In Hebrew: 'Addiction'

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April 24, 2013, 11 AM ET

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הִתְמַכְּרוּת

Before I moved back to Israel in 2007 and opened up Ulpan La-Inyan a year later, I was training as a psychotherapist in Los Angeles. My first post was to Beit T'shuva, a Jewish center for addiction recovery on Venice Blvd. The Hebrew word for addiction is הִתְמַכְּרוּת

, of the root מ.כ.ר (m.k.r) meaning sale - since one sells him/herself, in a way, to the object of addiction. In context:

בֵּית תְּשׁוּבָה הוּא מֶרְכַּז יְהוּדִי לִגְמִילָה מֵהִתְמַכְּרוּת. Beit T'shuva (literally, House of Return) is a Jewish center for recovery (literally, weaning) from addiction.

התמכרות comes from the reflexive-intensive הִתְפַעֵל verb,לְהִתְמַכֵּר

. For example:

לֹא קָשֶׁה לְהִתְמַכֵּר לְעִשּׁוּן. It's not difficult to become addicted to smoking.

Someone addicted is מָכוּר

if a male and מְכוּרָה

if a female. For example:

הִיא מְכוּרָה לְפֵייסְבּוּק. She is addicted to Facebook.

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