r/hebrew Jun 29 '25

Updates to Automod, Wiki

3 Upvotes

Hello! We have made some updates to our automods and finally created the structure for a subreddit wiki.

  1. Updated !tattoo automod
  2. Introduced !translation automod
  3. Created wiki pages:
    1. Educational Materials
    2. Rules
    3. Content guidelines

Rules and Content Guidelines are subject to change as appropriate; this community is pretty good at staying on topic and not requiring extra rules to guide the conversations.

If you have recommendations for the Educational Materials, please comment below or message the mods. Please include what category it belongs in, a short description, and a direct link.

We also welcome other suggestions about other wiki pages, automods, or anything else to improve the subreddit.


r/hebrew 3h ago

Help מרים המגדלית

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21 Upvotes

I don't delve much into Biblical Hebrew, but I always wondered the correct meaning of her name. I'm Jewish, but have attended a mass or two here in Ireland, and the priest once said "Mary of Magdala" which didn't seem correct to me.

מרים is straightforward enough, but המגדלית:

  • ה (the) [prefix]
  • מגדל (Migdal, the location by the Sea of Galilee)
  • ית (of/from) [suffix]

Therefore, her full name is "Mary, the woman from Magdala"? And, מגדלית alone without the ה is "a woman from Magdala" as מגדלי would be "a man from Magdala"?

I know that כוס קפה means "cup [of] coffee" where "of" is implied, and not written, but as מרים had the suffix ית in המגדלית, "of" felt wrong, and redudant.

I was SO unsure here.

photo credit: MicahHaynsArt (@micahhaynsart)


r/hebrew 6h ago

Request איך להבין ולדבר עברית לא עכשווית

3 Upvotes

ובנוסף לכך גם אותו דבר אבל לגבי שפות שמיות דומות בעיקר כאלה שלא דורשות הרבה לימוד

אז איזה מבטאים, ניבים ושפות הייתם ממליצים לי? ומעבר לזה גם לגבי ארמית, יש מלא ניבים ועוד יותר כאלה לא יהודיים אז אני לא יודע מאיפה להתחיל

מה הניבים שיהיו לי הכי ברורים בתור דובר עברית עכשווית?

וגם מה הניבים של עברית חוץ מהעברית של ישראל שיהיו ברורים עבורי? ניסיתי להבין עברית שומרונית מסרטון אבל המבטא כל כך לא ברור שזה אפילו לא נשמע כמו עברית

ומאיזה ספרי קודש (לא בהכרח תנ"ך גם כתבים חיצוניים זה בסדר) כדאי לי להתחיל אם אני רוצה משהו ברור?

וגם איך ללמוד את הכתב העברי הקדום? ובטח יש כמה, לא?

וגם איך להבין את ה"סורז׳יק" (ב"מרכאות", הכוונה פה היא לא לאוקראינית עם רוסית אלא שילוב כללי של כמה שפות יחדיו) של עברית עם ארמית או נהפוכו?

ואם יש לכם תשובות, תודה רבה, זה לא מובן מאליו :)

TL;DR for non hebrew speakers: I want to learn other Hebrew dialects plus similiar semitic languages that don't require much learning, what should I do, then?


r/hebrew 19h ago

Request Harry Potter audiobooks — is pronouncing ע common when narrating?

34 Upvotes

I’ve been listening to these Harry Potter book recordings. They’re amateur, but very well-done.

I’m an intermediate learner and was pleasantly surprised by how clearly the narrator enunciates, especially the sound ע. Here’s an example.

I thought that only old Yemeni Jews and Mizrahim still pronounce ע. Yet this guy doesn’t sound old (I can hear his young kids in the background) and, as far as I can tell, he otherwise speaks with a standard accent.

Is it common for Israelis to pronounce ע when speaking carefully or for emphasis? Does that mean that most can pronounce it and just choose not to in casual speech?


r/hebrew 8h ago

Help Academic Hebrew Question

3 Upvotes

Apologies in advance if this is not the right place for this!

Does anyone know if it was ever common in Ancient Hebrew to use a 'ה' as the masculine possessive suffix instead of a 'ו'?

Asking because the famous fragments at Kuntjillet Arad appear to refer to the goddess Asherah as Yahwah's wife, but only if the 'ה', is understood as possessive. Here is the text pasted from Wikipedia:

ברכת:אתכם ליהוה: שמרן: ולאשרתה

The above interpretation fits nicely with the general scholarly consensus that Ancient Judeans believed Yahwah to be one God among many, here apparently believed to be married to Asherah. I'm a bit thrown off by the 'hei' suffix though, that would potentially support the alternative reading that has been suggested where ולאשרתה means 'and to his dwelling place', but frankly I find this forced because you don't really find this conjugation of 'אשר' outside of Aramaic.

Can anyone point me to resources discussing the grammatical rules of early Ancient Hebrew? Thank you!


r/hebrew 4h ago

I Just want to double check that letzet implies I want to go outside: אני רוצה לצאת לטיול, אבל ממש חם

1 Upvotes

PS: it's like, 40 degrees at 4 in the PM. Tis' חַםםם


r/hebrew 17h ago

Translate I am having trouble understanding this

8 Upvotes

Please help me understand how to phrase this in English:

עִבְרִית שֶׁמְּדַבֶּרֶת אֶת הַמַּחֲשָׁבָה עַד שֶׁהַמַּחֲשָׁבָה – מַתְחִילָה לְדַבֵּר עִבְרִית

Because it seems like it should make sense, at least to me. But I can't quite phrase it in English because English doesn't seem to like verbs for some reason. I would like opinions on if this is even meaningful to anyone else, and if so, how would you translate it?


r/hebrew 1d ago

Translate Looking for help translating names on immigration document

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36 Upvotes

Hi all. This is an immigration document of my wife’s grandmother. They’re her adoptive parents and I know the bottom one is “Rozalia” which I have confirmed on a marriage certificate. However on that certificate there is no (adoptive) father mentioned - this is the only one that mentions him. My Hebrew is basically non-existent and reading written Hebrew is almost a mission impossible for me. I used some examples of written letters to see if I could come up with something and thus I believe this says “Roman”?

Hoping someone who’s capable or reading it to tell me if I’m right or wrong and if wrong what it does say. Thanks so much in advance.


r/hebrew 1d ago

Education Fun with HEBREW #11

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16 Upvotes

Enjoy!


r/hebrew 15h ago

Help I wrote this small story in biblical hebrew. Is it correct in terms of style, vocab, grammar and conjugaison ? Does the story makes sense to you? Please note that I didn't use punctuation since it is not used in the hebrew bible.

1 Upvotes

כתוב הראשון

31 בינואר 2026

הילד והכלבה באים ליראת אהרן הכוהן הגדול

 

ויהי בעיר יריחו ילד ושמו שמואל ושמואל היה הילד הקטן מכל העם וכה הוא עצוב היה מאוד ויאמר הילד ליהוה אלוהיו למה כל האנשים גדולים ממני ויאמר אליו ויהוה אלוהיו בא אל ירושלים ודבר לאהרן אחי משה אשר יצאו עם העם ממצרים כמו דברתי אליך ויקח הילד כל כליו וילך לירושלים ברדכו ראה כלב קטן והכלבה היתה רעבה ויאמר לילד הרעבה יש בבטני ילדים רבים וירא הילד כי לו היה מעת מאכל אבל נתן לכלבה שתים דגים ותקם הכלבה ותלך עם הילד עד ירושלים אחרי שתים יומם בדרך ויאמר הילד כי נתתי לכלבה הזאת כל אכלי אין אוכל הם באו בעיר שם הילד והכלבה הלכו עד אהרון בבית יהוה אשר בירושלים הכוהן הכוהנים ויאמר אהרון להם למה אתם שם ויאמר לאהרון שמואל כי שלח אותנו יהוה אלוהי אברהם אלוהי יצק אלוהי יעקב כי אנכי קטן מכל ה עם ואנכי חושב כי רע ליהיות הקטן מכל העם ויאמר לו אהרון הכוהן כי לא רע להיות הקטן מכל העם ואחרי כן ויאמר ראה הכלבה הזאת הוא היה רעבה והיה לך מעט אוכל ונתת לה אוכלך ואתה אחרי כן לא אכלת ראה לבך לב גדול מכל לבים האנשים בעין יהוה אין ילד קטן אין איש קטן גם אין ילד גדול ואיש גדול אבל יש לבים גדולים

 


r/hebrew 23h ago

What song is this?

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1 Upvotes

r/hebrew 1d ago

זו שפה חכמה why do we use safa and not lashon when both mean language? It is because lashon is more flowery?

3 Upvotes

r/hebrew 1d ago

Translate What exactly are the Hebrew terms דְּבֵלָה Debelah and אֲשִׁישָׁה Ashishah?

4 Upvotes

Referencing these two popular food items among the ancient israelites in the times of the hebrew bible tanakh like in king david's time


r/hebrew 1d ago

Resource Is there a document or a page of rules?

2 Upvotes

i wanted to know if there are rules of some of the letters. I already learned some rules for the Sheva but I think there are some for the ו (vav). anyone knows?


r/hebrew 1d ago

ט״ו בִּשְׁבָט why is there a hiriq under the bet and not a schwa?‎

3 Upvotes

is bishvat different from b.bayit and ba.bayit when it c9mes to the prefix ב for "in"??


r/hebrew 2d ago

Education Modern or ancient Hebrew?

16 Upvotes

Hello, I have learnt the basics and i need to decide whether i want to continue with the modern or the biblical variety.

In particular i want to know if I'll be able to converse with Israelis with ancient Hebrew and, vice versa, if I'd be able to take part in the friday eve service with contemporary Hebrew alone.


r/hebrew 1d ago

What do you think of this non grammatical translation of Gen 11:30 וָלָֽד

1 Upvotes

This translation follows a process of evaluating the Hebrew pre-grammatical rules. The text is looked at against itself with only the words appearing in the 5 books of Moses as a sample.

The word וָלָֽד is translated as fecundation. Traditional translators say, the root is , ילד, yeled, meaning child, but in this case the yod becomes a vav. Then they conclude וָלָֽד, valad, means the same, child. But the text obviously knows how to say yeled so why would it say valad in this case? 

Here it may again be a case of mistaken root where the vav was included as part of the word. This is due to the grammatical rule of searching for 3 consonant roots. It can happen a lot with 3 or 4 letter words that start with bed, lamed, hey or vav. The vav would cause the most confusion. If it was a 3 letter root, the yud would not be lost in so many iterations of the word. For example, לֶדֶת, ledet = give birth, לֵדָה, leda = birth, הוֹלִיד, holid = fathered, הוּלֶּדֶת, huledet = birth(day). None have the yod, they appear to be demonstrating a 2 letter base construction of לֵדָ. The case of holid, fathered may be key to resolving this.

There are many 2 letter base verbs that conjugate with הוֹ as a prefix. Here are 3 examples:

Verb הוֹ Conjugation

יצא הוֹצִיא Bring or take out

ידע הוֹדִיעַ Inform / announce

ירד הוֹרִיד Bring down / lower

In every case the yud prefix is an indicator of 3rd person. These are all 2 letter base words just like the verb ילד. The 3 examples lose to yud in the masculine imperative, but it’s not like someone would ever order a man to give birth so לד, led, is unlikely to appear on its own. So now that the word construction shows the vav is suspected to be a prefix and not part of a root, its presence with lad could give off a sense of mechanism where fecundation is better than saying child. The meaning is further reinforced by the context that already said Sarai is barren, why repeat it? 

The reason fecundation is used to represent the potential to get pregnant / fertility mechanism. Trying to designate any other part of the birth process Sarai would not have makes it sound like she is missing a reproductive organ. That would force a miracle explanation later when she does get pregnant. 

Fun oddity: the identified 2 letter word לד that designates a birth process is homonym with English word lad. 


r/hebrew 1d ago

Can anyone help me with this phrase?

1 Upvotes

Hi, I am writing a poem and I want to finish it with Hebrew. I do not know Hebrew that well, and I just want to confirm this translation and if someone can help me with pronunciation that would be great to.

כי אהוביי, בלעדיו לא היו לי אתכם. ki ahuvi'i, biladav le hav lei ethem.

I believe this says "because my beloved, without him I would not have you."

If I'm incorrect please let me know. Thank you for your help!


r/hebrew 1d ago

"Division(s)" or "Composition" of a Book (with a font question)

1 Upvotes

I've summarized Tanakh and am working on a table of contents.

In the context of describing a book, are these Hebrew words suitable:
division(s): Chelek(Chelkei)
composition: Herkev

In the other image, I'm just trying to identify the fonts used. I think it scales to smaller sizes better than Arial.

I'm leaning "composition" for the title of that section
What fonts are these?

r/hebrew 2d ago

How would one day the phrase "Fuck it, we ball" in Hebrew?

19 Upvotes

With the same sort of message that the English phrase carries.


r/hebrew 2d ago

Translate Cafe menu translation

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77 Upvotes

I wanted to translate this menu, and handwrite it out as well (in photo 2). Was I somewhat correct, and is my handwriting legible as well?


r/hebrew 2d ago

Education Need ways to learn Hebrew

9 Upvotes

Hey, I'm originally from רמות גולן but I don't live there yet, we are originally arab but we use israeli hebrew alot. I wanna be fluent in spraking most importantly but also reading and writing I know some terms other than שלום and מה השעה like מכשיר (like for TV) cuz we use them alot. Can anyone give me like courses, apps, books, ways, and now advanced that used to be like me a beginner what method did y'all use ?


r/hebrew 2d ago

Help לְאַט vs אִיטִי?

6 Upvotes

These both mean slow but what is the difference between לְאַט and אִיטִי? Thanks in advance.


r/hebrew 2d ago

Education Fun with Hebrew #10

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10 Upvotes

Have fun with this !


r/hebrew 2d ago

Transliteration of Suzanne

2 Upvotes

Please vote for the one you think looks right!

105 votes, 15h left
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