Hebrew

Rarely heard in the speech of most Israelis in the past, b’sorot tovot, an ironic “good news,” has suddenly become a common way of saying goodbye.

Nov. 30 2023 12:01AM

And how Hebrew and Yiddish translations shaped it.

Naomi Seidman
Nov. 13 2023 12:01AM

A meḥdal occurred in 1973. It has now, in an eerily similar way, occurred again. What exactly does it mean in English?

Oct. 19 2023 12:01AM

In the wake of the Yom Kippur War, the words yom kippur shel, “the Yom Kippur of,” have referred in Israeli speech to any debacle that might have been prevented by better judgment.

Sept. 20 2023 12:01AM

What’s good enough for Emmanuel Macron is good enough for Bezalel Smotrich.

Yaakov Katz
March 20 2023 12:01AM

Having your cake and eating it too.

Jenna Weissman Joselit
Feb. 23 2023 12:01AM

Hebrew was once written in both directions. How did it fix its direction, and what does that show about the history of writing in general?

Jan. 18 2023 12:01AM

Dicta Maiven.

Zvika Klein
Sept. 13 2022 12:01AM

The word, like a small number of other Egyptian loanwords in the Bible, testifies to a period in which the early Israelite nation, or a part of it, was in intimate contact with Egyptian life.

Sept. 7 2022 12:01AM

The Blue-and-White party has transformed into . . . well, it’s unclear, at least in English.

Aug. 24 2022 12:01AM

Don’t fear rote learning.

Saul Rosenberg
Aug. 15 2022 12:01AM

The deultimization of the Hebrew language proceeds apace.

July 20 2022 12:01AM

In the end, one doesn’t know what to be struck by more: the fact that a computer can translate Hebrew at all, or the fact that when it does, it does so atrociously.

July 6 2022 12:01AM

Only in Schopfloch, as far as I know, have a large number of originally Jewish words survived in the speech of the local populace to this day.

May 11 2022 12:01AM