Word of the day: להבדיל - to separate, to distinguish

לְהַבְדִּיל lehavdil "to separate, to distinguish (something from something else)" is generally used with the prepositions בֵּין ... ל־ bein ... le-...:

יֵשׁ לְהַבְדִּיל בֵּין הוֺצָאוֺת הוֺן לְהוֺצָאוֺת תִּפְעוּלִיּוֺת.

Yesh lehavdil bein hotza'ot hon le-hotza'ot tif'uliyot.

One should distinguish between capital expenses and operating expenses.

The action noun for לְהַבְדִּיל lehavdil is הַבְדָּלָה havdala "separation, distinguishing". This also means Havdalah, the religious service held on Saturday night, at the end of Shabbat.

One may add לֽהַבְדּיל when speaking about items or persons that might sound inappropriate (or even blasphemous) within one sentence:

מָה אַתָּה חוֺשֵׁב עַל צֶ'רְצִ'יל, גַנְדִי ו – לֽהַבְדּיל – הִיטְלֶר?

Ma ata choshev al Churchill, Gandhi ve – lehavdil! – Hitler?

What do you think of Churchill, Gandhi and – [another matter entirely!] – Hitler?

The notion of what is appropriate varies from one person to another; religious people have stricter criteria than secular people. To strengthen the expression, one may say לֽהַבְדּיל וּלֽהַבְדּיל lehavdil u-lehavdil, לֽהַבְדּיל אֶלֶף הַבְדָּלוֹת lehavdil elef havdalot "to differ with thousand differences" or לֽהַבְדּיל אֶלֶף אַלְפֵי הַבְדָּלוֹת lehavdil elef alfei havdalot "to differ with thousand thousands of differences".

הֶבְדֵּל hevdel means "difference" in the general sense:

מָה הַהֶבְדֵּל בֵּין אַייְפוֺן 7 לְאַייְפוֺן 6?

Ma ha-hevdel bein iPhone sheva le-iPhone shesh?

What is the difference between iPhone 7 and iPhone 6?

Note: arithmetic difference (result of subtracting numbers) is not הֶבְדֵּל hevdel but הֶפְרֵשׁ hefresh.

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