Third Time's a Char...Ice Cream?
We all know the saying "third time's a charm", but did you ever stop and wonder what the saying is in Hebrew?
The Hebrew term for doing something three times in a row is pa'am shlishit gelidah, which basically translates to "third-time ice cream".
The origin of the saying isn't clear, some say it comes from an old German saying, some people think it comes from a mispronunciation of the English saying "If I see you next time I'll scream" (I'll scream sounds like Ice cream), but our favorite explanation is the following: Some experts believe that the saying is actually a derivative from the old 1927 song I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream.
Because the verse has the word scream 3 times, followed by the word ice cream, that is how the Hebrew saying originated. If you ask us, that is the best explanation, how could anything involving ice cream be wrong anyhow?
So why are we discussing this fascinating topic right now? Well, unless you hate listening to the news and avoid it completely, you probably know that Israel is heading tomorrow to the ballots for its third elections in less than a year - hence the term pa'am shlishit gelidah.
