המרכז ללשון העברית

 
The articles in this category take a Hebrew word, trace it back to its origins and then playfully show how the root has developed over time and space. To choose the article you wish to read, scroll down to the descriptions below and click on the PDF icon next to the article description. You will need Acrobat Reader to veiw these articles. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader click here.

 


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 All the Breaks  

We envy those who always seem to get all the breaks, but did we ever stop to think why brokenness should be a good thing in the first place? An answer lies perhaps in the lexicographic conjecture that these "breaks" are also "brakes," limits on misfortune. In Hebrew, both breaking and braking can be seen in expressions tied to the root shever (shin, vet, resh), to break.


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 The Bonds That Tie  

It's hard to be a Jew they say, but it's even harder to be a Jew alone. That's why the social bond is at the root of all Jewish communal activity. And that's why the root for tying them, (het, vet, resh) is so prevalent in the Hebrew language.

 


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 Before You  


It's an old joke, but true. The guest speaker, duly introduced, steps up to the microphone and says: Before I begin, I'd like to say a few words. This need to explain where one is coming from is apparently universal. Perhaps that's why the Hebrew root (kof, dalet, mem), to precede, has such a wide variety of uses.

 


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 On Taking It  


Who says Hebrew is not in its ascendancy in the United States? There it is, on a Sy Syms (clothier extraordinaire) store window in New York, telling us in perfect Hebrew that the (tsarkhan ha-mehunakh), educated consumer, is his (lakoah ha-tov be-yoter), best customer.

 


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 States and Rulers  

There are many types of Zionists in this world, from those for whom (medinat yisrael) is the Jewish state to those for whom it is the state of the Jews. And then there are the lawyers and the language mavens, for whom it all comes down to a matter of jurisdiction. The word (medina) derives from the root (dalet, yod, nun), judgment. The verb demonstrates that judgment and power are intertwined, since an early meaning of (dan) is to rule. In ancient times a medina was a province or a city. In the Book of Esther, Ahasuerus's Persia has 127 medina, provinces.

 


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 Brevity's Soul  

There are a lot of good things to say about brevity and people will say so at substantial length. The Hebrew root encompassing brevity,(kof, tsadi, resh), leads us far and wide into the social and religious life of the Jews.

 


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 No Tergiversating  

We've all had the experience at least once. The lecturer, after a 40-minute speech, finally gets to the words ?In conclusion...? and then proceeds to speak for another 30 minutes.

 


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 Bless You  

Ask a Jerusalemite what the appropriately brief response to a sneeze is, and you're likely to get the following long answer: ?In Tel Aviv, they say (assuta), Aramaic for ?health!' (like gesundheit). Since Assuta is also the name of a hospital in Tel Aviv, here in Jerusalem we naturally counter with (Hadassah), the name of our hospital.?

 


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 United in Disparity  

When speaking of pluralism in Jewish life, we are necessarily confronted by a thorny question: How are we to achieve collective harmony in an ambiance of plural agendas? Interestingly, (ahdut), the word for unity, also addresses this problem.

 


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 Lost and Found  

Your daughter brings her college roommate home for the Seder and explains what is about to take place: ?Judaism is a religion where, before they feed you, they give you a history lesson.? Indeed, the Haggada echoes Deuteronomy's instructions for the bringing of the first fruits. There, too, you must first recite a formulaic history of the Jews, beginning with (arami oved avi), ?A wandering Aramean was my father.? At that point in the Seder, your daughter amends her explanation. ?They also give you a Hebrew lesson.?

 


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 Patience as a Weighty Matter  
patience is a virtue, they say. To judge by its virtual disappearance from modern life, one might say that it is also a rare commodity. In Hebrew, the patience we all seem to lack is, (savlanut), derived from (savlan), long-suffering, and k3c2x (sevel), both burden and pain.


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 Patience as a Weighty Matter  

It happened during a concert at the Jerusalem Theatre. Rita, Israel's dynamic pop vocalist, suddenly cries out to a woman in the first row, (ma zeh, pele-fon?). Rita is laughing because the woman is pointing a cellular phone at her so the person on the other end may ?attend? the performance without a ticket. That theatrical moment teaches us a great deal about the ease with which Israeli culture reaches back to its classical linguistic roots. The construction (pele-fon)‹a cell-phone brand name‹plays on the fact that the ancient Hebrew word for miracle, (peleh), rhymes with the ?tele? of telephone.

 


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 Model Behavior  
You can learn a great deal about a civilization not only from its laws but also from the words used in its laws. Take (le-dugma), for example, the word (dugma), example, which made its entrance into Hebrew from the Greek language during the rabbinic period.


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 Naming the Name  
In Judaism, nothing is more complex than the subject of names. Although God, for example, has many names, these are replaced by (ha-shem), The Name, as a sign of reverence.


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 A Face for Fifty  
Fifty is the age at which, according to Israeli novelist David Grossman's mother, ?you get the face you deserve.? Since the Hebrew language is one of the prominent features of the face of Israel at 50, the Jewish people must be very deserving indeed.


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 At the Center  
When the conversation turns to borrowing and lending most people think first of banking and commerce and then, perhaps, of Shakespeare's Polonius, who advised his son, ?Neither a borrower, nor a lender be.? Borrowing and lending are also central to the development of languages. Think of the word (merkaz), center. The story of how it usurped the place of the biblical word (tsir), fulcrum, is almost as dramatic as the story of Hamlet.
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