Hebrew Language Blog

Two out of four seasons became popular Hebrew names: Aviv אָבׅיב (means “spring”) and Stav סְתָיו (means “autumn”). Aviv אָבׅיב My grandmother’s old friend never celebrated her birthday. She didn’t know the exact day, she didn’t even know the year (שָׁנָה sha-na) she was born. She only knew she was born during spring, because her…

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Last month, the windsurfer Gal Fridman, Israel’ s sole Olympic gold winner, published an ad on his Facebook page: “מחפש תותח אי ביי שמבין במכירה פומבית של פריט נדיר היחיד מסוגו בארץ” “Looking for an Ebay expert who understands how to auction a rare item, one of its kind in Israel” Fridman won a bronze medal at…

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The municipal election in Israel is held every five years. In Israel, a local authority (רָשׁוּת) leader’s term (כְּהֻנָּה) lasts five years. The number of terms (כְּהֻנּוֺת) a local authority leader can serve is unlimited. Residents (תּוֹשָׁבׅים) can choose their leaders again and again, for unrestricted number of terms. Quite a few mayors (רָאשֵׁי עָרׅים)…

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Kosher (כָּשֵׁר, pronounced as ka-sher) is a Hebrew adjective, meaning “fit”, “proper”, or “correct”. כָּשֵׁר also means “fit to eat” according to the Jewish laws of Kashruth (כַּשְׁרוּת) – a set of dietary rules that dictates what kinds of food can be eaten and how it needs to be prepared. The כַּשְׁרוּת laws concerns any…

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The Hebrew preposition עַל (pronounced as al) means “on”, “about”, or “regarding”. It’s a short word – only one syllable – but extremely important when forming grammatically correct sentences. Let’s delve into its many purposes. 1) The most common usage of עַל is as a location word. עַל means “above” or “on top of” when…

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