בֵּין הַמְּצָרִים

ביטוי (אנגלית)

The Three Weeks between 17 Tammuz and 9 Ab/ In a cleft stick / In the horns of a dilemma

הגדרה (אנגלית)

Figuratively: in a state of distress. “Between the hammer and the anvil.” Or: a designation for the period between the fast of the seventeenth of Tammuz and the ninth of Av (Mitzrayim literally means narrow places; figuratively: troubles).

("Judah went into exile because of poverty and excessive labor; she dwelt among the nations, finding no rest, and all her pursuers overtook her between the troubles" – Lamentations 1:3; and: "The house of Rabbi Shmuel was surrounded by the wailing / the moaning of the mourners went there in terror" – Shaul Tchernichovsky / Bein HaMetzarim; and: "And that night the king’s sleep wandered / and he remembered Daniel, who was held all that night / between the troubles" – Nathan Zach / Daniel in the Lion’s Gorge; and: "During the days… which are the days of the Counting of the Omer, and in the days of Bein HaMetzarim, when they refrain from establishing a wedding canopy" – Chaim Be’er / Notsot, 105)