Mango Languages

Jewish Passover Traditions

Once, a non-Jewish guy asked his Jewish friend: “what is so unique about the Jewish holydays?” His friend looked at him and said: “Well… it is very easy, actually.  You can sum up all the Jewish holydays in 9 words: they tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat.”

Many of the Jewish holydays celebrate the victory of the Jews over their enemies, and the survival of the Jewish people and their tradition.  And always, yes, always, the celebration is accompanied by a huge meal.  Passover is the biggest culinary event of them all.  The traditional Passover meal includes: chopped liver with boiled eggs, Gefilte Fish (sweet fish balls with carrots), Matzoth Balls soup, brisket with potatoes and vegetables, an assortment of cakes, and lots of wine.

Passover is the holyday of freedom and redemption.  After 400 years of slavery under the rule of several Egyptian Pharaohs, Moses led the Israelites to freedom.  Every year Jews all over the world celebrate this miracle of redemption with several customs that commemorate and revive that special night when slaves became a free nation, and when God stained every Egyptian home with grief, while passing–over the Jewish homes.
Since the Israelites sneaked out of Egypt in the middle of the night and did not have time to bake bread for the journey, Jews are forbidden to eat bread or anything that has flour or yeast for a week.  Instead of bread, Jews eat Matzo, a flat cracker made of special flour.

On Passover Eve all families gather for a big meal called “The Sader.”  “The Hagadah” (the book that tells the story of Passover) is read out load, and special songs are sung.  The table is set with fine china and in the middle of the table is the “Passover plate” that includes: a boiled egg (a symbol for hardship and slavery), bitter herbs (to symbolize the misery of the Israelites in Egypt), a drumstick (a symbol for God’s strong hand against the Egyptians), and Haroses (a mixture of nuts, apples, and dates that symbolizes the materials used by the Israelites to build the Pyramids).

Elisha the Prophet is the Jewish Santa, who visits every Jewish home on Passover night to drink some wine from a special cup called “Elisha’s cup.”  (No milk and cookies for the Jewish Santa.)  I spent scores of nights waiting to see Elisha.  I never did, but in the morning his cup was always empty.  A miracle!  But, the best thing of all is the “hide-and-seek” Passover game.  Grandpa hides a piece of Matzo and all the children are going nuts looking for it.  The kid who is lucky enough to find the “treasure” gets a special present.  In my time it was a basketball or even a bike.  Nowadays, the kids won’t settle for less than an IPod or an IPhone.

10 Common Mistakes When Learning Hebrew

1. In Hebrew the adjective follows the noun, e.g. “city big.”  English speakers tend to put the noun after the adjective according to the English word order, e.g. “big city.”
2. Hebrew nouns, adjectives, and verbs have a designated gender (either female or male).  For example, “television” is feminine while “radio” is masculine. English speakers tend to mix up the genders.
3. Hebrew nouns, adjective, and verbs have to match in number and gender. Let’s take, for example, “a good pizza.” Since “pizza” is feminine, the adjective “good” should be feminine as well. English speakers have the tendency to forget this rule and do not match adjective, nouns, and verbs in number and gender.
4. In Hebrew there are two sets of numbers, feminine and masculine, which are used based on the noun that is being counted. For example, in the phrase “10 boys” the number ten is pronounced and written differently than in the phrase “10 girls.” English speakers easily confuse the two sets of numbers.
5. In Hebrew, the definite article is used both before the noun and before the adjective, e.g. “the cake the sweet.” English speakers tend to use the definite article only once as it is in English, “the sweet cake.”
6. The right use of prepositions is a source of frustration for English speakers. For example, in Hebrew we say “I spoke in the phone” and not “I spoke on the phone” as in English.
7. In Hebrew there are several guttural letters that English speakers have a hard time pronouncing and usually pronounce incorrectly. These guttural letters are “Cheit,” “Chaf,” and “Reish.” “Cheit” sounds like the German or Scottish “ch” but more guttural. “Reish” is pronounced like the French or German “r” or the Italian or Spanish “r” but usually harder.
8. Hebrew does not use “is,”  “are,” “do,” and “does,” which really confuses English speakers.  English speakers tend to make grammatical mistakes as they try to find alternative expressions.
9. Hebrew verbs have different forms. Each verb is conjugated by gender, tense, and number, which means we have to learn 12 different forms of each verb. This is a hard concept for English speakers to master.  In English verbs are conjugated by tense, not by gender or number.
10. A common pronunciation mistake is when English words are used in Hebrew. For example: “television” is pronounced “televizia,” “university” is pronounced “universita,” etc.

10 Tips to Learning Hebrew

1. A great way to expend vocabulary is to watch American movies dubbed in Hebrew that you watched before. Knowing the plot makes it easier to concentrate on the Hebrew words and catch some repeating words and / or phrases. You might also want to watch Israeli movies with English subtitles. You will be surprised as how many words you can learn.
2. Listening to Israeli music while jogging or riding the train is another fun and great way to expend vocabulary and catch some slang.
3. Practice, practice, practice. Find a partner and take a Hebrew course together. Practice Hebrew with your partner.
4. Find a neighbor, a facebook and or a SKYPE friend that speaks Hebrew or knows Hebrew better than you and practice.
5. Take a flight and visit Israel. Expose yourself to the language and the people.
6. Write Hebrew words on sticky – notes and stick them around the house.
7. Learn 10 new Hebrew words each day Monday – Friday, review on Saturday and relax on Sunday.
8. Reach your target step by step. Do not set big and extravagant goals. It will be easier and will keep up your motivation.
9. Surround yourself with Hebrew; listen to radio broadcasts, watch Israeli youtube clips, listen to Israeli music, surf the net and look for sites in Hebrew. Just make Hebrew part of your daily life.
10. Record yourself speaking Hebrew. Repeat the recording as many times as possible.

Do you have any tips that we have missed?