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שנה טובה

Shà-nà To-và

שהשנה הבאה תביא לכם

Shé-hà-shà-nà hà-bà-à tà-vee là-hém

שלום

Shà-lom

שמחה

Sim-hà

אהבה

À-hà-và

בריאות

Bri-oot

והצלחה בלימוד עברית

Vé-hàts-là-hà bé-li-mood iv-rit

משפחת ידווב

Mish-pà-hàt Yéd-wàb

Happy New Year

May the coming year bring you

Peace

Happiness

Love

Health

and success with Hebrew study

The Yedwab family

Featured Holiday

Rosh Hashanah (Hebrew: the head of the year) is the beginning of the Jewish or Hebrew year that falls this year on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 - Tishrei 1-2 - The Jewish New Year which starts with the month of Tishrei, celebrates the beginning of ten days of self-examination and repentance before Yom Kippur on Thursday October 9.

At the synagogue, the shofar (a trumpet made from a ram's horn) is blown. Traditional foods are challah, apples dipped in honey to symbolize the coming sweet year, fish heads to symbolize success (to be at the head and not at the tail) and pomegranates that symbolize fertility because of its many seeds. Greeting cards for the New Year (H: Shana Tova) are sent to friend and family.

Latest News from Hebrew Podcasts

This year was very productive for us with our February 2008 launch of the Hebrew Podcasts site. Our vision is to take advantage of broadband Internet and portable video players to make learning Hebrew practical and enjoyable. We're particularly proud of the video edition that we launched in August with videos for all the existing lessons. Each video lesson is complete with graphics, captions, and animation. Now you can read along when you learn Hebrew online, or download it to a video-capable player such as an iPod.

Since we posted Lesson 7 on YouTube in April it was viewed more than 4,900 times.

With 20 video lessons available on our site today and a new lesson every two weeks, there's never been a better time to become a member.

We believe that Hebrew is easier and more exciting to learn in the context of the Israeli culture. For your enjoyment we added a Jewish Calendar section and a Jewish Holiday section to our site with Recipes and Kids Crafts. You will also receive this newsletter several times a year.

New Idioms

The walls have ears  Oz-nà-yim là-ko-tél אוזניים לכותל

The apple of one’s eye, the most important thing to a person  Bà-vàt éy-no בבת עינו

Unanimous (literally one mouth)  Pé é-hàd פה אחד

On the tip of the tongue  Àl ktsé hà-là-shon על קצה הלשון

New Words

Face פנים Pà-nim

Israel in the News

Israel was selected to be the new testing site for solar thermal power. PG&E Corp, a California utility company, signed contracts with BrightSource in April 2008 to buy up to 900 megawatts of solar thermal power in the next few years, enough to power about 630,000 homes. PG&E Corp is on its way to comply with California’s requirement that at least 20 percent of its electric supply will come from renewable energy by 2010.

The test site will be in the Negev Desert in the southern part of Israel. This is part of an international race for clean energy to replace fossil fuels.

Solar power method rely on harnessing the power of the sun to produce electricity. A boiler is placed on a solar power tower and mirrors are used to reflect and intensify the sunlight to boil the water and turn them into steam. The steam passes through turbines that produce electricity.

If the testing goes well, BrightSource will build a power plan for testing new technologies in the California Mojave Desert. The power plant will generate 100 megawatts, which is 50 times bigger than the plant in Israel. It is scheduled to be built by 2011.