Jewish proverbs

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

Quotes

 * .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


 * 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

Ethics of the Fathers

 * Rabbi Levitas of Yavneh said: Be exceedingly humble in spirit, for the hope of earthly man is but decay.


 * 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

• I am who I am.
 * 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
 * Who is wise? He who learns from all men -Ben Zoma
 * Ethics Of The Fathers


 * 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.

"Ancient Jewish Proverbs", Abraham Cohen, 1980

 * 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

"Dictionary of 1000 Jewish Proverbs", David C. Gross, 1997

 * 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.