everyday words such as נָכוֹן (nah-KHOHN) – correct, מְכוֹנִית (meh-khoh-NEET) – automobile/car, and one of those first words that Hebrew learners learn, כֵּן (ken) – yes. A group of words that employ this ubiquitous root…
סֻלָּם גַנָּבִים Last night I went to the birthday party of my friend Zevik, in Encino. Zevik, also a Hebrew teacher, offered to create a thieves ladder so that his neighbor from the house behind his own could simply hop the fence to get home instead of circling the block; thus Zevik introduced me to a Hebrew…
מַצְלֵמָה After having landed yesterday at LAX, I attended services this morning at my beloved community synagogue in which I was raised, Chabad of Encino. Following the prayers I sat in Rabbi Gordon’s class on the Torah portion, which is videotaped and uploaded daily. You can check it out here. Rabbi Joshua B. Gordon…
גְּדֻלָּה If you’ve done some Jewish prayer, you’re almost certainly familiar with today’s word. Big or great is גָּדוֹל (gah-DOHL), when used in the masculine. Greatness is גדולה (ge-doo-LAH). In past generations, before Hebrew was revived as a spoken language as well as standardized, the word גַּדְלוּת (gahd-LOOT) was used to mean greatness, more so than the…
הִצְטַנְּנוּת, הִתְקָרְרוּת, נָזֶּלֶת In Israel, as in the United States and probably everywhere else in the world, people catch the common cold all the time. I’ve caught it recently, as you might hear from the . Anyway, the cold is so common that it has three words in Hebrew. הִתְקָרְרוּת (heet-kah-reh-ROOT) comes from the…
עוֹבֵד, מָעֳסָק If you’re attending a Passover Seder this year, here’s קצת עברית (keh-TSAHT eev-REET) – a bit of Hebrew – for you that you can share at the table. About a year ago I wrote an entry on the Hebrew words for employer – מַעֲסִיק (mah-ah-SEEK – masculine) and מַעֲסִיקָה (mah-ah-see-KAH – feminine). from www.draftnz.com These words…
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…
בּוֹדֵד Yesterday I joined Mekete, his brothers, his extended family and his friends at his Bar Mitzvah celebration in Holon. The people at Mekete’s school really went above and beyond to make sure that he had a fun, meaningful occasion – and that he would feel enveloped in love. After Meteke was called up…
יַחֲסֵי צִבּוּר My piece tonight at AACI (that I did last night in Raanana) on “The Hebrew you always wanted to know… but were too afraid to ask” is entertaining and educational. It’s also a PR – public relations – event for Ulpan La-Inyan. Here’s some PR – Visit and like us on Facebook! PR in…
גָּשׁוּם, לְהַגְשִׁים Today was a rainy one here in Jerusalem. from jerusalemshots.com A rainy day is יוֹם גָּשׁוּם (yohm gah-SHOOM). Now גֶּשֶׁם (GHEH-shem) is rain, but it’s also the concept of materialism in certain contexts. To materialize or realize a dream – or to make a dream come true – is לְהַגְשִׁים חָלוֹם (le-hahg-SHEEM khah-LOHM). להגשים is a…
לְדַרְבֵּן One of the students in my Level 5 class invited us to her home in Gush Etzion, where her husband (a tour guide) gave us a history of the region spoken all in Hebrew. She, the student, also served us really tasty home-baked banana-chocolate-chip cake. After our introduction to the region, we all went…