hebrew

UPDATED: Adventures in Semantics: Hashkafah, Hashgacha, Haskalah

Personally, my biggest tongue-twister is hashkafah and hashgacha. My brain consistently combines the two into a nonsense word: hashgafa. Hashkafah: Worldview. It generally refers to your “brand” of halacha and Jewish living. Modern orthodox, yeshivish, Satmar, etc. Hashgacha: The kosher certification of a restaurant. It’ll be evidenced by a little sign in the window, which […]

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Haikus for Jews?

All my Jew Crew on Facebook is all a-twitter about the Shema. Someone pointed out that the Shema is a haiku, and it began to spread like wildfire through status updates. After a few friends “verified” it, I decided it was finally time to investigate it for myself.  The Haiku The haiku is a traditional

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The “Nicknames” of Brachot

You will eventually need to know the short-hand names for the eating-related brachot, so here is a handy list to help you out! Even better, you’ll hear these phrases thrown around quickly in conversations, so now you’ll understand what these people are talking about, and you can even use these phrases in your conversations! What

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A Hebrew Breakthrough!

Yesterday, I had a Hebrew breakthrough. It may sound silly to some of you, and certainly not worth a post, but hey, it’s my blog! I think this was a major milestone in my Hebrew education, and it’s not a milestone I expected. We spoke recently about the concept of internalization. When you internalize a

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Word of the Day: Mezumen

When you bentch, you may notice that sometimes a person leads the bentching and sometimes not. Chances are, you won’t be leading the benching anytime soon, but you may be confused what’s going on. I wondered about this constantly, but by the time bentching was over, I’d forgotten my question! Before we start, go grab

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The Hebrew Alphabet

The Hebrew alef-bet is easy to learn, even if you’ve never learned another language or think you’re too old of a dog to learn new tricks.  And you don’t have to do it alone! Approximately every November, the National Jewish Outreach Program sponsors “Hebrew reading crash course” classes. Locate a class near you here! It’s free and

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Word of the Day: Yeshivish

Yeshivish is a language all its own. Supposedly it’s a form of English, but sometimes, you’d never know it!  Yeshivish exists most strongly in Yeshivish communities (whodathunkit?), but many orthodox Jews (primarily Ashkenazim) keep some yeshivish up their sleeve. Sometimes, it’s just a faster way to communicate an idea. The words may be either Yiddish

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Adventures in Semantics: The Thirteen Attributes of Hashem’s Mercy

On motzei Shabbos, Ashkenazim (and Chabad) began their series of the penitential prayers known as selichot. Sephardim started saying slichot at the beginning of this month, Elul. As Rosh HaShanah starts on Wednesday night, try to make the effort to rise early and go to synagogue so that you can recite slichot with the congregation.

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