Your Daily Dose of Hebrew

  *** Yesterday’s dose’s sound files were mislinked, so you may have had trouble hearing them. My apologies.   You can hear the sound files now by visiting this page. מַעֲקֶה  listen and repeat Can’t read Hebrew yet?     The Torah prescribes that homeowners put some kind of fencing or railing on their roofs, so that…

  אָהוּב, אֲהוּבָה  listen and repeat Can’t read Hebrew yet?     The Hebrew word for love is אַהֲבָה listen and repeat (yep, just like the Dead Sea brand), whose root is א.ה.ב (a.h.b).   To love is לֶאֱהוֹב listen and repeat, an active-simple verb. It also means to like.   For example:   אֲנִי אוֹהֵב פַּסְטָה. I like pasta….

  דּוֹר  listen and repeat Can’t read Hebrew yet?     Most Hebrew nouns appear masculine in both singular and plural forms, or feminine in singular and plural forms.   For example, שָׁעוֹן listen and repeat is a clock, while שְׁעוֹנִים listen and repeat are clocks; and חַיָּה listen and repeat is an animal, while חַיּוֹת listen and repeat are animals.   Some…

  שׁוֹפֵט  listen and repeat Can’t read Hebrew yet?     We’ve seen that מִשְׁפָּט listen and repeat refers to that unit of speech or writing called sentence, and that its root is שׁ.פ.ט (sh.p.t) meaning judgment.   Likewise, a judge in most courts is a שׁוֹפֵט listen and repeat or שׁוֹפֶטֶת listen and repeat (male and female, respectively).   An example from…

  מִשְׁטָרָה  listen and repeat Can’t read Hebrew yet?     The Hebrew word for police in the general sense, as in “the police,” is מִשְׁטָרָה listen and repeat.   It derives from the root שׁ.ט.ר (sh.t.r), also the root of שׁוֹטֵר listen and repeat, and שׁוֹטֶרֶת listen and repeat, a police officer (male and female, respectively). The word falls into…

  מִשְׁפָּט  listen and repeat Can’t read Hebrew yet?     The Hebrew word for sentence – as in “These words form a sentence.” – is מִשְׁפָּט listen and repeat. It comes from the root שׁ.פ.ט (sh.p.t) meaning judgment.   For example:   הַיֶּלֶד שֶׁהִפְרִיעַ בַּשִּׁיעוּר נִדְרַשׁ לִכְתּוֹב מִשְׁפָּטִים עַל הַלּוּחַ. The boy who interrupted class was…

  עוּגַת שְׁמָרִים  listen and repeat Can’t read Hebrew yet?     I have a Hungarian-Israeli grandmother. She makes delicious goulash, paprika chicken and other signature Hungarian dishes.   But the best of her kitchen is her neighborhood-famous yeast cake – עוּגַת שְׁמָרִים listen and repeat.   Broken down:   עוּגָה listen and repeat means cake, while…

  מְאֹד טָעִים  listen and repeat Can’t read Hebrew yet?       Yesterday, we saw that the ah-EE vowel pattern makes a Hebrew concept “-able” or “-ible”, as in the word for edible (“eat-able”) – אָכִיל listen and repeat.   Another word of the same structure is the one for tasty, or worthy of being…