Wednesday Hebrew: Chanukah Edition

Wednesday Hebrew: Chanukah Edition

Shalom, everyone and Chag Chanukah Sameyach! Welcome to Wednesday Hebrew at Judeo Talk. Today's lesson is going to revolve around terms and phrases relating to the holiday of Chanukah. Tonight is the fourth night of the Festival of Lights. Word has it there's this other holiday happening sometime soon, though I can't seem to recall the name... Let's jump into the first part of the lesson. In my greeting, I used the phrase "Chag Chanukah Sameyach" which translates as "Happy Chanukah Holiday". ?? The word "Chag" (seen above) means "Holiday". It is a shortening of an older, now mostly unused word, ??? "Chagag". "Chagag" is an ancient word denoting a pilgrimage to the Temple of Jerusalem or even the celebration of that pilgrimage. In Arabic, there is a cognate of this word that is still used today. It is "Hajj" (??), the pilgrimage to Mecca that all Muslims are very strongly encouraged to experience at least once in their lives. After the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem by the Roman Empire 2000 years ago, Jews no longer had any place to perform their rituals. This ended the Jewish practice of animal sacrifice and formally began the Rabbinic age in which we still live. Today, there is some debate about whether or not we should call "Chanukah" a "Chag" because in more conservative traditions, the term is reserved for Holy Days mentioned specifically in the Torah. The other part of the phrase "Chag Chanukah Sameyach" is the word that means "Happy". "Sameyach" is one of several Hebrew words that means "Happy". The many ways to say "Happy" in Hebrew each mean something more specific than the general term of the translation. The word "Sameyach" refers to a giddy, celebratory happiness. A Hebrew teacher of mine in college described "Sameyach" by waving her hands in the air and saying "Yay!" In the holiday greeting phrase, the connotation is that the speaker wishes the listener a carefree celebration and true jubilation. The other Hebrew phrase we're going to learn today is "Nes Gadol Haya Sham", meaning "A Great Miracle Happened There". This phrase refers to the liberation of Judea I described in my last update. The first letter of each word in this phrase can be found on the four faces of the dreidel. However, it should be noted that the world "dreidel" isn't Hebrew, it's Yiddish. The Hebrew word for dreidel is "Sivivon", which just means "Spinning Thing". The first word "Nes" means "Miracle" and it is represented by the letter Nun. The next word "Gadol" means "Great" or "Big", represented by the letter Gimel. Notice that in Hebrew the adjective comes after the noun it is describing. We say "Great Miracle" by literally saying "Miracle Great". The next word "Haya" is translated as "Happened" but it really just means "Was". This is represented by the letter "Hay". Finally, there is the word "Sham" meaning "There". This refers to the city of Jerusalem where the Temple used to stand. Today, all that remains of the Temple is the Western Wall and a portion of the Northern Wall around the Temple Mount. The word "Sham" is represented by the letter "Shin". But if you are in Jerusalem the phrase and the letters on the dreidel are different. Instead of "Sham" they use the word "Po" meaning "Here". Many students of Hebrew learn this word on their first day during roll call. The teacher calls a student's name and if he or she is present, the student uses the phrase "Ani po", meaning "I am here". The word "Po" is represented by the letter Peh. I hope everyone continues to have a Happy Chanukah. See you Friday.