a nice way to declare failure in Hebrew

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/להעלות-חרס-1.m4a” /]לְהַעֲלוֹת חֶרֶס בְּיָדוֹ

Hebrew does have a word for to fail – להיכשל[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/להעלות-חרס-2.m4a” /].

For example:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/להעלות-חרס-3.m4a” /]הוא נכשל במבחן.

He failed (on) the exam.

But there’s another, softer expression: להעלות חרס בידו[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/להעלות-חרס-1.m4a” /] – literally to raise clay on his hand. The phrase is often shortened to להעלות חרס – to raise clay.

For example:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/להעלות-חרס-4.m4a” /]כל החיפושים שלי העלו חרס.

All my searching raised clay (resulted in failure).

The image goes back to Talmudic times, when people might dig for something of value but all they would find were disappointing shards of clay pottery.

The expression broken down:

להעלות[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/להעלות-חרס-5.m4a” /] – to raise

חרס[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/להעלות-חרס-6.m4a” /] – clay, ceramic

בידו[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/להעלות-חרס-7.m4a” /] – in his hand