Rosh ha-Shanah * الإضافة * סמיכות * construct form * ראש השנה * رأس السنة

I keep hearing the English phrase "the Jewish New Year" so much that I forget to translate Rosh ha-Shanah literally: Head of the Year. Rosh ha-Shana is example of the construct form, called smikhut in Hebrew and idaafa in Arabic.

In English, we use "of" to show the hierarchical relationship between the two nouns, "head"and "year." In Hebrew and Arabic, the relationship becomes hierarchical when the first noun is indefinite and the second is definite, i.e. the first noun has no "ha" (the) and the second does.

Are there cultural or theological reasons that the Hebrew expression is not "Shana Khadasha," New Year? Certainly, I've heard the Israeli expression, "Shanah M'tuka," [Have a] Sweet Year, so there is no aversion to alternate greetings.

Perhaps the Jewish view of time as cyclic, rather than linear, means that no year is ever new. Rosh ha-Shanah occurs at the end of the current year, so* marks the starting point for this year's particular instantiation. This point is the time of year when accountings are made, measured, and perhaps expunged. The time often coincides with the US Federal fiscal year. Neither the US fiscal year start date of October 1st nor Rosh ha-Shanah resembles the January 1st celebration of the "New Year."

* The reasoning behind the "so" escapes me.

prayers for rain - http://www.youngisrael.org/index.cfm

לשנה טובה תכתב l-shanah tovah tikatev

May you be written and inscribed for a good year!

Generally, I hear "shana tovah" or "l'shava tova tikatev" or "shana m'tuka" and not the whole greeting and blessing.

There are four forms. You guessed it--masculine, feminine, and then plural for each. You will need the last form (feminine plural) if you are addressing roomful of your female relatives, students, or army recruits. I mean, when else would you encounter an exclusively female group?

Should I expand this page to a wiki, so I wouldn't have to do so much typing?

לשנה טובה תכתב l-shanah tovah tikatev

tikatevi

tikatevu

tikatevn=something

next week i'a: may you be sealed for a good year!

Merger of Hebrew and Arabic

Dr. Faruq Mawasi documents a merger of Hebrew and Arabic termed variously irbiyya, Hirbia, and irvit, which is akin to Spanglish (page 126, Stavans)

Language distribution in Israel - from Amharic to Yevanic

Ilan Stavans' Resurrecting Hebrew (Schocken 2008) quotes Bar Ilan's Professor Bernard Spolsky (page 78), who cites his language policy work analyzing the 1983 census question on language, From Monolingual to Multilingual? Educational Language Policy in Israel by Elana Shohamy and Bernard Spolsky (2002, Tel Aviv University) and cites work done in the 90's.

approximately

4,500,000 Israelis are estimated to have functional competence in Hebrew (500,000 or 9% as a second language)

910,000 speakers of Palestinian Arabic and

1,600,000 speakers of Arabic in Gaza and the West Bank

800,000 of Russian

485,000 of Judeo-Arabic (which includes Moroccan Judeo-Arabic, Iraqi Judeo-Arabic, Yemeni Judeo-Arabic, Tunisian Judeo-Arabic, Tripolitanian Judeo-Arabic)

250,000 of Rumanian

215,000 of Yiddish

200,000 of French

100,000 of English first-language users

100,000 of Spanish

60,000 of Hungarian

60,000 of Persian

60,000 of Amharic

50,000 of other languages of the former Soviet Union

200,000 of other languages of foreign workers ; 300,000 according to Haaretz (July 2009)

and an unspecified number of speakers of

Ladino, Polish, German, Judeo-Persona (Dzidi) Bukaric, Judeo-Georgian, Judeo-Tat(Juduri), Judeo-Neo-Aramaic, Bulgarian, Turkish, Indian languages, Tigrinya, Italian, Israeli Sign Language, Portuguese, Circassian (Adyghe), Armenian, Dutch, Greek, Serbian, Czech, Judeo-Berber, Aramaic, and Judeo-Greek (Yevanic).

Why and Wherefore / למה ומדוע

[madu'a מדוע, la-mah למה]
"In Hebrew, there are two expressions for 'why' - madua and lamah. Madua means Mah dei'ah - What do I learn from this? And Lamah means 'L'Mah? - To what end?' How do I grow and become better from this?"

from Nothing is as simple as it looks, by Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis (Sep 23 2009)

Others have also asked "why and why": http://translate.google.co

m/translate_s?hl=en&clss=&q=why+and+why&tq=&sl=en&tl=iw

Jonah and the Whale Song (tune: I had a little dreidel)

This has more to do with Judaism in pre-school than with the Hebrew language, but I can't find the lyrics to this particular version on the internet. Here's a linguistic angle: Nineveh / נינוה lies within modern-day Mosul / الموصل‎ in Iraq. What better time than the week of Rosh Chodesh Elul / ראש חדש אלול to transcribe this ? (tune) Thanks to Morah Chana and Morah Cha-Cha.

There was a man named Jonah.
He was swallowed by a whale.
He did tshuva for three days and nights
and lived to tell the tale.

Refrain:
Oh Jonah, Jonah, Jonah,
was swallowed by a whale.
Oh Jonah, Jonah, Jonah,
he lived to tell the tale.

There was a man named Jonah.
Hashem sent him to Ninveh.
The people there were wicked
and had to change their way.

Refrain

But Jonah didn't listen.
To a ship he ran away.
So, Hashem sent a great big storm
to help Jonah to obey.

Refrain

So Jonah did Teshuva in the belly of the whale.
Hashem gave him one more chance,
this time he did not fail.

Refrain.

A pre-schooler's version of the story of Jonah and the Big Fish :
Hashem told Jonah to go to Ninveh and tell the King that the people were wicked. Jonah was afraid the people of Ninveh would hurt him so he ran away and bought a ticket on a boat. There was a big storm and the people on the boat drew sticks. Jonah got the black stick and told the people on the boat that he didn't listen to Hashem. They threw him overboard and Jonah was swallowed by a whale. He did Tehsuvah for three days and Hashem gave him one more chance to listen. Then Jonah went to Ninveh and told the King the people had to stop being wicked.

Pslam 117 transliterated into Arabic (draft)

Perhaps because it is pithy or perhaps because of its onomatopoeia, this is my favorite expression of praise for the Almighty.

At minute 2:52, you can hear a jew-grass version of Psalm 117 .
There is a 1970's Hebrew version (Hallelu, from Baruch Chait) available by request or as a clip.

(א)
הַלְלוּ אֶת־ה כָּל־גֹּויִם
هَلِّلُ ات ا كل جاوىم

שבְּחוּהוּ כָּל־הָאֻמִּים׃
شبخوهو كل ها امىم

(ב)
כִּי גָבַר עָלֵינוּ חַסְדו

וֶאֱמֶת־יְהוָה לְעֹולָם הַלְלוּ־יָהּ׃


1 سَبِّحُوا الرَّبَّ يَا كُلَّ الأُمَمِ. حَمِّدُوهُ يَا كُلَّ الشُّعُوبِ.

2 لأَنَّ رَحْمَتَهُ قَدْ قَوِيَتْ عَلَيْنَا وَأَمَانَةُ الرَّبِّ إِلَى الدَّهْرِ. هَلِّلُويَا.

117 مزامير
mizmor ק'ז

References, retrieved today:
http://scripturetext.com/psalms/117-1.htm
תהילים 117:1 Hebrew OT: WLC (Consonants & Vowels) (with two emendations)
תהילים 117:2 Hebrew OT: WLC (Consonants & Vowels)
http://www.copticchurch.net/cgibin/bible/index.php?r=psalms+117&showVN=1&version=SVD

Keyboard character sets:
http://www.geocities.com/chen_levkovich/ (I can't find the medial ya--where is it?)

Conjugating the near future

Hebrew has a "futur proche" tense.

ani omedet lixtov (I'm going to write.)
Use the verb "stand": omed, omedet, omdim, omdot

It certainly makes life easier than the future tense, which is simliar to the Arabic present.

Use a static verb of motion instead of "going," which is used in English, French, and Spanish.

It must be Standard Israeli Hebrew (SIH)--I will have to ask someone if it is found in earlier iterations of the language.

Who knows seven? The gematriya of Shabbat

wine (yayin) 10 + 10 + 50 = 70 --> 7
Challah (bread)
meat (basar) 2 beth + sin + resh
dag (fish) daleth 4 + gimmel 3 = 7

Nun ן נ is the letter of the month of Cheshvan חשון

Hebrew Calendar: Wed, 29 October 2008 - 30th of Tishrei, 5769 - Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan (the new moon of the month of cheshvan)So Tuesday night was Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan, the last day of Tishrei, and tonight will be (I"H) the first day of Cheshvan. Is that confusing, or what? Rosh Chodesh this year is two days this month--one day in Tishrei and one day in Cheshvan.

Nun is the letter of the month--it represents Moshiach. It is bent in galut (exile) and is upright when Redemption comes. Got the letters from Chen's keyboard: ן נ
The long, vertical one is the final form used, at the end of the word. The sound is /n/.

These words' spiritual meanings are related to each other because their numerical values are the same, via their shared gematriya:
נחש [naxash] snake 358 = n/50 + x/8 + sh/300
מש'ח [moshiax] Moshiach 358 = m/40 + sh/300 + i/10 + x/8
The spiritual force of the snake is harnassed for good by the spiritual strength of Moshiach.

This is the 8th month of the year, counting from Nissan. (You can see this in the English month of October, which has the number 8 in it.--from Rabbi M. Kosman) Of course, if you count from Tishrei, then cheshvan is the second month.

The sense of the month is smell. Only that sense refrained from sinning in the Garden of Eden. That sense has a direct line to the soul, which experiences the joy of the sense. On Yom Kippur we refrain from using our sense of taste, but we can use our sense of smell. "The Hebrew word for "smell" (רֵיחַ) is cognate to the word for "spirit" (רוּחַ)."(from web-site below) [reax] and [ruax]

Take the first and last letter of חשון Cheshvan
and you have xen, what is pleasing חן
the middle two letters are like isha (woman), so that we learn that the month of Cheshvan contains the essence of a woman's xen - goodness. Thus, it is no surprise that the yahrzeit of Rachel(the anniversary of the death of Rahel Imenu) falls in this month, on the 11th of Cheshvan.

This month evokes the flood, as its duration was the solar year extending form the 17th to the 28th of the month.

From rosh chodesh shiur (lecture) of Rtn. Sara Leider.
More details on the organ, color, and zodiac sign of the month can be found on The Month of Cheshvan According to the Book of Formation (Sefer Yetzirah) .
Dedicated to the memory of Cousin Laura, whose soul finished its journey in this world as this month began.

Rosh Hashanah seder with food puns

http://www.kehilasmy.org/holidays/rosh/rstrad.htm

Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the year from the perspective of asking for physical health; Yom Kippur is also called the beginning of the year (rosh ha-shanah) because this is when we ask for spiritual health. (As told to congregants by the rabbi's son-in-law, Tishrei 5769.)

Lesson 1 - bet aleph-bet - the House of the aleph-bet

OK. I'm wrong. What you saw before this is actually lesson zero. It is meant to get you started by showing you how a sample of letters themselves can be identified by the smallest of children as small, large, and three-pronged. That is the visual approach. If you want a kinesthetic approach, you can read about yoga and the aleph bet. If you want a tactile approach, use Deborah's spaghetti structures, or go the the beach and trace letters in the sand. (I need a photo of LJ Shores here!)

The traditional European approach has been to use taste. That's right. Take a three-year old and draw the letters in honey. Have the child lick up the honey. My five-year old just came home with a recipe for "Yummy Aleph Sticks" from Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School's Judaic teacher. They spent enough time testing it in class, that he requested I create a sample at home.

This here is lesson one. Two Hebrew teachers and Rabbi Munk's book laid down the method to me. This is not just an "A to Z/Zed" or "Alpha to Omega" enterprise; this is the inculcation of the character attributes of each letter as they were revealed to Adam Ha-rishon (the first man). We start with unity (aleph), we build upon each attribute until we teach perfection and truth (tav).
aleph א This letter carries a vowel and is considered silent, although word-initially, there is a glottal stop. In its script form, it resembles the Arabic alif ا , but it has an additional "c" shape standing at its right. Interestingly enough, mathematics has adopted the symbol to describe the cardinality of infinite sets.

bet ב

tav ת



aleph = 1 unity

Avraham/Abraham

Noach/Noah



bet = 2 duality

heaven and earth

male and female



tav

prefection and truth



Shin bet tav

Shabat



bet house

beth (soft "T")

The largest Conservative and Reform synagogues in San Diego start with "Bet." What are they named?



Also starts with bet

The daughter of Pharoah, who named and raised Moshe / Moses

The wife of Jacob, who was the mother of Dan and Naphtali



Starts with "tav":

She had a daughter with Yehudah / Judah

Wife of Eisav's son Eliphaz and mother of Amalek obscure

My first three letters / Shalosh oti?ot sheli

Lesson 0 or 1, depending how you count
The aleph-bet: http://www.jewfaq.org/alephbet.htm

The smallest - yod י
"not one iota" -- like the Greek "not the tiniest bit"

The tallest - lamed ל
like the lam in Arabic ل , and the L in English

The one with three fingers - shin ׁש
also found in Cyrillic ш and Arabic ش
The dot is on the right, so that if you write, MOSHE, the O and the dot will co-exist: מ'שה

The mem+ ' is [mo] 'מ and the shin has the ' on the right ש', but we only write one dot. OK, so now you'll remember that shin gets the ' on the right?
This I recall from Mrs. Pesis in an almost-forgotten Talmud Torah class almost 40 years ago!
The three-finger association is from the "glyph lesson" formulated by SDSU's Dr. bar-Lev.

my/mine sheli shin-lamed-yod שליׁ
shel = of של
i = 1st person singular, either gender י.ׁ

Use IPA for the vowels (a, e, i, o, u) or read them like the Spanish vowels.

Find two cities in Jewish history that start with each letter:
Yavneh and Y-
Shushan and Sh-
Lydda and L-

Maps of Israel: zoomable , talking , detail in Hebrew

G-d's name hides behind Tu B'av טוּ בּ'אב

Tu B'av is the day when inter-tribal marriages were allowed and when people had ruach ha-kodesh to know the identity of their beshert/e.

In the Talmud (Ta'anit 4:8) at myjewishlearning.com we read that Rabbi Simeon ben Gamliel said there never were in Israel greater days of joy than the 15th of Av and the Day of Atonement. Both of these days are part of the cycle of new beginnings.

Tu טוּ
Tet-vav, ie 9 + 6 = 15
to avoid 10 + 5 (yod + heh)
which would form part of G'd's name. בּ'אב b' (in) Av (the name of the month, which occurs in July or August.)

ruach (spirit or wind) ha (the article)
Hmm must be a smichut/construct/idaafa form--stick "the" before the first word and "of" between the two nouns. QDS (holy) same as Arabic.
I can't recall the customary translation into English--maybe "divine insight."

Would it were that easy now!

NYC singles celebrate in 5768, with a high-tech twist: http://bangitout.com/tubav2008/tubav.htm
New York Times Coverage: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/nyregion/thecity/10orth.html

films in Hebrew

From the San Diego public library:

call number:DVD HEB 782.42163/SARIT ID:31336075681974 Śarit Ḥadad be-Ḳesaryah [videorecording] = Sarit Haddad in Caesaria. Hadad, Sarit.
Viewed 10/2008
Lots of Mizrahi style singing and some dancing. Good background music for a party.

call number:DVD 914.9504/RICK ID:31336076399428 Rick Steves'. Greece, Turkey, Israel & Egypt 2000-2007 [videorecording] / Back Door Productions in association with American Public Television and Oregon Public Broadcasting. Steves, Rick, 1955- due:9/29/2008,23:59

call number:DVD HEB 791.4372/HAIRDRESSER ID:31336075511916 Hairdresser [videorecording] = Sapar nashim / produced by Rudy Cohen ... [et al.] ; screenplay, Hillel Mitelponket and Zʹev Revah ; directed by Zʹev Revah. Reṿaḥ, Zeʼev, 1940-
This is like a Kumi Lemel film (twins who exchange places), but without so many religious overtones. If you don't mind steroetypes revolving around gay lifestyles, this is quite funny. Some nudity. The Hebrew is easy to understand even without the subtitles.
Viewed 9/2008

call number:DVD HEB 791.4372/OVER ID:31336075490558 Over the ocean [videorecording] = [Me-ʻever la-yam] / Transfax Productions ; produced by Marek Rozenbaum and Ron Ackerman ; directed by Jacob Goldwasser ; written by Haim Merlin. Muskuna, Arie.
Viewed August 2008
Everyone gets revved up to go to Canada, but the climax emphasizes the idealism of not going. This film has some poignant reminders of what it was like to have grown up with parents who survived the Holocaust, as the vocabulary and scenes of the Shoah enter their daily existence years later.

call number:DVD HEB 791.4372/AFULAH ID:31336075490574 ʻAfulah eḳspres [videorecording] / Asaf Amir, G'uli Shlez, matsigim ; sirṭah shel G'uli Shlez ; tasriṭ meḳori ʻAmit Leʼor be-shituf G'uli Shlez ṿe-Asaf Amir ; mefiḳ Asaf Amir ; bamaʼit G'uli Shlez = Afula express / Assaf Amir & Julie Shles present a film by Julie Shles ; script by Amit Leor with Julie Shles & Assaf Amir ; produced by Assaf Amir ; directed by Julie Shles. Shles, Julie. Viewed July 2008
Film cover has a different name, something like "Pick a card"

call number:DVD HEB 782.42159/SHARIM ID:31336077115435 Sharim bemadim [videorecording] = Songs in uniforms. Sisu Home Entertainment, Inc. due
Viewed July 2008

Why look at a translation when you can read the original?

Thanks to Mrs. Halevy at HaUlpan San Diego for mentioning these examples in her shabbos shi'ur. (I wrote the lesson from memory after Shabbat, so all errors are mine.)

The story of Samson and Delilah is the story of Shimshon and Delilah, which is the story of "Day and Night."

The Scroll of Ruth (megillat rut)
Boaz sees the protagonist (Ruth) collecting charity--sheaves of wheat--from the corners of his field and asks "who is that girl?" Yesterday, I learned that his question in Hebrew is actually "who is that youth?"--genderless or male. Na'arah vs Na'ar. So, looking at the original text is more elucidating than looking at the translation.

It sounds silly that this point has been overlooked in the literature, but I easily found the mistranslation. The original text uses the unmarked form (Na'ar) to emphasize the modesty of Ruth. That is, she is so modestly clad that Bo?az is unsure of her gender.

Here are more--none are accurately glossed--on the first page of hits.

Molding identity: Language, culture, and politics

                 Arabic             Hebrew

night             ל'לה               لَيْلَة
                  layla              layla

six               שש                سِتَّة
                  seita              shesh

house             ב'ת                بَيْت
                  bayt               bayit

first letter of alphabet
                  אלף                الُؤ
                  alif               aleph

rice              ארז                أرز
                  aroz               orez
cf. Spanish

"A language is a dialect with an army." 

(Lessow-Hurley,p. 29)
no citation given




MK Gross Spring 2008, EDUC 350
3 Hebrew icons from Dr. bar-Lev, SDSU
On-line Arabic dictionary



Languages that have changed alphabetic systems: Moldavian, Turkish


From wikipedia:

Moldavian was in Cyrillic until 1989 . Still used in break-away province.

Turkic languages used Cyrillic, Arabic, Greek, Armenian, Latin, and other Asiatic systems.

The current 29-letter Turkish alphabet, used for the Turkish language, was established by the Law on the Adoption and Implementation of the Turkish Alphabet, numbered 1353,[1] in Turkey on November 1, 1928, as a vital step in the cultural part of Atatürk's Reforms.

Vietnamese is written in the Latin alphabet.

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Using transference in second language acquisition

Using the following language-specific information, try reading the Hebrew word.

Direction: right to left

Sequence: some vowels are beneath the consonant; read the consonant first, then the vowel

Five sounds you will use:

ש = sh, as in shoe

ָ = a, as in awful

variable English pronounciation mirrors variable Hebrew pronounciation

ל = l, as in lamp

ו = o, as in home

ם = m, as in mouse

The reading skills you transferred include directionality, sequencing, and the ability to tell shapes and sounds apart. You can transfer these skills from the language you know to a new language!

More generally, transferance is a phenomenon where the knowledge, skills, and attitudes from one domain can be applied to other domains.

Based on page 62 of Lessow-Hurley, J. (1990). The foundations of dual language instruction. New York: Longman.

Thanks to Chen Levkovich's Hebrew keyboard and wikipedia's graphics .

Dictionaries

What's already on our bookshelf:

Ben-Yehuda's pocket (ISBN 0-671-47211-9)
Shilo (2004, Brooklyn)
Zack (1991, Jerusalem)
Zilberman (1993, Jerusalem)