In Genesis 23:2, we are told that Sarah died and that Avraham came “lispod le-Sarah ve-livkotah.” “Livkotah” means “to cry.” But what does “lispod” mean?

Students of Hebrew are taught early on that the hitpael functions as a “reflexive” stem, i.e., that the actor is doing some action on himself.

When we realize that the Jewish state is essentially a result of World War I, we much better understand the justice of our cause. Unfortunately,

The idea for this prayer is based on a baraita at Shabbat 119b (in the name of the tanna Rabbi Yose bar Yehudah) that states

While he was prime minister, David Ben-Gurion used to have regular Tanach study sessions. The group met in his home every other week. It included

The word ”אישון appears five times in Tanach. Let us look at one of these occasions: Deuteronomy 32:10 reads: “He found him (the Israelites) in

The noun “נפשׁ” occurs over 700 times in Tanach. The word has a range of meanings including: person, life, life-force, breath, desire and appetite. (For

Many years ago, I wrote an important article on Aleinu. It was first published in Hakirah in 2011. I improved it thereafter and included it

Over the past two years, I have collected material on many words that do not warrant an entire column. I present this “collage” of material

A biblical concordance is a book that is organized by roots in alphabetical order and lists the various words of the Bible. With a concordance,

Last year, I wrote about the origin of the recital of this chapter during the High Holiday season (based largely on the research of Eliezer