Is there any connection between the words ra’al רַעַל - “poison, toxin” and re’ala רְעָלָה - “veil, scarf”? There are three primary theorie...

In Hebrew, the verb רחץ rachatz means “to wash” or “to bathe.” In Aramaic, it means “to trust” or “to rely.” Is there any connection betwee...

The word אֲגַרְטָל agartal , meaning "vase" in Modern Hebrew, doesn’t look like a native Hebrew word. But it actually has a biblic...

A casbah is a citadel or a fortified quarter of an Arab city. Does it have a cognate in Hebrew? Casbah (sometimes spelled kasbah) entered En...

Today is Balashon’s 20th anniversary. I didn’t want to write a typical post about a single word or root, so I’m doing something different: a...

If you’ve been wondering about Balashon email updates, here’s the good news: they’re working again. I wrote up the background and why this h...

 Just a test.

For many years, I provided the ability to subscribe to Balashon posts via Google FeedBurner. That feature shut down in 2021. I've since ...

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here on Balashon. But I haven’t stopped writing about Hebrew and language. For some time now, I’ve been ...

The latest viral internet trend is creating AI-generated images in the style of Studio Ghibli. You've very likely seen them by now—or m...

Let's look at two Hebrew words for clown - לֵיצָן leitzan  and מוּקְיוֹן mukion .  Leitzan is the more common of the two, so we'll s...

A reader asked about an Israeli grape juice called Inbalim  ענבלים. I presume this is the brand: He asked why the juice had that name.  I do...