ulpan rbs

  having trouble seeing the print? חֻפְשָׁה     In honor of Passover, I’m taking a vacation – a חֻפְשָׁה. This will be the last dose of Hebrew before next Sunday.    חופשה is related to the word for liberty – חֹפֶשׁ (KHOH-fesh), which is often used colloquially to mean vacation or holiday. (in the leisure sense)   חַג…

  having trouble seeing the print? בִּשּׁוּל   When the Children of Israel left Egypt thousands of years ago, they didn’t have time to bake bread or cook anything, for that matter. Today’s Children of Israel, however, clean and cook to make the festival clean from physical and spiritual clutter… and joyous.  Class starts right after Passover…

  having trouble seeing the print? נִקּוּי יָבֵשׁ     Check out our spring and summer courses in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Raanana, Efrat, Ramat Beit Shemesh and Tzfat     Most of the cleaning that people tend to do for Passover involves water and other fluids. But some of the cleaning many people do does not involve wet substances at all.  Dry cleaning is…

  having trouble seeing the print? הוֹצָאוֹת     Check out our spring courses in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Raanana, Efrat, Ramat Beit Shemesh and Tzfat     I bet some of you guessed that the Hebrew word for expenses would be some kind of declension of the word for expensive – יָקָר (yah-KAHR). Sorry to disappoint. Rather, the word for expenses comes from the active-causative הפעיל verb…

having trouble seeing the print? שָׁעוֹן מְעוֹרֵר Check out our spring courses in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Raanana, Efrat, Ramat Beit Shemesh and Tzfat   An essential Hebrew phrase for navigating the streets of Tel Aviv or Jerusalem without a watch is ?מַה הַשָּׁעָה (mah hah-shah-AH?) – what’s the time? The Modern Hebrew word for clock or watch is שָׁעוֹן (shah-OHN), deriving from the Ancient Hebrew word for…

  having trouble seeing the print? יְסוֹדִי     Check out our spring courses in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Raanana, Efrat, Ramat Beit Shemesh and Tzfat     Many of the readers on this blog are busy this week preparing their dwellings for Passover. This preparation demands, above all, a thorough cleaning – נִקּוּי יְסוֹדִי (nee-KOO-yee yeh-soh-DEE). The foundations of Hebrew יסודי is an adjective form…

  having trouble seeing the print? לִסְמוֹךְ     Check out our spring courses in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Raanana, Efrat, Ramat Beit Shemesh and Tzfat Deadline to save 200 shekels April 1 (THIS SUNDAY)!     The Torah portion to be read this Shabbat by Jews around the world continues to detail the sacrificial practices in the Temple. One of event in the process…

  having trouble seeing the print? חָמְרִיּוּת     Check out our spring courses in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Raanana, Efrat, Ramat Beit Shemesh and Tzfat Deadline to save 200 shekels April 1 (THIS SUNDAY)!!!     If חֹמֶר לְמַחְשָׁבָה (KHOH-mehr leh-mahkh-shah-VAH) means food (material) for thought, and the word חומר itself means material, it follows that חָמְרִיּוּת (khohm-ree-YOOT) means materialism, where the וּת– ending…

  having trouble seeing the print? חֹמֶר לְמַחְשָׁבָה     Check out our spring courses in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Raanana, Efrat, Ramat Beit Shemesh and Tzfat Deadline to save 200 shekels April 1!     The last entry presented a Hebrew equivalent for the English expression, food for thought – נְקֻדָּה לְמַחְשָׁבָה (neh-koo-DAH leh-mahkh-shah-VAH) – literally, a point for thought. I realized later that there…

  having trouble seeing the print? מֻרְכָּבוּת     Check out our spring courses in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Raanana, Efrat, Ramat Beit Shemesh and Tzfat Deadline to save 200 shekels April 1!     The Hebrew word רֶכֶב (REH-khev) means vehicle in both Biblical and Modern Hebrew. Likewise, the verb לִרְכּוֹב (leer-KOHV) means to ride. The root is ר.כ.ב (r.k.b). There’s another set of words…