כל ההתחלות קשות is the thing Israelis say to someone in their first week of a new job, a new city or a new language. It is three words long, it has no verb, and almost everything worth knowing about it is hidden in one letter — the second ה, the one that looks like a stutter.
כל ההתחלות קשות
kol hahatkhalót kashót
All beginnings are hard.
Where it comes from, and where it does not
This is not a biblical verse, and calling it one is the commonest thing said about it. Its oldest form is in the Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael, the tannaitic midrash on Exodus, at Tractate Bachodesh 2:9, commenting on Exodus 19:5. It reached general circulation through Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, 1040–1105), whose comment on that same verse quotes it and marks the source as Mekhilta. Both texts are long out of copyright and are quoted here in full.
עכשו קבלו עליכם, שכל התחלות קשות
akhsháv kablú aleikhém, shekól hatkhilót kashót
Accept it upon yourselves now, for all beginnings are hard. (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael, Bachodesh 2:9, on Exodus 19:5)
אם עתה תקבלו עליכם, יערב לכם מכאן ואילך, שכל התחלות קשות
im atá tekablú aleikhém, ye'eráv lakhém mikán va'eilákh, shekól hatkhalót kashót
If you accept it upon yourselves now, it will be pleasant for you from here on, for all beginnings are hard. (Rashi on Exodus 19:5)
Both citations are pointed the way their editions point them — the Mekhilta as the Be'eri edition points it (Koren, Jerusalem, 2019), Rashi as Rosenbaum and Silbermann point him (1929–34) — which means their bare form is ktiv haser — the classical spelling, with fewer vowel letters than a modern Israeli writes. That is why עכשו above has no yod where you expect עכשיו. Everywhere else on this page the Hebrew is ordinary modern ktiv male.
One spelling, two different words
Now compare the two classical lines letter by letter. Rashi has הַתְחָלוֹת and the Mekhilta has הַתְּחִלּוֹת. Strip the pointing off both, as real Hebrew writing does, and you get the same six letters — התחלות — twice. They are not the same word.
| Pointed | Reads | What the ה is | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| הַתְּחִלּוֹת | hatkhilót | the definite article, on the noun תְּחִלָּה | the beginnings |
| הַתְחָלוֹת | hatkhalót | part of the word itself — the hif'il prefix of הַתְחָלָה | beginnings |
הַתְחָלָה is the verbal noun of הִתְחִיל hitkhíl "to begin", a hif'il verb on the root ת־ח־ל; its ה is the binyan's own prefix and can never be removed. תְּחִלָּה is a different, older noun from the same root, and it is alive in modern Hebrew in a handful of fixed expressions — בַּתְּחִילָּה "at first", מִלְּכַתְּחִילָּה "from the outset", תְּחִילַּת הַשָּׁנָה "the start of the year".
The reason the modern proverb needs two ה
Because the ה of הַתְחָלוֹת belongs to the word, giving it a definite article means adding a second one. That is the stutter at the front of ההתחלות: הַ + הַתְחָלוֹת. And the choice of whether to add it is not decoration — it is what the sentence quantifies over.
| Shape | Example | Reads | Force |
|---|---|---|---|
| כל + indefinite singular | כל התחלה קשה | kol hatkhalá kashá | every beginning, taken one at a time |
| כל + indefinite plural | כל התחלות קשות | kol hatkhalót kashót | beginnings as a class — Rashi's wording |
| כל + definite plural | כל ההתחלות קשות | kol hahatkhalót kashót | all the beginnings — the modern proverb |
כל התחלה קשה
kol hatkhalá kashá
Every beginning is hard. (singular throughout — noun and adjective both)
כל התחלות קשות
kol hatkhalót kashót
All beginnings are hard. (Rashi's form — a bare plural, the class as a whole)
כל ההתחלות קשות, גם של אנשים שנראים לך בטוחים בעצמם
kol hahatkhalót kashót, gam shel anashím shenir'ím lekhá betukhím be'atsmám
All beginnings are hard — including for people who look self-assured to you. (to a man)
English hides this distinction almost completely: all beginnings and all the beginnings are nearly interchangeable, and every beginning differs only in feel. Hebrew hears them as three separate statements, and the article is the only thing marking which one you made. The full behaviour of כל, including כולם and כל הזמן, is on כל and כולם.
Which form actually circulates today is a question a corpus can answer. Searching Hebrew Wikipedia with insource:/…/ on 15 August 2026 and repeating each query three times, כל ההתחלות קשות returns 13 and כל התחלות קשות returns 2, both stable across all three runs. Small numbers, but they point one way: the living proverb carries the article, and the article-less form survives mainly where someone is quoting Rashi.
Feminine plural, all the way through
הַתְחָלָה is feminine, so its plural is ־ות and the predicate adjective must be feminine plural too: קָשׁוֹת. Hebrew has no uninflected adjectives at all — agreement runs through the whole clause, every time.
ההתחלות תמיד קשות, אבל אחרי שבועיים כבר לא תזכור את זה
hahatkhalót tamíd kashót, avál akharéi shvu'áyim kvar lo tizkór et ze
Beginnings are always hard, but in two weeks you won't even remember this. (to a man)
Do not read the ־ות of התחלות as a guarantee of feminine gender, though — it is a strong signal, not a rule. שולחנות "tables" and לילות "nights" take the same ending and are masculine, so their adjectives come out שולחנות גדולים, לילות ארוכים.
Why קשות has no article — and what happens when you give it one
The proverb has no verb. Hebrew has no present-tense "to be", so a noun phrase and an adjective standing side by side already make a complete sentence: ההתחלות קשות is the beginnings [are] hard. This is not ellipsis and nothing is missing; it is how the present tense works.
What holds that sentence together is that the adjective is bare. A predicate adjective in Hebrew never takes the article — and the moment you put one on it, the sentence collapses into a noun phrase:
- ההתחלות קשות hahatkhalót kashót — a sentence. "The beginnings are hard."
- ההתחלות הקשות hahatkhalót hakashót — not a sentence. "The hard beginnings", a phrase waiting for something to happen to it.
The rule behind it: an attributive adjective agrees with its noun in definiteness as well as gender and number, so a definite noun forces ה on its adjective. A predicative adjective is not part of the noun phrase at all, so it takes no article and there is nothing for it to agree in definiteness with. That single ה is the difference between saying something and merely naming something — see predicative vs attributive.
דווקא את ההתחלות הקשות זוכרים הכי טוב
dávka et hahatkhalót hakashót zokhrím hakhí tov
It's the hard beginnings you remember best. (here ההתחלות הקשות is a noun phrase — and needs the verb זוכרים to become a sentence)
העברית קשה בהתחלה, אחר כך זה נהיה קל יותר
ha'ivrít kashá bahatkhalá, akhár kakh ze nihyé kal yotér
Hebrew is hard at the start; after that it gets easier. (בהתחלה, with the article fused into ב, is the ordinary adverb 'at first')
Saying it
The proverb is warm, everyday and slightly resigned. It is said to someone struggling, or about yourself, and it is not said about anything grave.
התחלתי ללמוד עברית לפני חודש ואני עדיין לא מבין כלום. כל ההתחלות קשות, לא?
hitkhálti lilmód ivrít lifnéi khódesh va'aní adáyin lo mevín klum. kol hahatkhalót kashót, lo?
I started learning Hebrew a month ago and I still don't understand a thing. All beginnings are hard, right? (m. speaker)
אל תדאגי, זה רק היום הראשון שלך. כל ההתחלות קשות.
al tid'agí, ze rak hayóm harishón shelákh. kol hahatkhalót kashót.
Don't worry, it's only your first day. All beginnings are hard. (to a woman)
Common Mistakes
1. Putting the article on קשות. English all the hard beginnings and all the beginnings are hard are two different sentences, and Hebrew marks the difference with one letter — on the adjective.
❌ כל ההתחלות הקשות
Incorrect as a sentence — with ה on the adjective this is the noun phrase 'all the hard beginnings'. A predicate adjective stays bare: כל ההתחלות קשות.
✅ כל ההתחלות קשות, זה מה שאימא שלי תמיד אומרת
kol hahatkhalót kashót, ze ma she'íma shelí tamíd oméret
All beginnings are hard — that's what my mum always says.
2. Reaching for ־ים because it is the default plural. English hard has one form, so a learner building a plural adjective from scratch takes the plural ending that comes first to mind rather than checking the noun's gender. ־ים is that ending, and here it is the wrong one.
❌ כל ההתחלות קשים
Incorrect — התחלות is a feminine plural, so the adjective must be feminine plural too: כל ההתחלות קשות.
✅ השנים הראשונות בארץ היו קשות, אבל היום אני לא מדמיין את עצמי במקום אחר
hashaním harishonót ba'árets hayú kashót, avál hayóm aní lo medamyén et atsmí bemakóm akhér
The first years in Israel were hard, but today I can't picture myself living anywhere else. (m. speaker — שנים is feminine despite the ־ים ending, and both ראשונות and קשות agree with it)
3. Keeping the singular predicate after a plural. Learners meet כל התחלה קשה first, where everything is singular because כל + singular means "every", and then carry the singular adjective across when the noun goes plural.
❌ כל ההתחלות קשה
Incorrect — the adjective agrees with התחלות, which is plural: כל ההתחלות קשות. Only the singular version keeps קשה: כל התחלה קשה.
✅ כל התחלה קשה, אבל דווקא בגלל זה כדאי להתחיל היום
kol hatkhalá kashá, avál dávka biglál ze kedái lehatkhíl hayóm
Every beginning is hard, but that's exactly why it's worth starting today.
4. Writing one ה where the modern saying wants two. The word already starts with ה, so the article looks like a typo and gets dropped. The one-ה version is real Hebrew — it is Rashi's — but it is not the saying people quote.
❌ כל התחלות קשות
Incorrect as the modern proverb — one ה short. This is the classical wording ('all beginnings, as a class'); today's saying puts the article on as well: כל ההתחלות קשות.
✅ ההתחלה תמיד הכי קשה, אחרי זה זה כבר הרגל
hahatkhalá tamíd hakhí kashá, akharéi ze ze kvar hergél
The beginning is always the hardest part; after that it's just habit. (two ה in ההתחלה here too — article plus the word's own)
Key Takeaways
- The proverb is not biblical. It is in the Mekhilta on Exodus 19:5 and reached wide circulation through Rashi (d. 1105) on the same verse.
- התחלות is two words in one spelling. Rashi's הַתְחָלוֹת hatkhalót is the plural of the hif'il verbal noun הַתְחָלָה, whose ה belongs to the word; the Mekhilta's הַתְּחִלּוֹת hatkhilót is the article plus תְּחִלָּה. Unpointed they are identical.
- Because the ה of הַתְחָלָה is part of the word, making it definite adds a second ה: ההתחלות.
- כל does three jobs, distinguished only by what follows it: + indefinite singular = every; + indefinite plural = the class; + definite plural = all the.
- The predicate adjective is bare. ההתחלות קשות is a sentence; ההתחלות הקשות is a noun phrase.
- Agreement is feminine plural throughout — קשות, never קשים and never קשה.
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Start learning Hebrew →Related Topics
- כל: All, Every, WholeA2 — One word, two meanings, and the article on the NEXT word decides which: כל יום is 'every day', כל היום is 'all day'. כל itself never changes. Then there is the free-standing form הכול, which is spelled differently for a reason that goes back to the maqaf.
- Predicative vs Attributive PositionB1 — The same adjective in the same place after the same noun does two completely different jobs, and one letter decides which: הבית הגדול names a house, הבית גדול claims something about it. Definiteness is the only thing that changes between the two — gender and number agree either way, in every tense.
- Hebrew Has No 'Am', 'Is' or 'Are'A1 — A persistent English-transfer error in Hebrew is putting a word where ordinary present-tense predication has none. אני עייף is complete with a zero copula, להיות is an infinitive and not a present tense, and יש is not a form of 'to be'.
- Hebrew Proverbs Worth KnowingB2 — Six proverbs Israelis actually quote, each with a source checked against the text — including the one that is midrash-via-Rashi rather than Talmud, the Hebrew line sitting inside an Aramaic Talmudic passage, and the saying from Avot that ends in Aramaic. Plus the one everybody calls Latin, whose Hebrew wording turns out to be Shlonsky's.