how to say "hill" in Hebrew

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גִּבְעָה

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"get by" in Hebrew... 

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LEVEL 3 STARTS SUNDAY
IN JERUSALEM AND TEL AVIV

Today I took a trip to Ramat Beit Shemesh with Efrat Branch Manager, Naftali Schindler, in order to meet some potential teachers for our classes opening there  next month. If you've been following the local news in Israel, Ramat Beit Shemesh may mean more to you than just the newest branch of Ulpan La-Inyan - you may have also heard of riots and some despicable, shameful behavior taking place in that otherwise quiet, flourishing, gorgeous Israeli town.


In any case, here's an explanation of the name of this now-notorious point of interest.


רַמַת בֵּית שֶׁמֶש (rah-MAHT beh-eet SHEH-mesh) means, literally, the height of the house of the sun (reminds me of a song by The Animals). In Biblical times, or perhaps even prior to them, the greater city was named בֵּית שֶׁמֶש (bee-eet SHEH-mesh) - the house of the sun - among several other particularly-scorching locations with the same name throughout the ancient land of Israel (long before the Romans expelled the Jews and renamed it Palestine in the early centuries of the Common Era). 


The word רָמָה (rah-MAH) means level or height... or group of hills. Thus the neighborhoods built on this raised area of hills near בית שמש a couple of decades ago were called רמת בית שמש.


A synonym for the word רמה is גִּבְעָה (gheev-AH), which has only one meaning - hill.

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