Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective

Two similar adjectives appear throughout the Bible: tam (תָּם) and tamim (תָּמִים).

The two Hebrew words, פֶּרֶךְ perekh and פָּרֹכֶת parokhet, look like they should be related.

The verb טָבַל taval appears 16 times in the Tanakh.

The Hebrew root שקע shaka means "to sink [down], submerge, depress."

The Hebrew word for "frog", צְפַרְדֵּעַ tzfardea, appears 13 times in the Tanakh.

When we think of the word גְּאֻלָּה geula - we typically think of a divine redemption or salvation, perhaps with a messianic bent.

The phrase דֶּרֶךְ אֶרֶץ derekh eretz appears hundreds of times in rabbinic literature.

The root (or perhaps better to say roots) ענה anah is generally said to have four meanings in Hebrew.

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

In Hebrew, the verb רחץ rachatz means “to wash” or “to bathe.”

The word אֲגַרְטָל agartal, meaning "vase" in Modern Hebrew, doesn’t look like a native Hebrew word.

A casbah is a citadel or a fortified quarter of an Arab city.

Today is Balashon’s 20th anniversary.

If you’ve been wondering about Balashon email updates, here’s the good news: they’re working again.

Just a test.

For many years, I provided the ability to subscribe to Balashon posts via Google FeedBurner.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here on Balashon.

The latest viral internet trend is creating AI-generated images in the style of Studio Ghibli.

Let's look at two Hebrew words for clown - לֵיצָן leitzan and מוּקְיוֹן mukion.

A reader asked about an Israeli grape juice called Inbalim ענבלים.

The Hebrew month of Elul אֱלוּל begins this week, so let's look at its etymology.

Rabbi David Bashevkin (of the enjoyable 18Forty podcast) recently posted on his Substack an essay entitled "The Revival of Hebrew."

The Hebrew word for "feeding tube" (or more technically a nasogastric or orogastric tube) is זוֹנְדָּה zonda.

Devarim 8:17-18 includes a well-known passage where the people are warned against attributing their successes to their own talents, instead of attributing them to God: וְאָמַרְתָּ בִּלְבָבֶךָ כֹּחִי וְעֹצֶם יָדִי עָשָׂה לִי אֶת־הַחַיִל הַזֶּה.

Someone recently asked me if I had written about the root אמן.

The Hebrew root ברא has three distinct meanings.

Halakha הֲלָכָה can refer to the system of Jewish law as a whole, or the set of laws dealing with a specific subject.

I was curious about the etymology of Nukhba, the Hamas special forces unit that carried out horrific terrorist attacks on October 7.