A common blessing / greeting before Yom Kippur is gmar chatima tova - גמר חתימה טובה (or occasionally gmar tov גמר טוב ). I'm not ...

We're now up to the third term of forgiveness - kapara (or kapparah ) כפרה. This is the most complicated of the three for a number of ...

Unlike selicha , which refers specifically to sin, mechila (or mechilah ) מחילה has more a more secular meaning as well. The root מחל fi...

Leading up to Yom Kippur, we'll discuss the three common terms for forgiveness in Hebrew. Today we'll begin with selicha (or slicha...

Is there a connection between tzom צום - "a fast" and tzama צמא - "thirst"? Klein makes no connection between the tw...

After discussing shofar , we'll now talk about a synonym - yovel יובל. We find yovel being used as another term for a shofar in Shmot ...

We're all familiar with the shofar (or shophar )- שופר - the ram's horn blown on Rosh HaShana. What is the origin of the term? Phil...

I was going to research and write a post about the phrase " bnei maron " as in appears in the Mishna in Rosh HaShana (1:2) - בראש ...

I'm going away for a few days - I'll be back home on September 19th. I might post something while I'm gone, but it will probably...

Is the Hebrew word ta'arif תעריף related to the English word "tariff"? Well, of course it is. Not only do they have the same ...

The tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet is yod (or yud or yodh ). The origin of the letter's name is clear - it looks like a yad יד -...

Reader Yoel asks: Do you know anything about the word גלידה? ( glida , ice cream). Was it totally made up or based on some actual precede...

Until now, the colors we've discussed have been directly used to describe objects. So while we may not know exactly what color kachol o...

When discussing yarok and katom , I mentioned a word for gold - charutz חרוץ ( or harutz / haruts / charuts ). The root חרץ has two othe...

Now that we've covered the basic colors, we'll look at a few words in Hebrew based on colors in related Semitic languages. As we...

After several days of writing about colors, I found this very interesting article in the Jewish Encyclopedia on "Color". It deals...

The color white in Hebrew is lavan לבן, and not surprisingly, we find many words that are directly related to this root: levana - לבנה -...

Is shachor ( shahor ) שחור - "black" related to shachar ( shahar ) שחר - "dawn"? The best way to tell would be to see ...

Katom כתום - orange - is also a "new" color, coined for the first time in Modern Hebrew. Klein writes that it derives from ketem ...

Unlike the colors we've discussed previously, sagol (not segol ) סגול - purple/violet was created in Modern Hebrew. Klein writes that ...