ילדים, אמונות תפלות וחתונה אחת מצחיקה
A2 Hebrew listening practice · Standard Hebrew · Curated for beginners
What does “emuna tfela” mean in Hebrew?
Kids trade old wives' tales, like the one that eating from the cooking pot means rain on your wedding day, and one helpfully defines the term: «מה זו אמונה תפלה? זו אמונה שהיא לא נכונה» (“what’s a superstition? a belief that isn’t true”). אמונה תפלה (emuna tfela) is “a superstition.”
It pairs אמונה (“belief, faith”) with תפלה (“insipid, tasteless, unsalted”), so literally “a flavorless belief.” Israel keeps a rich stock of them: “knock on wood” is בלי עין הרע (“without the evil eye”), and red strings ward off bad luck. A neat phrase, and a tidy lesson in how Hebrew builds meaning from two plain words.
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Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · OpenSubtitles 2018 (HermitDave) (spoken). Buckets approximate; exact ranks not stored.
- ▸In Israeli talk of בלי עין הרע (“without the evil eye”) and lucky charms.
- ▸Israeli kids' shows and family videos swapping old wives' tales.
- ▸At Israeli weddings and their good-luck rituals.
- ▸In Hebrew lessons on belief, luck, and folk custom.