תפסת מרובה לא תפסת (Tafasta merubah lo tafasta)

Meaning: Overreach for too much and you end up with nothing.

Language: Hebrew

Literally: If you grabbed a lot, you grabbed nothing

Category: Daily Life

Origin: A Talmudic principle warning that grasping greedily for everything leaves your hands empty.

More idioms — Daily Life

• Розбити глек (Rozbýty hlek) — To fall out and ruin a friendship.
• Ăn cơm nhà vác tù và hàng tổng — To do thankless public work at your own expense.
• N'hi ha per llogar-hi cadires — The drama is so good it's worth watching like a show.
• Déu n'hi do — Wow — that's quite something.
• Hy is van sy trollie af — He has lost his mind.
• Þetta reddast — Things will work out fine in the end.

More Hebrew idioms

• שבר את הראש (shavar et harosh) — To rack your brains over something.
• יצא מכליו (Yatsa miklav) — To lose your temper; to be beside yourself.
• חבל על הזמן (Ḥaval ʿal ha-zman) — Amazing, fantastic — though it literally means 'a waste of time'.
• על הפנים (al hapanim) — Terrible, awful, in a wretched state.
• לאכול סרטים (Le'ekhol sratim) — To overthink and imagine dramatic worst-case scenarios.
• בא לי (ba li) — I feel like it; I'm in the mood for it.

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