Passing Phrase - www.learnhebrew.org.il

Chamat Za'am

Literally: The heat of anger
Idiomatically: Rage

Let's start with the main word, "Zaam." We find the word used appropriately as anger by the prophets (Isiah 66:14; Zechariah 1:12; Jeremiah 15:17, to name a few). "Chamat" is a derivative of "cham," meaning hot (Joshua 9:12). "Cham" is often paired with other words as in "Mezeg cham" מזג חם - hot tempered or "Lev cham" לב חם- warm hearted.

הוא שבר את השולחן בחמת זעם.

"Hu shavar et hashulchan bechamat zaam." He broke the table in the heat of anger.

So either he needs a good carpenter or an anger management class. Actually, both.

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