וְרִיד, עוֹרֶק I’m late on the word of the day… so I figured I’d give y’all a double portion. I remember, either from science class as a kid or from my mom telling me, that veins bring blood to the heart, while arteries take blood away from the heart. In Hebrew, veins are וְרִידִים (vree-DEEM), while…
Two events at AACI… Scroll down for your daily dose of Hebrew 1. Tuesday morning A window into Ethiopian Jewish culture with actor Yossi Varda: “It Sounds Better in Amharic” – Tuesday morning at 10:30 at AACI Jerusalem. 2. Wednesday evening (and Tuesday night in Raanana) Be enlightened, entertained, and become that much more…
לָלֶדֶת, לְהוֹלִיד One of the topics of the Torah portion read this week by Jews around the world is childbirth. The Hebrew word for to give birth is לָלֶדֶת (lah-LEH-det). For example, הָאִשָּׁה יָלְדָה יַלְדָּה (hah-ee-SHAH yahl-DAH yahl-DAH) – The woman gave birth to a girl (the first ילדה is the verb, and the second is…
Breaking the ice… Next week, I’m doing a presentation in Raanana (Tues eve) and Jerusalem (Wed eve) entitled “The Hebrew You Always Wanted to Know… But Were Too Afraid to Ask.” You can send me your requests as well as get the details for the event, here. If you’re around, it would be…
2 שְׁכִיבוֹת סְמִיכָה For a good workout, I prefer to ride my bicycle and to do push-ups, over shelling out money on a gym membership. The Hebrew expression for push-ups is שכיבות סמיכה (sheh-khee-VOHT smee-KHAH). שְׁכִיבָה (sheh-khee-VAH) means lying down. It comes from the verb לִשְׁכַּב (leesh-KAHV), meaning to lie down. סמיכה (smee-KHAH) comes from…
לְהָעִיד Last night I attended the wedding of my friend יוֹחָנָן (yoh-khah-NAHN). I was given the honor of serving as an official witness – עֵד (ehd) – at the ceremony. Now, I was an עד last night, but I hope to never have to testify – לְהָעִיד (leh-hah-EED). Testimony is עֵדוּת (eh-DOOT). להעיד is…
צָמִיג About an hour and a half ago I was feeling tired and a bit out of sorts. So I deliberated between taking a nap and taking a bike ride. I chose the latter – and now I’m feeling good. I rode from my flat on Emek Refaim in Jerusalem to the Malha…
מֻקְפָּץ Yesterday evening I had dinner with my friend Avi, who takes pride in his delicious, healthy cooking. He fried us up some schnitzel, but when I commented that he was frying it in olive oil instead of Canola, he corrected me, saying that was sautéeing, not frying. Sauté comes from French. The…
אַשְׁמָה, לְהַאֲשִׁים Note the similarity between the English word shame and the Hebrew word אָשֵׁם (ah-SHEM). The Hebrew word describes a male as guilty. A guilty female would be אֲשֵׁמָה (ah-sheh-MAH). Guilt, that nasty feeling that might nevertheless provoke us to do good, is אַשְׁמָה. One might say, יֵשׁ לִי רִגְשֵׁי אַשְׁמָה (yesh lee…
מָלוּחַ My סַבְתָּא (SAHV-tah) grandmother is a great cook. She learned how to prepare delicious dishes from her mother back in Hungary before the war. סבתא has Hungarian taste in food. So from time to time she asks me, אֲתָּה אוֹהֵב דָּג מָלוּחַ (ah-TAH oh-HEV dahg mah-LOO-ahkh) – Do you like salty fish?…
לְזַהוֹת Explosives were planted yesterday on a public phone opposite בִּנְיָנֵי הָאוּמָה (been-yah-NEH-ee hah-oo-MAH) – The Buildings of the Nation. Had a man not noticed the suspicious-looking phone and alerted a group of teenagers standing by it to move away, the tragic attack of pure terror could have been a lot more so….