Your window into Israeli culture: Ami’s Hebrew-music show on RustyMike Radio (your daily dose is below) Today from noon to 1 Israel-time I’m presenting the usual greats – Shlomo Artzi, Ehud Banai… and the Idan Raichel song that was featured this past Friday on Ktzat Ivrit: מִנְעִי קוֹלֵך מִבֶּכִי (meen-EE koh-LEKH mee-BEH-khee) –…
לְצַיֵּץ My guess is that there’s an 90% chance you’ve heard of Twitter. If you haven’t, here’s the site itself, as well as what Amazon lists as one of the best books on the subject. When I first visited Twitter, it took me a while to see the connection between the name of…
שִׁשִּׁיָּה If you know some Hebrew, you certainly know the Hebrew word for six – שֵׁש (shesh) in the feminine and שִׁשָּׁה (shee-SHAH) in the masculine (learned in Level 1 of Ulpan La-Inyan). Yes, it’s counterintuitive – normally the “ah” ending comes with feminine words. Note how both שישה and שש sound somewhat like the…
לִשְׂמוֹחַ Today was Purim in Jerusalem, so I’m just getting around to the word of the day now. You’ve all got the benefit of reading the product of my imagination as I’m sobering up – almost there, but not quite. In English, emotional reactions are typically adjectives – such as angry and…
מְבַדֵּחַ There are a few words for entertaining in Hebrew. There’s מְבַדֵּר (meh-vah-DEHR), coming from the more common word, בִּדּוּר (bee-DOOR). There’s מַצְחִיק (mahts-KHEEK), meaning funny. There’s מְשַׁעְשֵׁע (meh-shah-ah-SHEH-ah), meaning amusing (I did an entry on משעשע this past January). Here’s a word that doesn’t get used as often as the others… except for Purim. On Israeli radio…
לְהַגְדִּיל Eliyahu, one the students in my Level 5 class at AACI Jerusalem was trying to say to enlarge something, but used the word for to raise instead. It’s an excellent error for a budding Hebrew speaker, as it presents the opportunity to distinguish between not only two different words, but two different word types….
לְהִתְחַפֵּשׂ Purim‘s coming up on Sunday in most of Israel and the world and on Monday in Jerusalem. Among other traditions kept, Jews throughout the world will be dressing up in costumes. A costume or disguise is a תַּחְפֹּשֶׂת (tahkh-POH-set). To dress up in a costume is לְהִתְחַפֵּש (leh-heet-khah-PES). For example, כָּל הַיְּלָדִים הִתְחַפְּשׂוּ לַמּוֹרִים שֶׁלָּהֵם…
הִזְדַּהוּת רִגְשִׁית This entry is for our students, Toshy and Lucas. As yours likely does as well, my heart goes out to the people of Japan. הזדהות Identity in Hebrew is זֵהוּת (zeh-HOOT). The root is ז.ה.ה (z.h.h), the concept of identity or identical. To identify with someone or something is לְהִזְדַּהוֹת (leh-heez-dah-HOHT). This is the…
קִדֹּמֶת הַקִּדֹּמֶת בְּאֵזוֹר יְרוּשָׁלַיִם, יְהוּדָה וְשֹמְרוֹן הוּא אֶפֶס שְׁתַּיִם (hah-kee-DOH-met beh-eh-ZOHR yeh-roo-shah-LAH-yeem, yeh-hoo-DAH veh-shohm-ROHN hoo EH-fes SHTAH-yeem) – the area code in the Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria region is 02. הקידומת באיזור הַמֶּרְכַּז הוא אפס שָׁלוֹש (hah-kee-DOH-met beh-eh-ZOHR hah-mehr-KAHZ hoo EH-fes shah-LOHSH) – the area code in the center region (of Israel) is 03. הקידומת באיזור…
לָצוּף Amidst the incalculable tragedy that has been unfolding in Japan over the past week we hear about the incredible survival story of a man floating nine miles off the coast, on the (displaced) roof of his house. To float in Hebrew is לָצוּף (lah-TSOOF). The root is צ.ו.פ (ts.w.f). The ו tends to float…
בִּלְתִּי נִסְלַח The butchering of an innocent family is an unforgivable act – מַעֲשֶׂה בִּלְתִּי נִסְלַח (mah-ah-SEH beel-TEE nees-LAHKH). נסלח falls into the נפעל (neef-AHL) verb pattern, though the word itself functions as an adjective. The root is ס.ל.ח (s.l.kh) – forgiveness. May the week bring a turn of events for the better.