It seems to me that the difficulty really rises above the need for a good dictionary. use Hebrew words is significantly influenced by the nuances that can be seen from the Hirsch dictionary on those words. And, I have found that the way Gemara/Rishonim, etc. This is because, although the Gemara says in several places (Chullin 137b, Avodah Zarah 58b, etc.) that the language of the Torah is seperate from the language of the Chachamim/Sages - where do you think most of the Hebrew words that the chachamim use came from? That is to say, there is still a certain level of nuance from the way the Torah uses words latent in the words of the Rishonim. Although in the title it says "Biblical Hebrew", very often seeing the "verbal cognates" of a word will give you a hint into its more subtle meaning(s), even as used by Rishonim, etc. For this sort of translation, I regularly use the. Reading a sentence with an understanding of those nuances changes the meaning of the sentence entirely, often adding clarity as to the correct translation.
In English, we have learned to understand the nuances of words like "appreciate", "adore", "admire", etc. Note that it is written in Hebrew, but the Hebrew of the Even Shoshan dictionary is much easier to translate than the words that it itself is translating.Īnother important part of translating is understanding the connotations of an individual word. When I was learning Rambam with a chavrusa, we regularly used the green Even Shoshan dictionary - also modern - to great success.
It certainly is a trick to find the shoresh of a word - a whole 'nother discussion in and of itself, right alongside the discussion on Dikduk - but once found, there (almost) isn't a word the dictionary doesn't have, even for the hebrew that Rishonim generally employ. I have seen that many Batei Medrash have one, and I usually see them at used seforim/jewish book sales). I find that in many cases, the Reuben Alcalay (modern) Hebrew-English dictionary is simply unbeatable for individual words (if you can get your hands on one.For literal translations of individual words (and the less than occasional phrase):
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