having trouble seeing the print? לְהַנִּיחַ In this week’s Torah portion (in דברים כ”ו, י – Deuteronomy 26:10), the Israelite bringing the first fruits of his portion in the Land of Israel, in reverent gratitude to G-d, is instructed to place down – לְהַנִּיח (leh-hah-NEE-ahkh) – his basket on the floor of the Temple. לְהַנִּיח…
יֹפִי You might be familiar with colloquial Hebrew the expressions, how nice! – אֵיזֶה יֹפִי (EH-ee-zeh YOH-fee!), and the one-word, great! – יופי! The word יופי literally means beauty, as in שֶׁקֶר הַחֵן וְהֶבֶל הַיֹּפִי – charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting (SHEH-kehr hah-KHEN veh-HEH-vel hah-YOH-fee), from the Biblical book of מִשְׁלֵי (meesh-LEH-ee) – Proverbs. יופי is…
having trouble seeing the print? עִכּוּב Watch a demo of one of our Hebrew courses. Class starts October 30 around the country. Suppose you’ve boarded a Tel-Aviv-bound bus in Jerusalem for a 12:30 lunch meeting nearby Rabin Square. You didn’t know about work being done on the highway, which lengthens your trip by half an…
having trouble seeing the print? סִרְטוֹן Perhaps you know the Modern Hebrew word for movie or film – סֶרֶט (SEH-ret). The word made its first appearances in the Hebrew language a few thousand years ago, in the bodies of Jewish literature known as the Mishnah (מִשְׁנָה – meesh-NAH) and the Midrash (מִדְרָש – meed-RAHSH). In those…
having trouble seeing the print? לְצַיֵּן A couple of months ago I did an entry on to mention – לְצַיֵּן (leh-tsah-YEN). Today I’m introducing another meaning. You may know the Hebrew word for excellent – מְצֻיָּן (meh-tsoo-YAHN). That word is the passive version of an active-intensive פיעל (pee-EL) verb, to point out or to commemorate – לציין. Thus a more accurate translation…
having trouble seeing the print? דְּרִישַׁת שָׁלוֹם Suppose you’d like to send regards to a guy named Michael. In Hebrew, you’d say, תִּמְסוֹר דְּרִישַׁת שָׁלוֹם לְמִיכָאֵל (teem-SOHR deh-ree-SHAHT shah-LOHM leh-mee-khah-EL) – literally, send/pass a demand of peace to Michael (assuming the one being spoken to is a male). Sounds a bit demanding… until we realize…
having trouble seeing the print? תּוֹפָעָה In yesterday’s posting, we encountered a Hebrew word that adds a ת (t) sound at the beginning of a common, general root – in our case, ד.ר.כ (d.r.k), meaning way – to create a more specific word, in our case, תִּדְרוּך (teed-ROOKH), or briefing. This phenomenon – of creating…
having trouble seeing the print? תִּדְרוּךְ Today I visited one of our Jerusalem client programs on their first day of class. I got into a conversation with some of these post-high-school students from English-speaking countries about how they spent this past summer. Their group level corresponds to Ulpan La-Inyan’s Level 2 course. One of the girls…
having trouble seeing the print? עֲבַרְיָן This one’s for Lauren, Ulpan La-Inyan‘s administrative assistant and a collaborator in a new translation of the auspicious Yom Kippur prayer, כָּל נִדְרֵי (kohl need-REH-ee). The Hebrew word עֲבַרְיָנִים (ah-vahr-yah-NEEM) appears in the introductory line to that famous prayer. It is usually translated as criminals, though that translation lacks…
having trouble seeing the print? חוּט תַּיִל This one’s for Lisa, who stumped me last night when we she asked what that – – was called in Hebrew. So I looked it up. חוּט תַּיִל (khoot TAH-yeel) is barbed wire, where חוט means wire. גֶּדֶר תַּיִל (GHEH-dehr TAH-yeel) is barbed wire fence, where גדר…
having trouble seeing the print? בְּקִרְבַת מָקוֹם To say in Hebrew that something is close, you’d use a form of the word קָרוֹב (kah-ROHV). Likewise, you could talk about the nearby town – הָעֲיָרָה הַקְּרוֹבָה (hah-ah-yah-RAH hah-keh-roh-VAH). In that case, קרובה (a form of קרוב) is describing the town – the word is an adjective….