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having trouble seeing the print? סִדְרָה Check out our spring and summer courses in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Raanana, Efrat, Ramat Beit Shemesh and Tzfat Today was Israel’s יוֹם הָעַצְמָאוּת – Independence Day, literally, the day of independence (yohm hah-ahts-mah-OOT). To give you a comical glimpse into Israeli culture, I’ll refer you to a series put out by Ynet called “Pini”: pini.ynet.co.il….
having trouble seeing the print? שְׁכוֹל War and bereavement have been, unfortunately, a part of life since the dawn of humanity. It is no wonder, then, that Biblical Hebrew has a salient word for bereavement – שְׁכוֹל (sheh-KHOHL). A related word is שַׁכּוּל – bereaved (shah-KOOL). For example, בְּיוֹם הַזִּכָּרוֹן הָעָם עוֹמֵד בְּסוֹלִידָרִיּוּת עִם הַמִּשְׁפָּחוֹת הַשַּׁכּוּלוֹת…
having trouble seeing the print? סִבֹּלֶת Check out our spring and summer courses in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Raanana, Efrat, Ramat Beit Shemesh and Tzfat Correction to previous post: In the previous post, I introduced the Hebrew term for dryer. I had written מְכוֹנַת יִבּוּשׁ (meh-khoh-NAHT yee-BOOSH) as the title, then changed my mind and adjusted the body of…
having trouble seeing the print? מְיַבֵּשׁ Check out our spring and summer courses in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Raanana, Efrat, Ramat Beit Shemesh and Tzfat This one’s for Shimon. Last week I introduced the Hebrew term for washing machine – מְכוֹנַת כְּבִיסָה (meh-khoh-NAHT keh-vee-SAH), where מכונת is the construct state of the word מְכוֹנָה – machine (meh-khoh-NAH). The machine that dries…
having trouble seeing the print? כְּבִיסָה Check out our spring and summer courses in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Raanana, Efrat, Ramat Beit Shemesh and Tzfat If Passover preparations weren’t enough cleaning, this week’s Torah portion discusses some more – both physical and spiritual. The Modern and Biblical Hebrew word for to wash clothing is לְכַבֵּס (leh-khah-BES), an active-intensive פיעל verb of the…
having trouble seeing the print? דְּמָמָה Tonight I was walking in the Rehavia neighborhood of Jerusalem and noticed that Coffee Shop was closed. I continued on my way and passed another closed eatery, where outside where six paper bags were housing six burning candles – one for each million. Tomorrow at 10am the people…
having trouble seeing the print? לְחַיֵּג Check out our spring and summer courses in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Raanana, Efrat, Ramat Beit Shemesh and Tzfat As language develops, words sometimes depart from their original meaning to take on a similar but new meaning. Take, for example, the English verb to dial meant something else to do with the word day in its original…
having trouble seeing the print? תַּחְלִיף Understand the news in Israel. Course starts May 14 in Jerusalem. הַחֻפְשָׁה שֶׁלִּי – my vacation (hah-khoof-SHAH sheh-LEE) – was great. I feel rested and strong. I hope you (those celebrating) have been having a wonderful spring holiday season as well. In Israel, Passover means we’re just getting started with the…
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…