Terminology and Meaning
The entire phrase actually includes both a positive and a negative expression: תפשת מרובה לא תפשת תפשת מועט תפשת - "If you have seized a lot, you have not seized; if you have seized a little, you have seized." The general meaning is that an over-ambitious claim defeats itself: the intended analogy is to one who grabs more than he can hold.
In Yoma 80a, the mythical egg of the enormous Bar-Yochani bird is provided as an example of Tafasta meruba lo tafasta: "ואימא ביצת בר יוכני תפסת מרובה לא תפסת תפסת מועט תפסת ואימא ביעתא דציפורתא דזוטר טובא"
Read more about this topic: Tafasta Meruba Lo Tafasta
Famous quotes containing the word meaning:
“He would declare and could himself believe
That the birds there in all the garden round
From having heard the daylong voice of Eve
Had added to their own an oversound,
Her tone of meaning but without the words.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)