Hebrew Edge Cases
Name at least 2 different sofit letters and draw them.
פ/ף, פּ/ףּ, כ/ך, כּ/ךּ, מ/ם, נ/ן, צ/ץ
What is the purpose of understanding shoreshim (for us)?
It makes it so that we can understand the meaning of Hebrew text without having to translate directly or use a dictionary.
What is hellenization? Why was hellenization important to the story of Hanukkah? Give an example
To hellenize is to assimilate into (ancient) Greek religion, culture, customs, and laws. The Seleucids/Greeks/Romans/Antiochus forced Jews to hellenize and made them abandon Judaism to do so.
Is the ashrei a please, thanks, oops, or wow prayer?
Wow mostly, sometimes thanks.
How many is two pairs, twice?
(2 * 2) * 2 = 2 * 2 * 2 = 2^3 = 8
You must get the following 2 True/False questions right and say why you're right to get points:
1. T/F: Every English sound can be made using Hebrew symbols
2. T/F: Every Hebrew sound can be made using English symbols
1. Definitely not. There is no a in apple in Hebrew.
2. Sorta? It's easier then going from english to hebrew since there are less sounds, but sounds like ח/ע could be hard for english speakers
What does the shoresh אלה mean? Hint: אֶלוֹהֵינוּ is a word we say a lot
God
There were 2 great miracles of Hanukkah. What were they?
1. Unlikely victory of the scrappy guerilla Maccabees over the Greek empire's vast army & freedom from their rule and oppression
2. Upon reentering the temple, the Maccabees found just enough oil to last 1 night, but instead it burned for 8.
Finish the line: ___ אַשְׁרֵי יוֹשְׁבֵי בֵיתֶךָ, עוֹד יְהַלְלוּךָ
סֶּלָה
A figure skater performs a trick where they spin on one foot. In the middle of the trick, they tuck their arms in. Do they speed up or slow down. Why?
True or false: The size of Hebrew vowels does not change the sound they make (relative to the size of the consonants). Say why
False: The kamatz katan vowel is just a small version of the kamatz (אָ) vowel, and makes the "oh" sound. It's common in words like כָּל, meaning all
Give an example of a shoresh we've learned, and its meaning
one example is קדש. It's the shoresh in words like kodesh and kiddush, and means holy.
What does Hanukkah literally mean? Give an example of that word in action. Hint: starts with a D
Finish the last line of the ashrei
וַאֲנַחְנוּ נְבָרֵךְ יָהּ, מֵעַתָּה וְעַד עוֹלָם _______
הַלְלוּיָהּ
What number comes next?
1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, _____
13. Each number is the sum of the previous 2, starting with just two 1's. We call this the Fibonacci Sequence
The words כּוֹחַ, רוּחַ, and שָׂמֵחַ all have something in common. Read them correctly, and pay special attention to anything that might be misleading
Ru'ach, Co'ach, and sa'me'ach. Recall that חַ at the end of the word, and specifically with the line vowel/patach is a special case of pronunciation
Define correctly at least 3 of the following 4 important prefixes:
1. לְ/לָ/לַ
2. וְ/וָ/וַ
3. בְ/בָ/בַ/בְּ/בָּ/בַּ
4. הַ
1. To (to do a verb, or to do something to an object)
2. and
3. in
4. the
Answer correctly 2 of the 3 following questions about Dreidels
1. Why do we play with dreidels during Hanukkah?
2. What do the letters on the dreidel mean?
3. What's the difference between an American dreidel, an Italian dreidel, a Japanese dreidel, and an Israeli dreidel?
1. The jews in the hanukkah story used them to hide their study of torah and judaism, so we use them to harken back to those times.
2. nes gadol hayah sham: a great miracle happened there
3. USA, Italy, Japan (anywhere besides Israel): a great miracle happened there. dreidel has a shin for sham/there
In Israel, the dreidel has a peh for poh/here, because the great miracle happened there
What's the first word in this line?
מַלְכוּת כָּל עֹלָמִים, וּמֶמְשַׁלְתְּךָ בְּכָל דּוֹר וָדֹר _______
מַלְכוּתְךָ
I have red, blue, and green balls in a bag. Without looking, what is the minimum number of marbles I need to out to be guaranteed to get two of the same color?
4 marbles
- 1 marble cannot get 2 of the same color
- 2 marbles cannot guarantee 2 of the same color: {red, blue}
- 3 marbles also cannot guarantee 2 of the same color: {red, blue, green}
- there are only 3 colors but 4 balls, so 2 must share the same color
True or false: Hebrew is a purely phonetic language.
Hebrew is not purely phonetic. words like כּוֹחַ show that some hebrew words cannot be sounded out with the basic rules. That's why it's important to know our phonetic edge cases.
True or false: For every Hebrew word w, there exists a longer hebrew word w' that is longer than w and has a similar meaning to w. Prove your answer
True. Let p be a prefix and s be a suffix. Let "+" represent adjoining letters. We see that the words w'= p+w and w' = w+s and w' = p+w+s are all longer than w and retain the same base meaning. The prefix/suffix just adds a bit of meaning, but cannot change the actual content of the root/shoresh of w
The Al Ha'Nissim section of the Amidah is said during Hanukkah, but also Purim and Yom Ha'atzma'ut (Israeli independence day). Why?
This section of the Amidah is said to thank God for the great miracles of the past. During purim, God delivered us the miracle of safety from Haman. Yom Ha'atzma'ut celebrates the military victories of Israel in its foundation, also seen as great miracles.
True/false: The ashrei is an acrostic poem, and has lines beginning with each letter in the hebrew alphabet
The ashrei IS an acrostic poem, but the letter nun is left out because it was associated with bad luck/the word fall. So the ashrei does NOT have a line for each letter in the hebrew alphabet. False
How many different ways can a 52-card deck be rearranged via shuffling?
52 x 51 x 50 x ... x 2 x 1
Recall that if there are A ways to choose 1 thing and B ways to choose another, there are AxB ways to choose them together.
We can arrange a deck of cards by:
1. select 1 of 52 remaining (52)
2. at the same time select 1 of 51 remaining
3. at the same time select 1 of 50 remaining
4. and so on and so forth, until only 1 card remains.