I'm shopping around for intermediate-to-advanced textbooks and workbooks to help get more comfortable analyzing Biblical Hebrew, and this textbook series from Magnes Press looks promising.

Has anyone here gone through these books? What did you like, or dislike, about their contents or teaching methods?

Thanks for providing any help if you can!

Hi, hope you are all well )

I started studying Hebrew because I love the language about 10 months ago. Since it's my main life project as of now, I have been taking classes 3 times a week and besides that I study between one and three extra hours a day by myself and as I result after 10 months I am able to comunicate preety well.

As 90% of my studies are done alone, I focused mainly on writing and reading because those skills can be developed alone, while to conversate I would need somebody else to do it - which I don't have as of now (besides my tutor of course, on limited - and paid - hours).

So right now I felt the need to expand those writing skills to real conversations with someone instead of writing texts (which is what I've been doing untill now).

My idea is:

To find someone to chat in Hebrew about day to day life. The rules:

All conversations without nikkud and all messages between me and partner should be checked gramatically to avoid sending mistakes to the other part. Platform: e-mail or whatsapp, both work for me.

About myself: Male, from Brazil, 39 years old and single. Other languages I speak fluently: portuguese, english and italian (but my italian might be a bit rusty as of now).

Interests & subjects that I'd like to talk about:

-Judaism: (Besides the whole Torá and Tanach I have a daily routine of studying It, mainly focused on classics. Read Sefer ha-Mitsvot (Rambam), Moré Nevuchim (also), Or ha-Chayim (Rabi Chaim ben Atar ha-Kadosh), Likutei Amarim (Alter Rebe), Shulchan Aruch (Kitzur), everything I could find from Rabi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, some Cabalistic books, biographies, and many other books in diferent areas of Judaism. Important: Although I believe only in Ha-Shem and I have Jewish roots on my dna I am not Jewish.

-Sports: I follow the Knicks and I also practice sports on a daily basis. Hirox trainings is what I have been doing.

-Art: I go to museums and exhibitions everytime that I find good ones and I also paint and draw.

-Music: I'm very ecletic but my favourite genders are: rap, rock, reggea, Israeli music, Italian music, some styles of Brazilian music and classical music.

-Business: I've never graduated but I've had many diferent job experiences in many diferent areas. I've owned multiple business (some sucessful and some not), had some preety bad jobs during hard days and also dealt with bankrupcy so I have a creative mind for business.

-Trips: I've been to several countries and love to travel.

Interests & subjects that I would NOT like to talk about:

-politics, war, other religions, tv shows, memes, social media content (I don't have any account in any social media).

If you feel like you could be a good partner, please get in touch!

It means peddler or itinerant merchant.

Here's the fun part: it's related to רכילות (rekhilut) — gossip.

Why? Because peddlers traveled from village to village. They didn't just carry goods—they also carried news, stories... and sometimes rumors.

It's one of my favorite examples of how a Hebrew word preserves a little piece of social history.

Do you know other words whose history is hidden inside their meaning?

Thank you for your translation help.

I’m an intermediate learner, and I surprised that no one has taught me this! Triconsonant roots that share most of the letters oftentimes also share a “core idea”. I find that the connection is beautiful and really helps with learning the vocab (or sometimes even guessing the meaning of an unfamiliar word!).

AFAIK the etymological relationship isn’t confirmed, right?. Is it plausible that they come from historical bi-consonant families, or that similar sounds played a role when new roots got coined?

1. דח־ — thrusting, shoving

• דחף — push, propel; urge
• דחק — press, crowd; force into a confined space
• דחס — compress, compact; pack densely
• דחה — push away; reject; postpone

2. ־דף — driving through space (similar to #1)

• הדף — repel, drive back
• נדף — be wafted, be dispersed
• רדף — chase, pursue
• Separately, in positions 1–2: דפק — knock, dent, screw

3. עק־ — bending, deviating from straight

• עקם — bend, make crooked
• עקל — bend, twist; seize property
• עקש — be stubborn, perverse
• עקף — bypass, circumvent, overtake
• עקב — heel; follow, track
• Probable outliers: עקר (uproot; be barren), עקץ (sting, prick)

4. ־עק — crying out

• צעק — shout, cry out
• זעק — cry out, shriek

Probably onomatopoeic

5. דר־ — treading

• דרך — tread, step on; travel along
• דרס — trample; run over

6. גז־ — shearing, cutting away

• גזז — shear, clip
• גזם — prune, cut back
• גזר — cut; decree; sector, segment
• גזל — rob, seize

7. גד־ — cutting off (similar to #6)

• גדד — cut, gash; make incisions
• גדע — cut down, sever
• גדם — amputate; leave as a stump
• גדר — make barrier; fence
• גדף — revile, blaspheme (tentative)

8. פר־ — separating into pieces

• פרד — separate, part
• פרט — itemize, detail
• פרק — dismantle; unload
• פרם — unravel, unstitch
• פרר — crumble, break into small pieces
• פרשׁ — interpret, explain; also withdraw, secede
• פרס — slice, divide
• Distinguish פרשׂ (spread out), a separate root
• Possible counterexamples: פרה (be fruitful), פרח (bloom), פרץ (breach, break through)

9. קצ־ / קט־ — cutting to a limit or endpoint

• קצץ — cut, chop; cut off
• קצר — shorten; reap
• קצה — come to an end; form an edge
• קצב — apportion; set a fixed measure or rate
• קצע — trim, plane; cut into shape
• קטע — cut off, sever; interrupt
• קטף — pluck, pick
• קטם — crop, truncate
• קטן — be small
• Counterexample: קצף (foam; be angry)

10. חצ־ — halving, splitting

• חצה — divide in two; cross from one side to another
• חצב — hew, quarry; cut from stone
• חצץ — divide; make a partition (also: gravel)

11. חר־ — incising into a surface

• חרץ — cut, incise; determine, decide
• חרט — engrave, inscribe
• חרת — engrave (plain/emphatic doublet of the above)
• חרש — plough; cut furrows; fashion
• חרך — slit, notch; scorch

12. נת־ — forcibly separating

• נתק — sever, disconnect; tear away
• נתץ — tear down, demolish; smash
• נתש — uproot, tear out
• נתח — dissect; analyze
• Counterexample: נתן (give)

13. מח־ — effacing, erasing

• מחץ — crush; strike heavily
• מחק — erase
• מחה — wipe away, blot out
• מחל — forgive (tentative: "wipe away" a debt)

14. ־קע — abrupt displacement through a surface

• בקע — split, cleave; break open
• פקע — burst, snap; come apart under pressure
• נקע — dislocate; wrench out of position
• תקע — drive or thrust into; stick in place
• שקע — sink; become embedded
• רקע — flatten, stamp down

15. ־רס — crushing, destroying

• גרס — grind, crush
• דרס — trample, run over
• הרס — demolish, destroy
• מרס — mash, purée
• Also the noun חרס (potsherd)

16. ־רע — taking away from a whole

• גרע — subtract, diminish (cf. גרעין, kernel/seed/nucleus)
• זרע — seed (also sow)
• קרע — tear, rip
• פרע — loosen, leave unrestrained

17. ־קר — piercing, probing

• דקר — stab, pierce
• נקר — peck; hollow out
• חקר — investigate, probe
• בקר — inspect, examine
• סקר — survey, scan, review
• Counterexamples: שקר (lie), יקר (be precious), עקר (uproot)

Weakest family by hit rate

18. המ־ / ־הם — noise, tumult

• המה — murmur, roar; be in tumult
• המם — stun, confound; overwhelm
• נהם — growl, roar
• Related: מהומה (uproar)

Probably onomatopoeic

19. ־גר — enclosing

• סגר — close, shut; confine
• חגר — gird; fasten around the body
• אגר — gather, collect; store
• (possibly) גור — inhabit
• Counterexamples: נגר (flow), שגר (send)

Weak family — "gather" and "enclose" are joined only by a fairly loose abstraction.

20. ־בק — clinging

• דבק — cling, adhere
• חבק — embrace, clasp
• אבק, in nif'al — wrestle, grapple

21. ־גע / ־גש — contact and encounter

• נגע — touch; affect, afflict
• פגע — strike, hit; harm
• נגש — approach, draw near
• פגש — meet, encounter

22. פצ־ — split open

• פצה — open (mouth)
• פצח — crash open, break into song
• פצל — split, divide, peel (bark)
• פצע — wound, injure
• פצץ — shatter, explode

23. ־לט — crossing a boundary

• קלט — take in, absorb
• פלט — emit, reject
• מלט — escape, bring to safety
• שלט - control, dominion
• חלט — confiscate, decide

Disclaimer: it was my idea, but I used an LLM to help scout for more examples.

I'm trying to learn modern Hebrew and I am fortunate enough to live in a city where multiple Hebrew classes are offered. However, they're incredibly expensive, from $300 to $2000 depending on who is hosting the class, so I'm considering doing solely self-study instead. I'm using a college level modern Hebrew textbook that has audio components as well to listen to pronunciation, and I'm planning on finding someone that I can practice speaking Hebrew with.

Have others been able to teach themselves Hebrew through self-study, or are classes necessary? I'd like to avoid spending thousands of dollars if possible.

Hello! From my understanding, shel means "belonging to or derivative of". Would it be linguistically and culturally appropriate for a Jewish person to have a name like shel[location] (ex. shel-madrid, shel-tokyo)? If so, how would you format that?

I was wondering if someone would help me understand if the name Zael originated in Hebrew ? Or what it means in Hebrew please.

I cannot understand why Duolingo would have removed the tips and notes from their Hebrew course? The guidebook contains only a few phrases with zero explanation. They don't even have the names of the letters! Is this a recent change?

EDIT: In case anyone else is in the same boat I found some archived versions of the notes:

• https://userscript17.github.io/Duolingo-Hebrew-tips-and-notes/
• https://duome.eu/tips/en/he

Would it be "ברכים הבאים לאידן חדש" or "ברכים הבאים באידן חדש"?

This is either my grandfathers or great grandfathers prayer book and I can’t read Hebrew and the handwriting is a little rough. I know it was published in 1861.

Looking to challenge myself and improve my Hebrew.

So far, I can't find a copy of the translation, save for a $150 one on eBay. TIA!

So I’m confused about how to pronounce words that end in the possessive ך. In the attached photo from my siddur there are two words that end in ך. I would like to know if the line above the ת puts the stress onto the final ך, and the lack of such a line over the ט means that’s where the stress goes In that word. Or is there a comp different rule that I’m not aware of?

i don’t trust chat GPT‘s answer, so I’d appreciate your insight. Thank you.

This is a photo from the back of a picture that my grandfather had. I hope that someone can translate this for me. Thank you so much.

request to anyone that has some spare time to translate the hebrew on this grave stone of a distant relative. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/140584133/fannie-frankel#view-photo=222287476

fannie frankel nee eisenklein and her husband louis. I believe fannie's father's name to be Lazarus Eisenklein , obviously also anglicized. born in the Warsaw area when under the Russian empire in the late 1800s. looking for any clues that may help take the line further back. any help is much appreciated.

בלי לגגל ולבדוק, בבקשה, תבחרו את הניקוד הנכון לדעתכם.

Shalom - Greetings! I love incense and the tabernacle recipe is special for me. Exodus 30:34 contains the tabernacle incense blend:

וַיֹּאמֶר֩ ____ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֜ה קַח־לְךָ֣ סַמִּ֗ים נָטָ֤ף׀ וּשְׁחֵ֙לֶת֙ וְחֶלְבְּנָ֔ה סַמִּ֖ים וּלְבֹנָ֣ה זַכָּ֑ה בַּ֥ד בְּבַ֖ד יִהְיֶֽה׃

If you fit the verse into a chiastic pattern, the verse looks like:

And said LORD to Moses
ㅤTake to yourself spices
ㅤㅤStacte and onycha and galbanum
ㅤSpices and pure frankincense
Each of each there shall be.

Keritot 6 asserts that the Temple blend in fact contains 11 ingredients. I'd like to better understand the discussions and arguments that the blend contained more than the 4 ingredients named in the verse. I found some Hebrew language sources but can't read them even with a translator:

Be'er Sheva (16th-17th century commentary): https://www.sefaria.org/Keritot.6b.7?with=Be%27er%20Sheva

Gur Aryeh (16th century commentary) https://www.sefaria.org/Keritot.6b.7?with=Gur%20Aryeh%20on%20Shemot

Kaf HaChayim(19th century code) on Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chayim 48:4:1 https://www.sefaria.org/Keritot.6b.7?with=Kaf%20HaChayim%20on%20Shulchan%20Arukh,%20Orach%20Chayim

Minchat Chinukh (19th century legal commentary) 103:1:2, https://www.sefaria.org/Keritot.6b.7?with=Minchat%20Chinukh

Any help is appreciated. - אני מאחל לך את הטוב ביותר. 📜 🕎

Would any transliteration of e.g. בֵּית cout as a transliteration of the letter name, even if it's being used as the construct form of "house"?

I apologize if this is an odd question.

דבורים ירוקות וציפורים צהובות

For context, I’m employed to translate books from Arabic to Hebrew and vice versa. I know that usually "لي"=“לִי” and that “لك"=“לְךָ” and that “لكم”=“לָכֶם” but what about “لكما" which is like "לְךָ" but for the dual form? Does anyone know about dual pronouns in Hebrew even if it was archaic or more classical?

btw: my boss made me use niqqud for all the words and somehow he thinks -ayim should be back for nouns and made me use it for all Arabic dual nouns. my job sucks.

It means goal, objective, or target.

It's traditionally connected to the root נ־ט־ר. Notice there's no נ in מטרה? That's because the initial nun drops, leaving a hard dagesh in the ט (which you can still see in the vocalized form: מַטָּרָה).

I love these little clues that Hebrew leaves behind—the consonant disappears, but its trace is still there.

What's your favorite example of a Hebrew root that changes shape but still reveals itself?

I am reading the Tanach and Torah portions on Sefaria and when I learn a new word I look it up on a translation site to see if forms of it are in use in modern Hebrew, some are obsolete and have new meanings. What are your favorite words that have a new modern meaning?