פחמימות Click the Hebrew word above to hear it pronounced. After Shabbat the other night I was pretty hungry – not because I hadn’t eaten enough at my gracious Kfar Chabad cousins’ place, but because over the past two days my diet has consisted mostly of white-flour products – lots of carbs. …
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/חנינה-#.m4a” /]חֲנִינָה Pardon, to English speakers from countries of the British Commonwealth, could mean excuse me (in Hebrew, סליחה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/חנינה-#.m4a” /]). But to Americans, pardon generally means one thing – getting off the hook for a crime. The Hebrew word for pardon in this sense is חנינה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/חנינה-#.m4a” /]. For example: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/חנינה-#.m4a” /]רק…
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/היו-היה-#.m4a” /]הָיֹה הָיָה Just like children’s stories in English often open with once upon a time, Hebrew kids’ stories start with היו היה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/היו-היה-#.m4a” /] – literally, was there was. For example: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/היו-היה-#.m4a” /]היו היה בארץ רחוקה… Once upon a time in a faraway land… If what was is female, the expression becomes היו הייתה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/היו-היה-#.m4a”…
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/קעקוע-#.m4a” /]כְּתוֹבֶת קַעֲקַע, קַעֲקוּעַ The Biblical-Hebrew term for tattoo is כתובת קעקע[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/קעקוע-#.m4a” /] – kaka writing. People still use כתובת קעקע today, but the far more commonly-used term is קעקוע[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/קעקוע-#.m4a” /]. For example: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/קעקוע-#.m4a” /]יש לו מלא קעקועים! He has tons of tattoos! The word קעקע[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/קעקוע-#.m4a” /] (kaka) probably comes from…
לָקוּם לִתְחִיָּיה In 1949, my grandparents helped found a kibbutz near modern-day Modiin. The founders called it תחיה – basically, resurrection, since this was one of many Jewish settlements rising up in Israel only a few years after near-total destruction in Europe. In the coming years the kibbutz gave way to another agricultural settlement, and…
