Jacob Shore — Dispatches
Latest posts
Recent posts from Dew of Your Youth, Daily Derja, and Türk Defter.
A rolling snapshot of what I have been publishing lately.
Election Day in Israel
Voting in Israel’s first election since October 7, working through what used to be a day off, and waiting for the results, in easy Shami Arabic.
How Much Phoenician Can I Read with Hebrew?
A Hebrew speaker reads Tabnit’s Phoenician curse against grave robbers, carved on a recycled Egyptian coffin, with the guesses and corrections left visible.
What We Inherit: Tzidkat HaTzaddik 62–63
My father and I were learning אותיות ס״ב–ס״גLiterally “letters”: the numbered paragraphs of a book like Tzidkat HaTzaddik; singular os. in Tzidkat HaTzaddikTzidkat HaTzaddik (“The Righteousness of the …
If You Know Hebrew, Do You Know Moabite?
A Hebrew speaker reads the ninth-century BCE Mesha Stele without first studying Moabite, keeping the misreadings visible, to see how far Hebrew actually gets you.
When Piety Becomes the Minimum
Head covering, six hours between meat and dairy, an ever-longer siddur: how the practices of the especially pious quietly become everyone’s minimum.
Glossary
Essays here lean on classical rabbinic literature, comparative Semitic linguistics, genealogical history and the tools I use to keep my notes. This page defines the terms that come up most. Where the …
Bread, Meat, or a Meal? Hebrew and Arabic as Cousins
Hebrew לחם means bread. Arabic لحم means meat. Trying to understand how that happened sent me back to Daniel, the korbanos, and a disagreement between Ibn Ezra and the Ramban.
Hebrew and Arabic: Semitic Cousins
Why يوم is יום but لحم isn’t לחם: shared Semitic roots, the Canaanite shift, س/ש swaps, and Hebrew–Arabic false friends like مكتب and מכתב.
Light Blood, Heavy Blood
In Shami, blood is either light or heavy: دمّه خفيف is someone fun to sit with, دمّه تقيل is someone you want to escape. Meaning and examples.
Walking Through Biblical Ruins Before School
My eldest son’s last day of vacation before yeshiva: just the two of us walking the Elah Valley, where David fought Goliath, up to the ruins at Khirbet Qiyafa.
To His Mother, the Monkey Is a Gazelle
«القرد بعين أمّه غزال»: the Shami way to say love is blind, especially a parent’s. Meaning, tone and examples.
When Hospitality Eats Your Space
My father-in-law’s cancelled flight keeps him with us another week, my sister’s family is next, and my office is a guest room again.
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