Passing Phrase - www.learnhebrew.org.il

Bekitsur Nimrats

Literally: With maximum brevity
Idiomatically: In a nutshell / in short

There are a number of phrases which are synonymous to this one: "Al Ketzei Hamazleg," "Al Regel Achat," or even just "Bekitzur," to name a few. Many of these phrases I have used and can be found in our archives.

We use this when we want to sum up something concisely. The English translation "in a nutshell," has no useful equivalent in Hebrew ("Beklipat egoz" just doesn't do it). The English phrase actually dates back to Shakespeare’s Hamlet, who uses it to mean something compact, when he says, "I could be bounded in a nutshell…" Though I read that it dates back Cicero's claim, that he had seen a copy of the Iliad written on a paper that could fit into a nutshell. In any case, "kitsur," meaning short is found in many places in the Talmud (Parah12:1, Berachot 4:4). "Nimrats" is from the root Mem-Resh-Tzaddik (מ'ר'צ) the word itself means vigorous, or forceful (Kings I 2:8). It can also mean intensive as in "Tipul Nimrats" – intensive care (unit).

רציתי לדעת בקיצור נמרץ מה עמדתך על....

"Ratsiti ladaat bekitsur nimrats ma emdatcha al…" I want to know in short what your position is ….

Of course if you are talking to a politician, it will definitely not be short, and will most likely be obfuscated.

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