ulpan raanana

  לְהָגֵן     We need your feedback! Let us know what kind of Hebrew fall course schedule  we might offer you! Today was the first of what’s known in Jewish circles as the “three weeks.” These mark the three weeks of Jerusalem’s impending destruction twice in Biblical and Classical history.  They say that the second…

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/בילוי-נעים-#.m4a” /]בִּלּוּי נָעִים Suppose your friends are all going out to see a movie… but you’ve got something better to do. You’d .probably wish them a good time, and then go about your business Here’s how to do so in Hebrew: בליוי נעים![audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/בילוי-נעים-#.m4a” /]. בילוי[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/בילוי-נעים-#.m4a” /] is the noun form (gerund) of…

  אַרְגָּז         On Friday I went to שׁוּק מַחֲנֶה יְהוּדָה – “The Shuk“ in Jerusalem (shouk mah-khah-NEH yeh-HOO-dah – pronunciation colloquial) – to buy some items in preparation for a Shabbat dinner I hosted for a couple of friends.     I was looking for some corn chips to spice up the…

עֵדָה, קְהִלָּה, קְהִלִּיָּה     There are small communities and there are large communities. There are internet communities and there are multinational communities. Two Biblical Hebrew roots generate several Modern Hebrew words to cover all these bases: ק.ה.ל (k.h.l) and ע.ד.ה (a.d.h). The most common word for community refers to the one typically centered around a…

  חֲמַקְמַק, חֲלַקְלַק…       I’m reading about the Mossad’s battle against the Black September terrorists in הַמּוֹסַד – The Mossad (hah-moh-SAHD), a book by Michael Bar-Zohar and Nissim Mishal. I hear it’s been translated to English. A word used there to describe Mohamed Bodya, the Algerian fine-arts-aficionado/playboy behind many terror attacks in Europe…

  חַיִים אֲרוּכִּים       This one’s for my friend Zevik in Encino, California. I would give him a call and he’d say, יֵש לְךָ חַיִים אֲרוּכִּים – you (will) have a long life. This is the charm Israelis wish one another if they thus telepathically find one another and make contact. In English,…

  Announcement (your word of the day follows)     This Thursday is the final day to register and receive 200 shekels off of Ulpan La-Inyan August-September classes. We’ve got our regular six-week courses as well as a few three-week intensives at a variety of levels, in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Efrat and Raanana.  Some testimonials…

  לְשׂוֹחֵחַ       I did this spiel this morning on the air with Adam. לְדַבֵּר (leh-dah-BEHR) is probably the first word that comes to mind, if you know some Hebrew. That’s the generic word for to talk or to speak. But as widely used as לדבר is, it carries a tinge of harshness –…

  שָׂמַחְתִּי לְהַכִּיר         If you know a bit of Hebrew, you’re almost certain to have used the phrase נָעִים מְאֹד – nice to meet you, or literally, very pleasant (nah-EEM meh-OHD). That’s what one normally says at the moment of introduction to someone new – let’s call her שָׁרִית (sah-REET).       Now…

  מַטָּס         I just looked up the sister-entry to this one, turns out it’s been over a year! That took me by surprise…    I’m referring to my entry on the flotilla – מַשָּׁט (mah-SHAHT) that tried making its way to Gaza in June 2010.   Anyway, this entry refers to the…