For a good summary in English of different opinions on the origins of Ketiv and Qere, see the article The Origins of Ketiv-Qere Readings by Michael Graves. In order to read the Hebrew, most people will have to download additional fonts. For those who have access to Leshoneinu, the last few issues have had a [...]
Thamar E. Gindin has a post (Hebrew) all about the name Yerushalam/Yerushalayim. She has some nice linguistical tidbits and a theory about how Yerushalam of the Tanakh, this is how it appears almost every time-see here for details, became Yerushalayim.
In modern Hebrew the word חילוני, ḥiloni, is used to describe someone who isn’t religious. Some people prefer the word חופשי, ḥofshi, since it expresses something positive, that someone is “free,” while ḥiloni is from the root חלל, “profane” or “violate.” I always thought that the word ḥiloni was fairly modern, but it turns out [...]
Another interesting podcast from the Association of Jewish Libraries is Yaffa Weisman’s Freedom of Speech: Assimilating Slang, Jargon and Other Languages into Current Israeli Hebrew. The classic dictionary of Hebrew slang is that of Dan Ben-Amotz and Netiva Ben-Yehudah. For more on Hebrew slang see here, here (a little dated), and here for the academic [...]
This Shabbat is Parashat Zachor, the maftir that grammarians and Torah readers love to ponder upon. For a discussion of the issues related to this Torah reading and the mistaken custom of some synagogues, see here and here. In today’s installment of his program, באופן מילולי, (“Literally Speaking”) Dr. Avshalom Koor discussed a few things-Parashat [...]
Prof. Daniel Sivan and Dr. Chaim Dihi have written a new Aramaic-Hebrew dictionary. The dictionary is for the reader who wants to familiarize themselves with Aramaic words which are used in modern Hebrew.
Professor Steven Fassberg will be speaking at JTS on The Dead Sea Scrolls and Their Contribution to the Study of Hebrew and Aramaic Date: Monday, February 8 Time: 3:40 p.m. Place: Wingate Auditorium, JTS
I just came across Joel M. Hoffman’s blog God Didn’t Say That: Bible Translations and Mistranslations. Recommended for those interested in the Bible, Hebrew, and translation.
(photo courtesy of the University of Haifa) Never a dull moment for the history of the Hebrew language. A breakthrough in the research of the Hebrew scriptures has shed new light on the period in which the Bible was written. Prof. Gershon Galil of the Department of Biblical Studies at the University of Haifa has [...]
If one were to conduct any type of search for the word חנוכייה, Hanukkiyah, in Hebrew literature before the 20th century they would most likely come up empty. The word simply does not exist in Biblical, Talmudic, nor Medieval Hebrew literature. In the Temple there was the מנורה, and when describing what one lights during [...]
You are currently browsing the archives for the Hebrew category.