Archive for March, 2018
Get Ready for Passover: the Seder Plate Posted by Ayana on Mar 26, 2018
Passover Seder (לֵיל הַסֵּדֶר) will be celebrated this year at the end of March. On the evening of Friday, March 30, 2018, Jewish families from all over the world will gather around their large family table to observe the Jewish exodus from Egypt. Food and wine will be generously served, and the traditional Seder plate…
Hebrew: The Metric System of Languages Posted by Transparent Language on Mar 20, 2018
Guest Post by Bob Canter It was an off-hand comment from our rabbi, in response to a question I had posed to him, that triggered my investigation. I asked the rabbi if the Hebrew word for “Western, ” – מערבי – as in the Western Wall – derives from the same root as the word…
The Different Languages in Israel Posted by Ayana on Mar 12, 2018
The Israeli population is a linguistically diverse community. The state of Israel absorbs immigration daily, and thus we have many languages spoken in one small country. According to Ethnologue there are 37 languages in Israel. For comparison, there are only 24 in Germany, 15 in Spain, 12 in Switzerland. Language (feminine) = שָׂפָה Languages = שָׂפוֺת Official (to…