20. Gozi kedeb a’laya, wou ana kedebet a’l geran.

My husband lied to me, and I lied to the neighbors.

If a person told you a lie and you passed on the falsehood to other people, you mislead them, but it was not done on purpose.

This proverb has another more important facet to it: carefully examine the stories you hear before you pass them on, for that is how rumors are started and spread.

21. Neolou tor, yeoli ehlabou.

I am telling him it’s a bull, and he is telling me to milk it!

Obviously, you can’t milk a bull! It’s used in the case of a person who is very dense, and is unable to understand even the simplest concepts. It’s also used in the case of an individual who pretend he doesn’t understand you.

22. Sit Ghena wala sit fa’er.

A reputation of wealth is better than a reputation of poverty.

23. A Haifa il a un pont, tu paye tu passe; tu ne paye pas, tu ne passe pas.

In Haifa there is a bridge, you pay you go through; you don’t pay, you don’t go through.

The meaning is clear: There is nothing free in life; you pay for what you want, you get it; you don’t pay for it, you don’t get it.

The equivalent in English: There is no free lunch.

24. Ele a’wez ahbal.

Whoever is in need (of something) can be stupid.

It’s midnight, you’ve run out of milk, and you have a baby in the house. The only store open charges 30% more for a quart of milk; you have no choice and you agree to pay the higher price. Are you really stupid? No. And that’s the intent of the proverb: you were stuck and paid more, don’t sweat it up, you did the right thing.

25. El nome Sultan.

Sleep is a powerful master.

26. The monkey in the eyes of his mother is a gazelle.

With many variations, that same saying exists in many cultures. Obviously, regardless of time and place, a mother is rarely objective about her own child.

27. He finds a button on the street and exclaims: “Now I can make a suit!”

Applies to individuals who have big dreams that are based on very little.

28. Men bara rokham, wou men gowa sokham.

The outside is marble, but the inside is crap.

Don’t be fooled by outside appearances.

29. The one with her hand in cold water should not criticize the one with her hand in hot water.

It’s easy to give advice to a young mother as to how she should handle her young child, when you’ve never raised children or did so so long ago, you forgot what it’s all about.

There are, needless to say, so many other instances, when people will provide you with “constructive” criticism when they don’t know the first thing about the subject matter. And this is where that proverb is used.

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