Jewish proverbs

Jewish proverbs are short expressions of popular wisdom in Jewish culture.

• .נפלה האבן על הקדרה, אוי לקדרה. נפלה הקדרה על האבן, אוי לקדרה
  • The stone fell on the pitcher? Woe to the pitcher. The pitcher fell on the stone? Woe to the pitcher.
  • Esther Rabbah 7:10, quoted in Lewis Browne: The Wisdom of Israel, an Anthology [1]

• בכל החזיתות שאנו מטילים על אחרים אנחנו מדגימים את הפוטנציאל שלנו, דרך הילדים שלנו אנחנו מגלים את המציאות שלנו. - לורנס קלמן, כדי ללבות עמ 'נשמה
  • In the facades we put on for others we demonstrate our potential; through our children we reveal our reality.
  • Lawrence Kelemen, To Kindle A Soul, p. 195

• When a poor man eats a chicken, one of them is sick.
  • Quoted in Forbes Magazine vol.146 (1990), p.182 as a Yiddish proverb. (It was also used in Fiddler on the Roof.)

• If you steal from a thief, you also have a taste of it.
  • Just because someone steals, you have no right to rob them.
  • Talmud Bavli, Berakoth, 5b

• Rabbi Levitas of Yavneh said: Be exceedingly humble in spirit, for the hope of earthly man is but decay.
  • Avot, Pirkei (1979). "4". פרקי אבות. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-87306-182-7. 

• Let your home be a meeting place for the wise; dust yourself in the soil of their feet, and drink thirstily of their words. -Yossei ben Yoezer
  • Ethics Of The Fathers Text of Chapter One - Texts & Writings. Chabad.org. Retrieved on 2019-05-28.

• Love work, loath mastery over others, and avoid intimacy with the government. -Shmaayah
  • "Every great man of business has got somewhere a touch of the idealist in him."
  • Woodrow Wilson (1972) The papers of Woodrow Wilson. Vol 14. p. 244.
  • Ethics Of The Fathers Text of Chapter One - Texts & Writings. Chabad.org. Retrieved on 2019-05-28.

• I am who I am.

• Who is wise? He who learns from all men -Ben Zoma
  • Ethics Of The Fathers Avot, Pirkey (1979). "4". פרקי אבות. p. 61. ISBN 978-0-87306-182-7. 

• על דאטפת אטפוך וסוף מטיפייך - יטופון (Mishnah Avot 2,7)
  • 'Al d'ateft atfu'kh, v'sof m'tifaikh ytufun
  • Translation: Because you have drowned others, you were drowned — and in the end, those who drowned you will be drowned.
  • Meaning: Sins shall be punished, but people are not allowed to take the law into their own hands.
  • שפירא (1998). ספר המאור שבתורה. ש.צ. בן ב. הכהן שפירא. 

• Youth is a crown of roses, old age a crown of willows.
  • Youth is a light burden, old age a heavy one.
  • Talmud Bavli, Shabbat, 152a

• In old men there is no taste, in young no insight.
  • The old lack enthusiasm, the young lack shrewdness.
  • Talmud Bavli, Shabbat, 89b

• I do not want a shoe larger than my foot.
  • I do not want a husband of higher rank than my own.
  • Talmud Bavli, Kiddushin, 49a

• Don't boast of tomorrow, for you know not what a day will bring.

• Whoever seeks cake loses his bread.

• Whoever argues for the sake of argument is a boor.

• Any home not built for hot days or rains is not a home.

• Judaism
• Proverbs
• Book of Proverbs
• Yiddish proverbs