This post is part of a series about words from Kohelet, in honor of the release of my new book, Kohelet - A Map to Eden. For more informat...

This post is part of a series about words from Kohelet, in honor of the release of my new book, Kohelet - A Map to Eden. For more informat...

This post is part of a series about words from Kohelet, in honor of the release of my new book, Kohelet - A Map to Eden. For more informat...

Hello everyone -  Just a quick maintenance note: All existing email subscribers have been migrated to a new service,  https://follow.it . Fr...

Once again I need to make some changes to allow people to subscribe by email. So there might be some posts related to that in the days to co...

I'm so happy to share with all of you that after nearly six years of work, my first book,  Kohelet - A Map to Eden , is available: While...

In a recent episode of his great podcast Streetwise Hebrew , host Guy Sharett reviews words deriving from the root פקח. He discusses the me...

The connection between the English " cumin " and the Hebrew kamon  כַּמּוֹן (often pronounced today kamun  כַּמּוּן) is broadly ac...

The chemical element cadmium  has an interesting etymology. Here's what the Online Etymology Dictionary states: bluish-white metallic e...

Thanks again for your patience as I test the email subscriptions once again. Since today is Purim, I thought you might enjoy a link to all o...

For those that remember, about two years ago I had to change the service to provide email subscriptions to Balashon.  Well, it turns out th...

What is the origin of the Talmudic word דְּיוֹקָן deyokan ? In rabbinic literature it meant "image, likeness", and today, in moder...

I was listening to an episode of The History of English Podcast , and I was surprised to hear "persimmon" included in a list of wo...

What is the connection between the Hebrew hedyot  הֶדְיוֹט - "layman, layperson" and the English "idiot"? They share a c...

A reader recently asked if I've explored the words חֹרֶף choref - "winter" and חֶרְפָּה cherpa - "shame." I know tha...

The connection between the English word "polemic" and the Hebrew פּוּלְמוּס pulmus  seems fairly obvious. They both mean "con...

There are some words in Biblical Hebrew that are difficult to interpret because they only appear once in the entire Tanakh. We've discus...

The Hebrew word for "law, statute" חֹק chok , derives from the root חקק. That root can mean "to decree, legislate", but ...

I was recently asked about the etymology of the word סְנִיף snif   - meaning "branch," as in the branch of a bank or the local bra...

In the Tanakh, there are two words for razor for shaving. The more common one, תַּעַר ta'ar , is found in five verses : Bamidbar 6:5, 8:...