לטוס I’m about to board a flight to LA at Ben Gurion airport. It’s my dad’s 60th birthday coming up, so I decided at the last minute to try to book a free ticket with mileage (even the paid ones aren’t too bad this season). Who knew? Lo and behold, less than a week before the flight,…
להתעדכן Israelis all around the world love to stay up to date with what’s going on in the holy land. I imagine many Jews, regardless of whether they carry Israeli citizenship, love to do the same. Ulpan La-Inyan’s Level 5 class allows you to do so with the Israeli radio broadcast, as students…
ערכים Ulpan La-Inyan’s Level 4 is the “upgrade” course – where students’ conversation abilities get upgraded from day-to-day to something they could use to make not-so-small talk at cocktail parties… or begin to participate in discussions in the university classroom. The central theme of the course is עֲרָכִים (ah-rah-KHEEM) – values. Our next…
מרתק In Ulpan La-Inyan’s Level 3 course, 21-year-old חַגַּי (khah-GAH-ee) tells his date, יִפְעַת (yeef-AHT) all about his trip to Nahal Yehudiya, including the heroic act he performs there. The word is a bit advanced for Level 3, but יפעת could have said, אֵיזֶה סִפּוּר מְרַתֵּק (EHY-zeh see-POOR me-rah-TEK) – What a fascinating…
הוראה In Level 2 of Ulpan La-Inyan, students enter the busy lives of Moni and Eti, a couple with a son named Rafi, who requires them to attend parent-teacher conferences more often than they’d like. You may very well know the Hebrew words for teacher – מוֹרֶה (moh-REH) for a male and מוֹרָה (moh-RAH) for a…
להכריז In Level 1 of Ulpan La-Inyan, students take on the roles of the couple, Nava and Oren. Nava is all dressed and ready to go to a party, when she walks into the living room to find Oren sitting and reading a newspaper קוֹרֵא עִתּוֹן (koh-REH ee-TOHN). לִקְרוֹא (leek-ROH) means both to read and…
לאחל Here’s how a male would say to a female, in Hebrew, I wish you a good year: אֲנִי מְאַחֵל לָךְ שָׁנָה טוֹבָה (ah-NEE meh-ah-KHEHL lahkh shah-NAH toh-VAH). Here’s how a female would say it to a male: אֲנִי מְאַחֶלֶת לְךָ שָׁנָה טוֹבָה (ah-NEE meh-ah-KHEH-let le-KHAH shah-NAH toh-VAH). You can figure out how…
להתרענן This morning teaching at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center, some of my students (well, Yogi’s students – I was substituting) had some coffee or needed to get some fresh air. Truth is, so did I. We all freshened up. To become freshed in Hebrew is לְהִתְרַעֲנֵן (le-heet-rah-ah-NEHN). For example רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה הוּא זְמַן…
להעלות If you’re reading this blog, you’ve likely heard the word aliyah (עֲלִיָּה – ah-lee-YAH) before. The word refers to immigration to Israel, but means, literally, ascending. To cause something to ascend is to raise something. Hence the verb, לְהַעֲלוֹת (le-hah-ah-LOHT). For those of you who are biblically inclined, you may remember this word in the…
פיגוע This past Wednesday evening four Jews (civilians) were murdered by Arab terrorists near חֶבְרוֹן (khehv-ROHN) – Hebron. Modern Hebrew’s word for such an attack is פִּגּוּע (pee-GOO-ah). The word comes from the root פ.ג.ע., which bears the concept ofharm. May we hear of no such פיגועים anywhere in the world,…
על הבוקר I’m really tired. I’m about to go to sleep. I want to write about being tired, but I’ve already done that in prior entries. Instead, I’m going to take my roommate’s suggestion and write about the first thing in the morning. אֲנִי צָרִיךְ לָקוּם עַל הַבּוֹקֵר (ah-NEE tsah-REEKH lah-KOOM ahl hah-BOH-kehr)…