Shalom VeShavua Tov!

I was thinking of how I would open this post? There are so many holidays taking place at the moment meaning it is hard to be politically correct with your wishes. I guess that “Happy Holidays” would suit most of us…

Today , Sunday, we are lighting the 5th Chanukah candle, and I am refusing to admit that more than half of the holiday has already gone. May the light continue shine in our hearts all year long.

We are launching a new campaign in the Ulpan this month: the month of Eliezer Ben Yehuda. Eliezer Ben Yehuda was responsible for reviving the Hebrew language in modern era. He was born on the 7th of January 1858 and this year will be his 154 birthday. We decided that we would like to create something to mark this date as a tribute to one man’s life project (after all, without him we would not be in work right now, nachon?)

So, starting from the January 1st make sure that you visit our web site and to find out about the surprises we have got planned for you for this month. You are all invited to celebrate with us! Below you can find a little reminder of the occasion.

This week’s Torah portion was Parashat MIKETS which starts with Pharaoh’s dreams and Yossef’s interpretation. One, (but not the only), interesting thing to see is that when Pharaoh describes the cows he has seen in his dream, he is using the word:

רקות

RAKOT

A common mistake is to think that Pharaoh is saying that the cows were “soft”, the fem. Pl. of the word :

רך

RACH

Soft

BUT, the word “soft” in Hebrew is spelt with a "כ" where as in the Torah the word is written with a "ק".

This indicates that it is a different word entirely and that we need to identify from which word it is taken:

רק

RAK

only/just

This word, in modern language is not an adjective that may be conjugated according to gender or number. It is a quantity description.

However, we see that in biblical language there is an option of conjugating it when wanting to minimize an amount. In fact, it is just like saying: “a few”.

Chanukah Sameach!

Gil Pentzak

Ulpan Aviv- Director