[.ca] Hebrew/English Dictionary (ISBN 0671688626)

Major printing problems:
This English-Hebrew/Hebrew-English dictionary has over 30,000 entries, but does not cover commonly used idioms. This version of Ben-Yehuda's dictionary seems to have been printed using technology from the 1940s. The paper is an acidic newsprint type paper. Just sitting on my shelf, the acid from the paper has burned into the cardstock cover, leaving yellowish brown stains. The printed ink is not even a true black... but rather a faded dark grey that looks like a photocopy of a photocopy. Because there are no crisp edges of the printed characters, it is difficult to tell a Hebrew "pe" from a "phe" and distinguishing a "gimel" from a "nun" is almost impossible. The differences in these characters are subtle in the printed form and having obscure/fuzzy printing makes it that much more troublesome to read. Reading the English text is not problematic, mostly due to the thin, serif font used for the English. The thick calligraphic style of the Hebrew, however, leaves no room for error. My buying advice is to instead get the "Shimon Zilberman Compact Up-To-Date English-Hebrew/Hebrew-English Dictionary" (ISBN: 9652227781) which is also available here at Amazon.com. There is simply no comparison.

Problem Book:
I First bought the book in 1961 when the plates were brand new. At that time it was a 5 star, and well made . Over the years I had to buy several replacements and slowly the plates have become nearly illegable. Also the last version I bought was only a few months ago and it has already started to fall apart due to a drop in manufacturing quality apparantly. I had hoped that new plates would be done and perhaps a better binding. However since I see similar recent complaints I gather this has not yet come to pass.

Not sure why everyone uses it....:
I've had this dictionary around for many years (the binding has held up fine), and it's useful enough when you need to look up a word quickly, or if you know the word but aren't sure how it's spelled. However, if you are not already pretty good at Hebrew grammar (you don't need a rabbi, as another poster mentioned, but a good teacher or a good book/tape combo will be crucial), you won't be able to find words in the dictionary, because of the way Hebrew grammar changes the way things look. Also, the dictionary does not give any clue as to which of several possible meanings a word might have, if there is ambiguity in either language (a frequent occurrence). I am studying right now with several Israeli teachers, and they often tell me that the word I have found in the dictionary is "Shabbat language" -- in a word, archaic. The grammar and verb tables in the back are almost completely useless even *after* having studied those topics. Instead of this book, get Edna Lauden's Rav-Milon (Multi-Dictionary), which has much more useful information, including usage, explanations of meanings, example sentences, and the like. It's more expensive, and you still need to know at least a little grammar to make use of it (as you would with *any* Hebrew dictionary), but it's far more useful than this one -- I have a lot more confidence that I'm not saying silly things by accident. ... check with your local Jewish book store.

Better than you think:
Although this book is small, affordable and readily available everywhere, I was actually able to study beginning Torah and modern Hebrew using it. I considered buying one of the more encyclopedic editions, but the Rabbi I was working with assured me that the Ben-Yehuda would be fine until I got into more advanced study. So if you're a beginner this is a good book to buy. However, I would also add this: don't try to teach yourself Hebrew. You need a good Rabbi to help you do this.

A bag of mixed blessings:
At the very beginning I must say that my eyesight is not perfect. So this review is from a person with a slight visual disability. I have to say that the content of this dictionary is fairly useful, except for some of the introductory grammar notes and verb tables. If you are a beginner in hebrew, you don't want to learn from this book, and you will be a little unconfortable browsing for the hebrew word you need. Now, I must mention the print quality, which, in the reprint/edition that I bought in 2002, is very bad. The nikkud (the dots that indicate the vowels) are mostly readable, but often it's difficult to tell a gimmel from a vav or a nun, a pei from a fei etc. This might represent a severe problem with some readers like myself, and after a while you might end up with a headache and will tire quickly. You can offset this disadvantage if you know really well the order of the letters in the aleph-beit, so you can easily guess the letter if you can't see it very well (unfortunately, this trick won't help you to tell a pei from a fei, as they are at the same ordinal place). The best characteristic of this dictionary is probably it's ubiquitousness: you could easily tell your teacher that you didn't understand "the word on page 185, top left, in the Ben-Yahuda". The low price may be of some limited significance, too, but I think the most important factor when deciding whether to buy it or not, should be your eyes.