A proverb is only useful if you know when to say it, and only safe if you know where it comes from. Most lists give you neither — a Hebrew string, an English string, and a confident attribution to "the Talmud". This page gives four things per item: the Hebrew, a literal gloss, the English proverb it corresponds to if one exists, and a situation in which an Israeli would actually produce it. Every source has been checked against the text.
| Proverb | Literally | English counterpart | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| כל ההתחלות קשות | all beginnings are hard | the first step is the hardest | Mekhilta, Bachodesh 2 — quoted by Rashi on Exodus 19:5 |
| טובים השניים מן האחד | the two are better than the one | two heads are better than one | Kohelet 4:9, verbatim |
| מי שטרח בערב שבת יאכל בשבת | whoever toiled on the eve of Sabbath will eat on the Sabbath | you reap what you sow | Bavli Avodah Zarah 3a |
| אל תסתכל בקנקן אלא במה שיש בו | don't look at the jar but at what is in it | don't judge a book by its cover | Mishnah, Avot 4:20 — spoken by רבי |
| איזהו חכם, הלומד מכל אדם | who is wise? the one who learns from every person | — (no close English equivalent) | Mishnah, Avot 4:1 — Ben Zoma |
| הפוך בה והפוך בה דכולא בה | turn it over and turn it over, for everything is in it | — (no English equivalent) | Mishnah, Avot 5:22 — Ben Bag Bag |
The one that is not from the Talmud
כל ההתחלות קשות is quoted in Israel constantly and attributed to the Talmud constantly. It is neither Talmud nor Mishnah, and it reached modern Hebrew in three steps.
It begins in the Mekhilta de-Rabbi Yishmael, the tannaitic midrash on Exodus, at Bachodesh 2: עכשיו קבלו עליכם, *שכל הַתְּחִלּוֹת קשות*. Rashi then quotes it on the same verse, Exodus 19:5, to gloss ועתה — *אם עתה תקבלו עליכם, יערב לכם מכאן ואילך, שכל הַתְחָלוֹת קשות — and names his source, (מכילתא)*. Compare the two pointed words: the midrash's noun is תְּחִלָּה, Rashi's is הַתְחָלָה. Rashi's is the one that stuck, so the proverb carries a medieval commentator's wording for a tannaitic saying.
Third, the modern step: the article was added — Rashi has התחלות, Israelis say ההתחלות — and the clause was cut loose from its subordinating ש. What that second ה does to the sentence is read out on the כל ההתחלות קשות page.
אל תשפוט את הקורס לפי השיעור הראשון, כל ההתחלות קשות.
al tishpót et hakúrs lefí hashi'úr harishón, kol hahatkhalót kashót
Don't judge the course by the first lesson — all beginnings are hard. (to a man)
From the Tanakh
טובים השניים מן האחד is Kohelet 4:9 word for word, and the verse says why: אשר יש להם שכר טוב בעמלם, "for they have a good reward for their labour". Israelis use it exactly as English uses two heads are better than one, and it survives the transplant into speech better than most verse quotations because it is short and its grammar is transparent.
בוא נעשה את זה ביחד, טובים השניים מן האחד.
bo na'asé et ze beyákhad, tovím hashnáyim min ha'ekhád
Let's do this together — two are better than one. (to a man)
From the Talmud
מי שטרח בערב שבת יאכל בשבת is at Bavli Avodah Zarah 3a, in a parable in which God answers the nations of the world when they ask for a second chance at the commandments. Notice what it is: a Hebrew sentence inside an Aramaic passage. The surrounding sugya is Talmudic Aramaic; this line and its mirror מי שלא טרח בערב שבת מהיכן יאכל בשבת are Hebrew. That mixture is normal in the Bavli, and it is why an Israeli can often follow a Talmudic aphorism while the argument around it stays opaque.
מי שטרח בערב שבת יאכל בשבת
mi shetárakh be'érev shabát yokhál beshabát
'Whoever toiled on the eve of Sabbath will eat on the Sabbath.' (Bavli Avodah Zarah 3a)
הוא לא פתח את הספר כל הסמסטר. מי שטרח בערב שבת יאכל בשבת.
hu lo patákh et haséfer kol hasémester. mi shetárakh be'érev shabát yokhál beshabát
He didn't open the book all semester. You reap what you sow.
Three from Pirkei Avot, one of them in Aramaic
אל תסתכל בקנקן אלא במה שיש בו is Mishnah Avot 4:20, and the speaker is named: רבי, Judah the Prince, the Mishnah's own redactor. In context it is a rebuttal — two earlier speakers have just argued about whether to learn from the young or the old, and this line refuses the terms of the question. The full mishnah is on the אל תסתכל בקנקן page.
הוא נראה כמו סטודנט אבל הוא מנהל את כל המחלקה. אל תסתכל בקנקן אלא במה שיש בו.
hu nir'é kmo studént avál hu menahél et kol hamakhlaká. al tistakél bakankán éla bemá sheyésh bo
He looks like a student but he runs the whole department. Don't judge by the jar, but by what is in it. (to a man)
איזהו חכם, הלומד מכל אדם is Avot 4:1, from Ben Zoma, and comes with its own proof-verse, Psalm 119:99: מכל מלמדי השכלתי, "from all my teachers I gained understanding". English has no proverb for this. It is the standard Israeli line for praising someone who took advice from an unexpected source, and it is read closely on its own page.
איזהו חכם? הלומד מכל אדם.
eizéhu khakhám? haloméd mikól adám
'Who is wise? The one who learns from every person.' (Mishnah, Avot 4:1)
הוא שאל את המתמחה איך היא הייתה עושה את זה. איזהו חכם.
hu sha'ál et hamitmakhá eikh hi haytá osá et ze. eizéhu khakhám
He asked the intern how she would have done it. That's what wisdom looks like.
הפוך בה והפוך בה דכולא בה is Avot 5:22, from Ben Bag Bag, and it is about the Torah: turn it over and over, because everything is in it. What earns it a line here is that it closes in Aramaic: the last two words, דכולא בה, where Hebrew would say שהכול בה — the relativizer ד־ instead of ש, and Aramaic כולא for הכול. Avot is overwhelmingly Hebrew, so the switch is audible; the very next mishnah does it again, with Ben Hei Hei's לפום צערא אגרא (5:23), "the reward is according to the effort".
הפוך בה והפוך בה דכולא בה
hafókh ba vahafókh ba dekhóla va
'Turn it over and turn it over, for everything is in it.' (Mishnah, Avot 5:22 — and the last two words are Aramaic)
Two the proverb lists get wrong
אין נביא בעירו appears on every Hebrew proverb list, usually with no source or a vague gesture at scripture. It is New Testament, Matthew 13:57, with a parallel at Luke 4:24 — ordinary modern Hebrew, so use it freely; just do not attribute it to the Tanakh. It is handled on biblical idioms.
על טעם וריח אין להתווכח, "there is no arguing about taste and smell", gets filed under Latin de gustibus non est disputandum and left there. The proverb is Latin in origin — but the Hebrew sentence is a named modern coinage, which is the part the lists leave out. The Academy of the Hebrew Language carries it among the coinages of the poet Avraham Shlonsky, whose contribution was a rhymed Hebrew version — ריח réakh against להתווכח lehitvakéakh — plausibly following the Russian На вкус и цвет товарищей нет, which rhymes too. Hebrew Wiktionary lemmatises it in Shlonsky's fuller shape, על טעם ועל ריח אין להתווכח; both shapes circulate, and neither is a mistake.
When to reach for one
A proverb is a stylistic choice, not an upgrade. Both sentences below are natural; which fits depends on how much weight you want the remark to carry.
תגיד לו שיהיה סבלני, כל ההתחלות קשות.
tagíd lo sheyihyé savlaní, kol hahatkhalót kashót
Tell him to be patient — all beginnings are hard. (the proverb, which lends the advice some authority)
תגיד לו שיהיה סבלני, בהתחלה זה תמיד קשה.
tagíd lo sheyihyé savlaní, bahatkhalá ze tamíd kashé
Tell him to be patient — it's always hard at the start. (the plain version: same advice, none of the borrowed authority)
Common Mistakes
1. Dropping the ש from a free relative. English whoever toiled needs no relativizer; Hebrew's מי does, and without it מי is the question word "who?".
❌ מי טרח בערב שבת יאכל בשבת
whoever toiled on the eve of Sabbath will eat on the Sabbath
Incorrect as that meaning — bare מי is the interrogative 'who?', so this reads as a question welded onto a statement. A free relative takes מי ש: מי שטרח.
✅ מי שהזמין מראש נכנס בלי תור.
mi shehizmín merósh nikhnás bli tor
Anyone who booked in advance goes in without queueing.
2. Attributing anything old to "the Talmud". כל ההתחלות קשות is midrash, quoted by Rashi; אין נביא בעירו is Matthew; אל תסתכל בקנקן and איזהו חכם are Mishnah, not Gemara. Only מי שטרח בערב שבת יאכל בשבת is actually Talmud.
3. Dropping the article from כל ההתחלות קשות. Rashi's wording is כל התחלות קשות, without it, and both circulate — but the modern proverb has the ה, and the two are parsed differently rather than being style variants.
4. Assuming an English proverb has a Hebrew twin. Two of the six here have no English counterpart, and the traffic runs both ways: translating the early bird catches the worm yields a Hebrew sentence, not a saying.
5. Quoting a proverb at someone who is upset. Not a Hebrew problem, but worth saying: a proverb generalises a person's situation. כל ההתחלות קשות is reassurance on day one of a new job and a dismissal on day one of a crisis.
Key Takeaways
- כל ההתחלות קשות is tannaitic — the Mekhilta at Bachodesh 2 on Exodus 19:5 — and reached modern Hebrew through Rashi, who quotes it there and names his source. Not Talmud, and not Rashi's own line either. The midrash's noun is תְּחִלָּה, Rashi's is הַתְחָלָה, and he writes it without the article, as שכל התחלות קשות.
- טובים השניים מן האחד is Kohelet 4:9 verbatim, and works in speech exactly as two heads are better than one does.
- מי שטרח בערב שבת יאכל בשבת (Bavli Avodah Zarah 3a) is a Hebrew line sitting inside an Aramaic passage.
- Three of the six are Mishnah, all from Avot: אל תסתכל בקנקן at 4:20, from רבי; איזהו חכם at 4:1, from Ben Zoma, with Psalm 119:99 as its proof-verse; and הפוך בה והפוך בה דכולא בה at 5:22.
- That last one ends in Aramaic — ד־ plus כולא, where Hebrew would say שהכול. Avot is overwhelmingly Hebrew, though 5:22 is not its only Aramaic line — the very next mishnah is Aramaic too.
- אין נביא בעירו is from Matthew 13:57, and על טעם וריח אין להתווכח is a Latin proverb in a Hebrew sentence that Avraham Shlonsky wrote — the Academy lists it among his coinages, rhyme and all. Use both; attribute neither to the Tanakh.
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- Hebrew Idioms: An OrientationB1 — Where Hebrew's fixed phrases come from — Tanakh, Mishnah, Talmudic Aramaic, and four modern contact layers — and why they resist you: a frozen phrase keeps words that died everywhere else, and root-and-pattern spelling gives you no way to look one up. Plus the method: Hebrew Wiktionary labels register and gives etymology, Milog does neither, so its silence proves nothing.