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On Root / Praise the Lord in wine, love, martyrdom - and life

Hebrew gets a lot of use out of the root "kadesh," holiness, the root of which - says the Torah - is God.

By Jeremy Benstein | Jul 14, 2013 | 03:58 PM

On Root / What does the word 'Hebrew' mean?

It isn't clear, but there are clues going back to the dawn of history, and they seem to do with the theme 'passage'.

By Jeremy Benstein | Jul 9, 2013 | 07:33 AM

On Root / In Hebrew, there's a fine line between charity and justice

It's no wonder that when the Torah emphasizes the importance of actively fulfilling the core value of justice, it repeats it twice.

By Jeremy Benstein | Jul 1, 2013 | 08:35 AM

On Root / The best explanation - Bar none

Oddly enough, hasbara is one of the trickiest expressions to explain. But sometimes one picture is worth 1,000 words.

By Jeremy Benstein | Jun 26, 2013 | 04:12 AM | 2

On Root / Calling the fink phone using the Holy Tongue

Judaism has frowned on gossip for eons, prompting the modern Israeli to give the taxman's tax-cheating hotline an unflattering name.

By Jeremy Benstein | Jun 18, 2013 | 08:30 AM

On Root / Peace be unto the schlemiels

The root sh-l-m is most famous for the Israeli greeting (and farewell) Shalom! But it ranges far and wide, from peace to fool.

By Jeremy Benstein | Jun 7, 2013 | 08:21 AM

On Root / How now, dead cow: Are you kosher?

And what slaughterhouses, illicit cronyism and the gym have in common.

By Jeremy Benstein | Jun 5, 2013 | 06:18 PM

On Root / The one and only alphabetic system and the elephant

On the connection between the ox-head symbol for the letter aleph and the Taming of the Shrew.

By Jeremy Benstein | May 27, 2013 | 07:41 AM

On Root / How a word for religious faith turned into a refrigerator

And how the story of the Golem of Prague ties into to military training through the Hebrew root form.

By Jeremy Benstein | May 20, 2013 | 09:44 AM

On Root / What postcards, incest, and revelation have in common

The Hebrew root g-l-h covers the gamut from discover to uncover, from the New World to a child's stubborn secrets.

By Jeremy Benstein | May 13, 2013 | 04:45 PM

Demonstrators in support of the Palestinian bid to become a nonmember observer state at the UN

On Root / In a pickle about Israel's occupation

The central act that is expressed in the root k-b-sh is to 'press down, tread underfoot.' Then the political problems start.

By Jeremy Benstein | May 6, 2013 | 08:51 AM

Children celebrating Lag Ba'omer in the Mea She'arim neighborhood of Jerusalem.

On Root / On fiery angels and evil twins

Bonfires dot the landscape on Lag Ba'omer as Israelis commemorate the passing of the great 2nd century mystic, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. And eat BBQ.

By Jeremy Benstein | Apr 28, 2013 | 07:55 AM

A view of the sphere of Earth as photographed from Apollo 17 spacecraft in December 1972.

On Root / On Earth Day, if you're going to talk dirt, do it right

Earth Day gives us an opportunity to explore Hebrew terms for earth, land and soil.

By Jeremy Benstein | Apr 22, 2013 | 04:43 PM

David's Harp

David's Harp || A woman at the Bank of Israel isn’t a cfeminist fable

By David Rosenberg | 06:23 PM

David's Harp || Ovadia Yosef’s economic legacy: A culture of poverty and ignorance

By David Rosenberg | 02:19 AM

David's Harp / What do the Chinese really want from Israel?

By David Rosenberg | 07:29 PM | 4

Double Take

African migrants looking through the fence at the Egyptian-Israeli border on August 4, 2012.

Double Take / African asylum seekers out of the spolight but not in the clear

By Joel Greenberg | 08:39 AM

Double Take / A month after Gaza war, Hamas still rides a wave of popularity

By Joel Greenberg | 07:22 AM | 4

Double Take / The politics of potholes in East Jerusalem

By Joel Greenberg | 09:41 AM

Someone Else's Simcha

Meir and Feigi get married in Jerusalem.

Someone Else’s Simcha / Meir and Feigi’s wedding - (Less than) 50 first dates

By Ron Ben-Tovim | 08:45 PM

Someone Else’s Simcha / Year-end bash at Jerusalem’s Beit Rachel

By Ron Ben-Tovim | 05:45 PM

Someone Else's Simcha / Ending Ramadan festivities at the Alian home

By Ron Ben-Tovim | 02:06 PM

State of the Union

On Root / On memory and death, sacrifice and joy, and UFOs

By Jeremy Benstein | 11:06 AM

On Root / The Shoah: Naming the unnamable

By Jeremy Benstein | 03:11 PM

On Root / What soldiers, soaps and trade unions have in common

By Jeremy Benstein | 06:04 AM