Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #jewishlife, aggregated by home.social.
Two blessings, two meanings.
“Yom Kippur” is 25 hours without food or water. We wish each other gentleness in it.
The second is bigger. Tradition says the year is written on Rosh Hashanah and sealed on Yom Kippur. Ten days between the writing and the signature. “To be sealed in the Book of Life for good” is to wish someone a year that holds.
May your fast be easy, and may you be sealed for good. 💙
My dad asked me the same question every year, months before the holiday. Are you coming to the dinner?
It took moving an ocean away to understand he was never really asking about dinner.
My reflection for Rosh Hashanah and Shabbat 👇
https://hebrewbyinbal.substack.com/p/are-you-coming-to-the-holiday-dinner?r=2at7n8&utm_medium=ios
Shanah Tovah 💙
#RoshHashanah #ShabbatShalom #JewishNewYear #JewishLife #Family
Three generations.
I received this message and it touched my heart.
A grandmother, her daughter, and her granddaughter. All 3 learning Hebrew. All 3 in this same little corner of the internet at the same time.
When you teach a language you are never really teaching one person. You are handing something to whoever they hand it to next. That is how Hebrew survived thousands of years in the first place. Not through institutions or armies but through someone teaching it to someone they loved.
And now somehow that chain runs through my lessons.
I do not have adequate words for what an honor that is. To be a small part of something a family is building across 3 generations, something that will outlast all of us is more than I imagined when I started.
Thank you for letting me in. All 3 of you. 💙
Some people think learning Hebrew has to be serious. Grammar charts. Drills. A teacher waiting for you to get it wrong.
Not here. 😎
I am about as far from uptight as a teacher gets. Mess up the word. Say it backwards. Ask me the same question four times. None of it bothers me because nobody has ever learned to speak a language by being nervous.
Here is the thing about Israelis: we are loud, we interrupt, we drop half the sentence, and we absolutely do not care if your accent is American. We care that you tried.
So take a breath. Loosen up. Say the word out loud even if it sounds ridiculous to you.
That is when it actually starts working.
Come learn this one with me. 💙
#LearnHebrew #Hebrew #HebrewForBeginners #LanguageLearning #JewishLife
A ROSH HASHANAH GREETING THEY'LL REMEMBER:
For your guests, for the host, or for anyone you want to wish a good year.
Every year the same cards, the same shanah tovah, and everyone forgets them by Sunday.
This one is not a card. It is 4 pages, short enough to read out loud at the table. The people you hand it to will actually read it, and then they will want to talk about it, and that conversation is the real gift.
Print it in color or in black and white, or just send it as a file.
Print a copy for every place setting and let your guests take theirs home.
I left space at the top to write in by hand who it is for, and space at the end to wish them a good and sweet year and sign your name. So it arrives as your greeting, not mine.
hebrewbyinbal.com/greeting26
Free, from me to you, and yours to give away as many times as you want.
#RoshHashanah #ShanaTova #JewishLife #HebrewLanguage #LanguageLearning
A Very Special Shabbat Shalom Friends 🕯️🕯
One year.
For fifty two weeks, something quiet and beautiful has been happening on my Facebook page. Every Friday I share a Shabbat greeting, and my community there sends back photographs of Shabbat. I gather them into a montage and send that light back out to everyone.
This week is the last one. And it turned out so lovely that I wanted to share it here too, with all of you, wherever you follow me
Thank you for the candles. The tables set and waiting. The quiet corners of your homes on a Friday evening. You did not just send photographs. You let me see how Shabbat actually lives inside your houses and inside your hearts, and being trusted with that is not a small thing
There is a reason this fit so naturally alongside teaching Hebrew. A language is not really a set of words. It is a way people have found, over thousands of years, to say here I am to one another
Thank you for a year of light.
Shabbat Shalom 💙
I quit a book this week. What I picked up instead undid me. 💙
Rachel Goldberg-Polin reading her own audiobook about her son Hersh. And the way she describes him, cell by cell, his knees, his lashes, the space between his toes, is a mother who knew her child completely.
They took his future. They took the man he would have become.
But there is one thing they could not touch, and I have not stopped thinking about it since.
This is my Shabbat reflection this week. Please read it. 🕯️
https://hebrewbyinbal.substack.com/p/they-took-hershs-future-they-could?r=2at7n8&utm_medium=ios
There is the standard way to learn Hebrew, and there is the simplified way.
The simplified way is the method I have developed over the years, and the result is messages like this one, which I receive daily.
Thank you, Pam, for sharing just how much my programs have helped you learn and love Hebrew. 💙
#LearnHebrew #Hebrew #HebrewForBeginners #LanguageLearning #JewishLife
This is what learning Hebrew actually looks like. 📖
A student sent me this page from her workbook and I can’t help smiling.
Row after row of letters, written and rewritten. Little notes squeezed into the margins. Some letters standing tall and confident, others still figuring out who they want to be. This page is not neat and that is exactly why I love it.
Nobody ever learned to read Hebrew from a perfect page. They learned from a page like this one. The messy one. The practice one. The proof.
Every person who reads Hebrew today has one of these somewhere in their past.
If you have been waiting for the right moment to start reading and writing Hebrew, let this be it. Grab Hebrew 1-2-3 and make your own beautiful mess. 💙
https://hebrewbyinbal.com/read
#LearnHebrew #Hebrew #HebrewAlphabet #HebrewForBeginners #JewishLife
There is a word Israelis use for each other that also happens to be a cactus. 🌵
Prickly on the outside. Sweet on the inside. And yes, that is exactly what it means about the person.
But the story goes so much deeper than a clever nickname. This one word carries a fruit that crossed an ocean from Mexico, a national identity that peaked in 1948 and quietly transformed by the 1970s, an Arabic root meaning patience, and a Marvel superhero whose real name most people have never learned.
By the end you will understand something about Israeli identity that most people who use this word have no idea about.
It is live now. Come find out what it actually means to be a Sabra. 👇
https://hebrewbyinbal.substack.com/p/learn-what-sabra-means-in-hebrew?r=2at7n8&utm_medium=ios
Today we enter the month of Elul.
The last month of the Hebrew year. The one that walks us to the door of the new one.
Most people think of Elul as a month of accounting. Looking back. Adding up what you did and what you didn't.
But that is not the case here. And it's all in the name.
Tradition reads the four letters of Elul אלול as the opening of a line from Song of Songs. I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine אֲנִי לְדוֹדִי וְדוֹדִי לִי /a-'nee le-do-'dee ve-do-'dee lee/
The last month of the year is named after a love song.
That's not an accident.
That's the lesson of this month.
Because before you look back at your year, Elul tells you the order to do it in. Not from a list of everything you got wrong. From a place of love. Both for the people around you, and for yourself.
You can be honest about your year and still be gentle.
So this Elul, when you sit down to take stock, start where the month starts. With love.
💙
Inbal
Nobody learns Hebrew to pass a test.
You learn it because there is a person on the other side. A grandmother whose stories you have only ever heard secondhand. Israeli in-laws you want to genuinely talk with. A trip to Israel where you order your own coffee, ask your own directions, and hear the country answer you back.
That is the whole point, and it is exactly what most programs never get you to. They teach you about Hebrew. Vocabulary lists, grammar charts, quizzes you pass and then forget. Meanwhile the actual moment you wanted, the conversation, never arrives.
I built Practically Speaking Hebrew backwards from that moment. You learn how to construct your own sentences in real time, so you can say what you actually need to say, in whatever situation you are standing in. Real Hebrew, for your real life.
That is what this was always for.
hebrewbyinbal.com/speak 💙
#LearnHebrew #BibleStudy #HebrewForBeginners #LanguageLearning #JewishLife
What if everything you were told about learning Hebrew was backwards?
For generations, the rule has been the same. Memorize the alphabet, drill the vowels, practice your handwriting, and then, far down the road, you might be ready to say your first sentence out loud.
No wonder so many people quit. They spent months staring at letters and never once got to do the thing they came for. To speak.
Here is what I know after years of teaching. Speaking can start on day one. My students hold real conversations in Hebrew long before they can write a word of it, because I teach the sounds first, through a system built for the way English speakers think.
Letters have their place, and I teach them. But they were never the gate you unlock before you are allowed to speak.
If you have been waiting for permission to start, here it is.
hebrewbyinbal.com/speak 💙
#LearnHebrew #Hebrew #HebrewForBeginners #LanguageLearning #JewishLife
You meet a version of yourself that only exists in this language. The you that reads the prayer in its first voice. The you that jokes with an Israeli cab driver. The you that finally understands what your grandmother meant. That person was always in there, waiting for the words to arrive.
That is what I get to witness with my students. Not just new vocabulary. A whole new self, stepping into the light.
Come find yours. 💙
hebrewbyinbal.com/speak
#LearnHebrew #Hebrew #HebrewForBeginners #LanguageLearning #JewishLife
Why every Israeli traveling abroad is a global ambassador
I didn’t want to leave Israel. Not now when the world hates us. Not when there are endless…
#EuropeSays #Headlines #News #Europe #Europa #EU #Israel #antisemitism #Diaspora #EyeDiseases #Greece #IDF #jewishlife #Travel
https://www.europesays.com/iran/222565/
Why every Israeli traveling abroad is a global ambassador
I didn’t want to leave Israel. Not now when the world hates us. Not when there are endless…
#NewsBeep #News #BreakingNews #antisemitism #breakingnews #Diaspora #EyeDiseases #Greece #IDF #Israel #jewishlife #Travel
https://www.newsbeep.com/661737/
https://www.europesays.com/iran/222565/ Why every Israeli traveling abroad is a global ambassador #antisemitism #Diaspora #EyeDiseases #Greece #IDF #Israel #JewishLife #Travel
“Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Almost everyone knows this line. Fewer know it comes from Leviticus 19:18, written in Hebrew long before it was ever spoken in English. Jesus called it the second greatest commandment. He was quoting the Hebrew Bible when he said it.
Which means every time those words are spoken, in any church, any synagogue, any language, they are an echo of the same ancient Hebrew sentence. One verse, holding two faiths and countless hearts.
That is what this community means to me. Jews and Christians, people from more than 30 countries, all gathered around a language that keeps insisting we belong to each other.
Today I teach you how to say it in Hebrew, the way it was first written. Learn it, then go live it. 💙
The final video in the July Summer Event Series deal with the cost of Admissions 🤗
This is what a brilliant student looks like. 🤩
Esmeralda’s study setup: Practically Speaking Hebrew on the laptop, my phonetic table standing by, and my Hebrew Words and Jewish Traditions coloring book open to a beautiful Am Yisrael Chai page, decoded all by herself using the phonetic system she learned inside the program.
This is exactly what I dreamed my resources would do. Work together, meet you where you are, and make learning Hebrew genuinely fun.
If you wish to learn more about my coloring book or speaking course, comment below!
Esmeralda, you are amazing. Keep going. 💙🇮🇱
#LearnHebrew #Hebrew #AmYisraelChai #JewishLife #HebrewForBeginners
Israeli summers of yore, when the outdoors was the adventure | World News
Long before branded summer camps, ninja parks, tech learning and family vacations abroad, summer vacation in Israel looked…
#EuropeSays #Headlines #News #Europe #Europa #EU #Israel #beitshe #child #israelnews #jewishlife #jewishnationalfund #photograph #tractor #vacation
https://www.europesays.com/iran/214081/
https://www.europesays.com/iran/214081/ Israeli summers of yore, when the outdoors was the adventure | World News #BeitShe #child #Israel #IsraelNews #JewishLife #JewishNationalFund #photograph #tractor #vacation
Israeli summers of yore, when the outdoors was the adventure | World News
Long before branded summer camps, ninja parks, tech learning and family vacations abroad, summer vacation in Israel looked…
#NewsBeep #News #BreakingNews #beitshe #breakingnews #child #Israel #israelnews #jewishlife #JewishNationalFund #photograph #tractor #vacation
https://www.newsbeep.com/652028/
Our Ring camera caught something today that I cannot stop thinking about. 💙
A little context. We live pretty remotely and even so over the last year we have been visited maybe a dozen times by people of faith who go door to door hoping to share scripture. This never happened to me in Israel, so it has always fascinated me here.
I have no words for how much that small moment means. This is what an interfaith marriage looks like when nobody is watching. Not grand gestures. Just a man honoring his wife’s heritage at the front door, with kindness for everyone involved.
To the two visitors, thank you for your graciousness. To my husband, you warmed my heart beyond words today.
Love speaks every language, and apparently it also answers the door. 💙✡️
**NOTE: The Gentleman was showing my husband a Bible verse from a small booklet**
Today we enter the month of Av.
In the Hebrew calendar, Av carries the heaviest memories of our people. Loss. Destruction. Things that fell apart.
And yet, look at the name. Av. “Father.”
That’s not an accident. That’s the whole lesson of this month.
Because Av doesn’t end in grief. Just days after its lowest point comes Tu B’Av, the holiday of love. The same month that holds our deepest sorrow also holds our greatest celebration of the heart.
Av teaches something we all know from our own lives: breaking is not the end of the story. It’s the middle. What falls can be rebuilt. What was lost makes room for what’s coming. And comfort doesn’t arrive instead of pain. It arrives through it.
So this month, if something feels broken or unfinished, remember what Av whispers: hold on. Love is already on the calendar.
May this month turn your heaviness into strength. 🤍
English words that mean something COMPLETELY different in Hebrew. 🇮🇱
They are called “FALSE FRIENDS”
Some will make you laugh. One will make you gasp. 🤣
Check out the full list on my Substack. 👇
https://open.substack.com/pub/hebrewbyinbal/p/learn-hebrew-words-that-mean-something?r=2at7n8&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
#LearnHebrew #Hebrew #HebrewForBeginners #LanguageLearning #JewishLife
Iceland welcomes its first historic permanent Jewish community center
When Rabbi Avraham Feldman and his wife Mushky Feldman first visited Iceland in 2017, there was no established…
#Iceland #IS #Europe #Europa #EU #CenterforJewishHistory #Chabad #diaspora #DiasporaJews #iceland #Interview #island #Jewish #JewishCommunity #Jewishhistory #jewishlife #Judaism
https://www.europesays.com/3127583/
Iceland welcomes its first historic permanent Jewish community center https://www.byteseu.com/2192220/ #CenterForJewishHistory #Chabad #diaspora #DiasporaJews #Europe #Iceland #interview #Jewish #JewishCommunity #JewishHistory #JewishLife #Judaism
https://www.europesays.com/3127583/ Iceland welcomes its first historic permanent Jewish community center #CenterForJewishHistory #Chabad #diaspora #DiasporaJews #Europe #iceland #Interview #island #Jewish #JewishCommunity #JewishHistory #JewishLife #Judaism
July in Israel is a whole different world. 🇮🇱☀️
Film festivals under the stars, dancing in the streets, music everywhere, and the Mediterranean summer in full swing. In today’s video I take you through the top events that light up Israel every July, what they are, and exactly how to pronounce them like a local.
Consider this your insider’s calendar. Watch, learn, and tell me which one you would love to experience in person. 👇
COMMENT “166” for the link or CLICK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-DLIJPwOsA
There are English words that mean something COMPLETELY different in Hebrew. 🇮🇱
Some of them will make you laugh. At least one will make you gasp. And a few are so surprising that you will never hear these words the same way again.
They are called false friends, words that sound identical in both languages but mean entirely different things. This Tuesday I am handing you a long, useful, occasionally hilarious list of them.
It publishes Tuesday at 8:30am Eastern. Subscribe now so it lands in your inbox the moment it drops. 👇
https://substack.com/@hebrewbyinbal
#LearnHebrew #Hebrew #HebrewForBeginners #LanguageLearning #JewishLife
July in Israel is a whole different world. 🇮🇱☀️
Film festivals under the stars, dancing in the streets, music everywhere, and the Mediterranean summer in full swing. In today’s video I take you through the top events that light up Israel every July, what they are, and exactly how to pronounce them like a local.
Consider this your insider’s calendar. Watch, learn, and tell me which one you would love to experience in person. 👇
2,400,000 views. 🤯
https://www.youtube.com/hebrewbyinbal
My YouTube channel just crossed 2.4 million lifetime views, and I have been sitting here trying to actually picture that number. I cannot.
What I can picture is one person. Someone at their kitchen table pressing play, wanting to understand their grandmother, or read a prayer in the original, or finally feel at home in Israel. Behind this number, that person showed up 2.4 million times.
When I filmed my first Hebrew lesson, I dreamed of reaching a few people who needed it. I never imagined millions of clicks from every corner of the world.
To every one of you who ever watched, learned, commented, or shared, this milestone belongs to you. Thank you for learning Hebrew with me.
Here is to the next million, together. 💙🇮🇱
Watch out for the upcoming #exhibition on #jewishlife in the #middleages at #museum Simeonstift in #Trier starting 11 October.
What if one simple pattern could unlock hundreds of the most useful everyday sentences in Hebrew?
#LearnHebrew #Hebrew #HebrewForBeginners #LanguageLearning #JewishLife
The dear Professor and I agree, motivation is unreliable. Everyone who has tried to learn a language alone already knows this. You are inspired on day one, and by week three the app sits unopened on your phone, quietly reminding you of a promise you made to yourself.
Here is the truth nobody tells you. It was never a discipline problem. Motivation was simply never designed to carry you the whole way. What actually gets people to the other side is structure and accountability, a clear path to follow and someone who notices when you have gone quiet.
That is exactly what I built into Practically Speaking Hebrew. A real path, at your own pace, so you always know what comes next instead of guessing. And me, personally, in your corner, so this never becomes something you do entirely alone.
hebrewbyinbal.com/speak
#LearnHebrew #Hebrew #HebrewForBeginners #LanguageLearning #JewishLife
What if one simple pattern could unlock hundreds of the most useful everyday sentences in Hebrew?
Not a grammar mountain. Not endless memorization. One easy pattern that lets you say what you want, what you need, and what you wish for, from your very first week.
That is exactly what tomorrow’s new article teaches, and it is the trick beginners always tell me they wish they had learned first.
It drops tomorrow, Tuesday at 8am. Subscribe today and it lands right in your inbox the moment it publishes. 👇
https://substack.com/@hebrewbyinbal
#LearnHebrew #Hebrew #HebrewForBeginners #LanguageLearning #JewishLife
People sometimes ask me to stick to teaching Hebrew and leave the “political content” out of it.
Here is my answer. **I cannot**
Because antisemitism is not politics to me. It is the comment my husband deletes before I wake up. It is **“go home murderer”** sent to a language teacher. It is not a debate topic. It is my daily reality, simply for being Jewish and visible.
So I had a choice. Stay quiet, absorb the hate, and just do business. Or use my voice to share truth and light. Being Jewish, that was never really a choice at all.
I am a businesswoman and I am a Jewish woman. The world does not let me separate the two so I stopped trying. History has already shown us more than once what happens when good people go quiet.
I will keep teaching Hebrew. I will keep celebrating Israel. I will keep standing up and nothing about that is negotiable.