What does “emuna tfela” mean in Hebrew?
ילדים, אמונות תפלות וחתונה אחת מצחיקה
A2 Hebrew listening practice · Standard Hebrew · Picked for people who know a little
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). These numbers are close, not perfect.
- ▸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.