בְּרוּכִים הַבָּאִים The English word welcome is a composite of the words well and come, so that it might be rephrased as (I wish you) well (as you) come (to visit me). Thus Hebrew’s ברוך הבא – blessed is the comer – is a fairly direct translation. Now, ברוך הבא is when welcoming a male….
אִמָּהוֹת If you’ve been around Israelis, you surely know the word for mom – אמא. But you may be surprised to learn that this term of endearment, אמא, is actually a word in Aramaic, while the Hebrew word for mother is אם. What about multiple mothers? That’s אמהות, as in: כל האמהות באות לקחת את…
לוֹחֵם Hebrew’s word for warrior or fighter is לוחם when referring to a male and לוחמת when referring to a female. Israelis use the term to distinguish combat soldiers from non-combat soldiers, whom they call (not always with admiration) jobniks: הוא היה בצבא לוחם או ג’ובניק? In the army, was he a fighter or a…
גֶּבֶר, אִישׁ, אָדָם Whereas English has one word in use for man, Hebrew has three. גֶּבֶר refers to a man in everyday speech, regardless of his stature. For example: הוּא הָיָה יֶלֶד, וּבִן לַיְלָה הוּא נִהְיָה גֶּבֶר. He was a boy, and overnight he became a man. Incidentally, גבר also refers to a rooster. אִישׁ…
יְלָדִים, בָּנִים 1 – ילדים, ילדות The Hebrew words for boy and girl are יֶלֶדand יַלְדָה, respectively. Likewise, a group of boys and girls – children* – are יְלָדִים. For example: כַּמָּה יְלָדִים יֵשׁ לָהּ? How many children does she have? Strictly speaking, יְלָדוֹתmeans girls, but this term is not used as often…
אֹמֶץ listen and repeat The People of Israel are standing on the shore of a sea. Behind them, an army of Egyptian horsemen is advancing quickly, with vengeance in their stride. Moses receives the message from G-d that the people are to cross the sea. No one moves. Then, one man takes a leap…
יְשׁוּעָה, גְּאֻלָּה, הַצָּלָה listen and repeat With the Torah portion to be read this week by Jews around the world being the first of סֵפֶר שְׁמוֹת listen and repeat (Exodus), and with the heroics displayed by many during the snowstorm in Israel this past week, now’s a good time to introduce the terms for salvation. …
וֶרֶד, שׁוֹשַׁנָּה Modern Hebrew has two words for rose: וֶרֶד and שׁוֹשַנָּה. Both are also names given to Israeli baby girls (שושנה is the original Hebrew for the English name Susanna), though not as often today as in previous generations. While ורד first appears in the later Mishnaic Hebrew, שושנה first appears in Biblical Hebrew…
אַהֲבָה The Hebrew word for love – אַהֲבָה– appears to be related to the Aramaic root, י.ה.ב (y.h.b) meaning giving. Those who gave their lives (and those who risk their lives every day), so that the people of Israel and the Jewish people the world over could celebrate independence tonight, did so out of a…
הַחְלָמָה מְהִירָה, רְפוּאָה שְׁלֵמָה This entry is for Jeremy H. and for Savta. It’s flu season in Israel, and the hospitals have been overfull recently with flu patients. The traditional Jewish way of wishing someone a speedy recovery is saying רְפוּאָה שְׁלֵמָה, which means, literally, a complete healing. But a more common expression in…
בְּהַצְלָחָה! How to go about wishing someone well varies from language to language and from culture to culture. In English, we say good luck – wishing the person good fortune, that the stars line up for them, that they find a four-leaf clover. In Hebrew, we say בְּהַצְלָחָה – literally, with success. A variation of…