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…
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…
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…
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…