Hebrew Language Blog

School year (שְׁנַת הַלִּמּוּדִים) in Israel opens on September 1st. More than 2 million students aged 3-18 will wake up next week to the first day of שְׁנַת הַלִּמּוּדִים תש”פ. School year in Israel opens every year on September 1st according to the Gregorian calendar, but named according to the Jewish calendar. The month of…

Every year on the 15th day of Av (the eleventh month in the Hebrew calendar) Jewish people celebrate the holiday of Tu B’Av (this year on August 15, 2019). Tu B’Av (ט”ו באב) is the most mysterious Jewish festival (חַג). We don’t know exactly how early it began. The first mention of this date (תַּאֲרִיךְ)…

A hat is a clothing item that is practical and fashionable all year long. The Hebrew word for hat is a two-syllable word – כּוֹבַע. The first syllable is כּוֹ (pronounced as ‛ko’), and the second is בַע (pronounced as ‛va’). כּוֹבַע is a masculine noun (as indicated by its ending with consonant) and therefore…

Three months after Israel legislative elections (בְּחִירוֹת), the country heads towards elections again. The elections held in April 2019 went as planned. The right wing parties (מִפְלָגוֺת הַיָּמִין) won a majority of votes, and it was pretty obvious that Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader (מַנְהִיג) of the biggest right wing party (מִפְלָגָה), will continue to lead…

The days of the week in Hebrew don’t have special names, they simply follow a specific order: first day, second day, third day, and so on. The seventh day is the only exception that doesn’t bear numeral meaning in its name. The Jewish week begins with Sunday: יוֹם (yom) in Hebrew means day. For the…

The hot weather and the long vacation make the Israeli summer a season full of activities: trips, parties, open-air concerts, water sports, etc. Here are five useful verbs for spending the summertime in Israel. To travel לְטַיֵּיל School summer vacation in Israel is long – two months in total: July and August. Many spend part…

Water related words have become popular names in Israel in recent decades. Here are the most common ones. גַּל (gal) is a masculine noun means wave. As a name it was specified for boys only for many years. Parents who wished to name their newborn daughter after this meaning used different declensions of the noun, such…