Blog – Your Daily Dose of Hebrew

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/מקרא-1.m4a” /]מִקְרָא If you’re familiar with traditional Jewish literature, you probably know the common term for the Bible – תנ”ך[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/מקרא-2.m4a” /], which stands for תורה, נביאים וכתובים[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/מקרא-3.m4a” /] – Torah, Prophets, (Holy) Writings. But you may not be familiar with another term that refers to the Bible… or, more literally, Scripture. The term is מקרא[audioclip…

חֹמֶר לְשִׁנּוּן[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/review-1.mp3″ /] Review Material Can’t read Hebrew yet? You spent time on your Hebrew this week. Use these review materials to make it yours to keep. Flashcards . Scatter . Space Race . Test [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/review-2.mp3″ /]שַׁבָּת שָׁלוֹם, וְסוֹף שָׁבוּעַ נָעִים! Shabbat Shalom, and have a nice weekend!

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/סוף-טוב-1.m4a” /]סוֹף טוֹב הַכֹּל טוֹב You know that feeling after a difficult week, when things somehow all come together? When that happens to me, I think of the expression, sometimes even say it out loud – סוף טוב הכול טוב[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/סוף-טוב-1.m4a” /] – all’s well that ends well. The expression sounds less Shakespearean in Hebrew,…

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/גמר-1.m4a” /]חֲצִי גְּמָר We’ve seen that לגמור[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/גמר-2.m4a” /] is one of the words for to finish in Hebrew. While that word is finding less and less public usage, its root ג.מ.ר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/גמר-3.m4a” /] thrives in sports, reality TV and academia in the word גמר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/גמר-4.m4a” /] – end, completion, termination. It appears in terms such as עבודת…

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לגמור-1.m4a” /]לִגְמוֹר, לְסַיֵּם Modern Hebrew has two common words for to finish. לגמור[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לגמור-2.m4a” /], the word used in the Bible, is probably the better-known one to people who are familiar with Hebrew but who are not native speakers. לגמור is used in Modern Hebrew primarily to mean to finish something – it is a transitive verb, one…

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/סירוב-פקודה-1.m4a” /]סֵרוּב פְּקֻדָּה A form of insubordination that can threaten the disciplinary system of an army, refusal of orders in Hebrew is סירוב פקודה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/סירוב-פקודה-1.m4a” /] – literally, refusal of an order. During the Disengagement from Gaza in 2005, this was a major issue in Israeli society. סירוב[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/סירוב-פקודה-2.m4a” /] is the noun form of the active-intensive לסרב[audioclip…