Learn 5 Hebrew words a day / Jewish-Hebrew Dictionary

Picture of YAKIRA YEDIDIA
YAKIRA YEDIDIA

Yakira wears many hats. An educator specializing in positive psychology and life coaching. The founder of Hebrew Guru, and Mensch World Books. The Author of LEARN TO READ HEBREW IN 18 STEPS Book series and How to Be a Jew Today: Think, Say, Do.

Even though It’s helpful to know how to read Hebrew, if you don’t, there is a way around it, transliteration.  No more guilt (even though it’s a part of being Jewish) for not being a fluent Hebrew reader, Do you want to know more than 150 Hebrew words?  here is your Fundamental Jewish-Ness dictionary. 5 words a day can take you a long way!  Yeshar Koach, Strength to you. Enjoy.

Abba = Daddy

Adon Olam = Master of the World

Adamah = Earth

Adonai = My master, God

Ahavah = Love

Havanah = Understanding

Afikoman = The middle matzah on a Seder plate. During the Passover evening meal (Seder), hidden and the kids in attendance go to look for it, the one who finds it gets a gift

Alav hashalom = Rest in peace

Aliyah = The act of being called to the Torah to say the blessing over the Torah before and after it is read.

Amidah = Standing up. It’s the main prayer of each prayer service. The silent prayer in which we praise God, request our needs and express gratitude.

Avodah = Work, duty

Avraham Avinu = Our Father Abraham

Baruch Hashem = Thank God

Am Yisrael chai = The Jewish people will live

Aron hakodesh = The Holy ark containing the Torah scrolls

Avinu Malkenu = Our Father, Our King.  Hebrew prayer of confession sung during the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services

Balagan = chaos, mess and confusion

Bar mitzvah =Son of the commandments. This coming-of-age ceremony is held when a Jewish boy or girl reaches 13 years of age

Bat mitzvah = Daughter of the commandments. This coming-of-age ceremony is held when a Jewish orthodox girl reaches 12 years of age

Bar’chu = The call to pray

Beit K’neset = Synagogue

Bimah = A stage in a synagogue from which services are conducted

Brit = The ritual circumcision performed when an infant boy is 8 days old, entering him into the covenant between God and Abraham.

Bubbe = Yiddish for grandmother.

Bli Eyin Hara = Without the evil eye

Bli Neder =  Without a vow, I promise without a vow

Bracha = A blessing

Brachot = Blessings

Chag Sameach = Happy holiday

Challah = Braided bread typically served on Shabbat

Chanukah = The 8 night festival of light, commemorating the miracle of one day’s worth of oil burning for 8 days

Chatunah = Wedding

Chazzan = Cantor

Chesed = Kindness

Chodesh Tov = Good month

Chol HaMoed = The intermediate days between the 1st. and last two days of Pesach and Sukkos

Chametz = Leavened bread, bagels, crackers, risen wheat, we don’t eat on Pesach

Chumash = 5 books of the Torah / Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy

Chuppah = Wedding canopy

Chutzpah = Nerve positively / negative

Chai = Life

Chametz =  Non kosher food on Passover

Charoset = Mixture of wine, apples, nuts and cinnamon eaten at Passover. The texture is symbolic of the mortar used by Hebrew slaves in their building for Pharaoh.

Chaver =  A friend

Chavurah  Jewish study, worship and socializing group

Erev = Evening

Erev Tov = Good evening

Ezrat Nashim = Women’s section in an Orthodox synagogue

Etz Chayim = Tree of life

Gelt = Money

Get = Jewish divorce document

Gmar Chasima Tovah = may you be inscribed for good, said between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur

G’milut chasadim = Acts of loving kindness

Daven = Pray

Derech eretz = manners

Divrey Torah = words of Torah

Drasha = Sermon

Haggadah = Passover book

Hakafah = Walking with the Torah scroll through the sanctuary

Halachah = Jewish law

Hashem =”The name” the name of God

Imma = Mom

Kaballah = Jewish mysticism

Kaddish = Mourner’s prayer in memory of the deceased.

Kallah = Fiancée, female

Kapara – Atonement

kavanna =  Intention

Kever  = Gravesite

K’tubah = Jewish wedding contract

Kiddush = Ceremonial blessing recited over wine

Kiddush Hashem = Sanctifying the name of God through action

Kinderlach = Kids

Kittel = White robe a wear under the chuppah, Rosh Hashana, Pesach and are buried in.

Kippah = Skull cap

Kosher  = clean, pure refers to food that has been ritually prepared or blessed so it can be eaten by religious Jews

Kol Ishah = A woman’s voice

Kol Nidrei = Service held on Yom Kippur eve

Kotel = The Western Wall, Wailing Wall, this structure in Old Jerusalem is all that remains of a wall that surrounded the Second Temple, destroyed in 70 CE.

Machzor = High Holiday prayer book

Magen David = Star of David

Matzah = Unleavened bread eaten during the holiday of Passover

Mashiach = Redeemer

Morah = A teacher

Mechitzah = Curtain /  partial wall in the sanctuary of an Orthodox synagogue  separating men and women during worship services

Meshugah = Crazy

Megillah = Scroll of Esther

Mezuzah = A parchment on which are written verses from the Torah, inserted into a case and attached to the door posts of Jewish homes.

Mikvah = Ritual bath

Minhagim = Customs

Minyan = Orthodox and Conservative synagogues require 1O males, above the age of 13, to recite certain prayers

Mi Shebeirach = Prayer for healing

Mishpachah = Family

Mitzvah = commandment, a good deed

Mohel = A Rabbi who performs circumcisions

Mussaf = A special prayer we say on Shabbat and holidays

Nachat = Pride parents get when their kid is doing well

Neshama = Soul, spirit

Parnasah = Income

Parshah = The weekly Torah portion, read every Shabbat completing one cycle each year.

Pasuk = Sentence

Pirkey Avot =  Ethics of Our Fathers

Purim = Celebrating the time when our enemies were plotting to annihilate us

Pesach  = Passover, a week-long holiday celebrating the Israelites’ Exodus from Egpyt, celebrated in the spring time

Tehillim = Book of psalms

Rav = Rabbi

Refuah  Shlemah = Complete recovery

Rosh Hashana = Head of the year. The beginning of the year

Saba = Grandpa

Savta = Grandma

Seder = Order.  The Passover order of the meal during which the story of the Exodus is told

Shabbat = Saturday ( we welcome the Shabbat on Friday evening )

Shacharit = Dawn, morning service

Shavuot =  Weeks, celebrating the giving of the Torah upon Mount Sinai

Shalom = Hi, Peace, Goodbye

Shanah = A year

Shanah Tovah = A good year, Rosh Hashsanah greeting

Shema = Hear, claiming the oneness of God, this is Judaism’s most defining prayer

Shivah = The seven day mourning period

Shofar = Ram’s horn blown during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services.

Shomer Shabbat = observe the Shabbat laws, resting, not working

Shul = Synagogue

Siddur = Prayer book

Simcha = Happiness

Simchat Torah = Holiday that celebrates conclusion of the yearly cycle of reading the Torah

Sukkah = Temporary shelter constructed during the harvest festival of Sukkot

Talmud =  The written collection of Jewish oral tradition.

Tallit = Prayer shawl

Tanach = Acronym for

*Torah = The Five Books of Moses

*Neviim = Prophets

*K’tuvim = Holy Writings all of which constitute the three parts of the Bible

Tareif = Not kosher

T’fillin = A set of black leather boxes containing parchment scrolls inscribed with verses from the Torah

Tikkun olam = Repair of the world

Todah = Thank you

Tzitzit = Attached to a four-cornered garment, fringes Orthodox men wear.

Tzedekah = Charity

Ulpan = An intensive learning course of the Hebrew language

Yad Hashem = The hand of God

Yeshivah =  Sitting, and learning Torah

Yeshar Koach = Strength to you

Yom Tov = Good day

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