Your Daily Dose of Hebrew

  having trouble seeing the print? לָשֵׂאת   brought to you by Ulpan La-Inyan teaching Hebrew throughout Israel and online  Courses starting Sunday around the country!  The Torah portion to be read this Shabbat by Jews around the world is called נָשֹא (nah-SOH), which, literally, means lift up or carry (in the Biblical context, it means take a census or lift…

  having trouble seeing the print? מִגְדָּר   brought to you by Ulpan La-Inyan teaching Hebrew throughout Israel and online   Courses starting Sunday around the country! We’ve seen the Hebrew root ג.ד.ר used in its original sense to mean fence – גָּדֵר (gah-DEHR), as well as in a modern application to mean definition or computer setting – הַגְדָּרָה (hahg-dah-RAH). Another…

  having trouble seeing the print? הַגְדָּרָה   brought to you by Ulpan La-Inyan teaching Hebrew throughout Israel and online  Courses starting Sunday around the country! Yesterday’s entry introduced the word for fence or, more abstractly, framework. The root is ג.ד.ר (g.d.r). A definition is something that brings clarity to a word or idea: without definition, an idea runs freely, unattainable…

  having trouble seeing the print? גָּדֵר   brought to you by Ulpan La-Inyan teaching Hebrew throughout Israel and online  Level 1 online course starting June 27 – check it out!    by h.koppdelaney A fence, in Hebrew, is a גָּדֵר (gah-DEHR) – a feminine noun. For instance, יֵשׁ גָּדֵר אֲרֻכָּה מִסָּבִיב לַבָּיִת – there is a long fence around the house (yesh gah-DEHR…

  having trouble seeing the print? קַבָּלָה   brought to you by Ulpan La-Inyan teaching Hebrew throughout Israel and online   Level 1 online course starting June 27 – check it out!   This weekend, Jews around the world will be celebrating the Feast of Weeks, which is a direct translation of the Hebrew term, חַג הַשָּׁבֻעוֹת (khahg hah-shah-voo-OHT).  This is…

  having trouble seeing the print? לְשִׁמּוּשׁ חַד-פַּעֲמִי    brought to you by Ulpan La-Inyan teaching Hebrew throughout Israel and online  Level 1 online course starting June 27 – check it out!  Disposable – referring to an item that can be disposed of after one use – doesn’t get translated literally into Hebrew. Rather, Hebrew uses the expression לְשִׁמּוּשׁ חַד-פַּעֲמִי –…

  having trouble seeing the print? כְּוִיַּת שֶׁמֶשׁ   brought to you by Ulpan La-Inyan teaching Hebrew throughout Israel and online   Level 1 online course starting June 27 – check it out! If you’re like me and you’ve had a sunburn before, raise your hand.   The word for sun – שֶׁמֶשׁ (SHEH-mesh) – is one of those…

  having trouble seeing the print? מוּכָן וּמְזֻמָּן   brought to you by Ulpan La-Inyan teaching Hebrew throughout Israel and online  Level 1 online course starting June 27 – check it out! The English phrase ready for action implies that a person is on alert, prepared to do what is necessary to achieve a goal.  The Hebrew expression מוּכָן…

  having trouble seeing the print? נֵס   brought to you by Ulpan La-Inyan teaching Hebrew throughout Israel and the world    This one’s for JJ. Forty five years ago three major Arab powers in the Middle East threatened to destroy the Jewish State and bring upon a second Holocaust. The people of Israel began to dig graves…

  having trouble seeing the print? הַכְּלָלִים   brought to you by Ulpan La-Inyan teaching Hebrew throughout Israel and the world   The Torah portion(s) to be read tomorrow by Jews the world over (in Israel,  בְּחֻקֹּתַי –  beh-khoo-koh-TAH-ee, and abroad בְּהַר-בְּחֻקֹּתַי – beh-HAHR-beh-khoo-koh-TAH-ee) feature various rules given to the People of Israel to be kept as they enter their promised land, as well as the consequences that…