25 Kislev 5784 — December 8, 2023 Welcome friends to our Hanukkah edition of the Hebrew Podcasts Newsletter. We are sending your way Chag Sameach greetings and Happy Hanukkah.

Featured Holiday

Hanukkah (rededication) - Kislev 25 - כ"ה בכסלו, תשפ״ד, begins on the evening of Thursday, December 7, 2023 when the first candle is lit. It is the celebration of the Maccabees' victory in 165 BCE over ancient Greece and the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. Oil was found in the temple, but it was only enough to light the Menorah for one night. Miraculously, it lit the Menorah for eight nights. To celebrate this miracle, on each of the eight nights of Hanukkah, another candle is lit in the Hanukiah (a special Menorah with 9 candle holders) and special songs are sung. The traditional foods are fried foods such as latkes (potato pancakes) and sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts). Kids love playing the dreidel (spinning top), and parents give them Hanukkah gelt (Yiddish for money, a chocolate coin).

The dreidel, which is called Sevivon in Hebrew, is a four-sided spinning top with 4 Hebrew letters that are the acronym of the sentence Nes (miracle) Gadol (big) Haya (was) Po (here). Kids who play outside of Israel have dreidels that have the letters for the sentence Nes (miracle) Gadol (big) Haya (was) Sham (there).

New Idioms

New Words

Praised    di-ber be-she-vah    דיבר בשבח

Condemned    di-ber big-noot     דיבר בגנות

Said good things    di-ber to-vim    דיבר טובים

Faulted    di-ber do-fi    דיבר דופי

The gift of Hebrew

Bring the Gift of Hebrew to your loved ones this Hanukkah holiday. Hebrew learning can be a great gift to stimulate the mind of your loved ones and connect them to Israeli and Jewish culture. Your loved one can download and keep all the videos, lesson guides, flash cards and memory games of all our 197 lessons plus the upcoming new lessons during the membership period. We will send a personalized welcome e-mail message with a description of our service and the password. We can send the message directly to your loved one, or send it to you so that you could forward it to your loved one.

New Special Feature for Members

Grammatical analysis of all 6 Binyamin (verb constructions) of the root י.ש.ב. You can find it on our website, under the Learning menu, under Binyanim and click the button Example: 6 Binyanim of י.ש.ב.. Learn and Enjoy!

About Hebrew Podcasts

Hebrew Podcasts makes learning conversational Hebrew practical and enjoyable using audio and video lessons, flashcards and printable lesson guides.