VaEra: Lice Ain't Nice
The third of the Ten Plagues with which Hashem afflicted the Egyptians is known as the Plague of Lice. The Hebrew word for “lice” is kinnim, a term that appears at least six times in the Bible. This essay surveys the various instances and possible instances of that term in the Bible, and traces its etymology as much as possible. After we ruminate on the word kinnim, we will turn to two Aramaic words which seem to be synonymous with kinnim. As I will explain below, I believe that these three terms are not actually synonyms, but rather simply three different forms of the same word.
In the context of the Plague of Lice, the Biblical Hebrew kinnim is used five times in Exodus (Ex. 8:12–14) and once in Psalms (Ps. 105:31). Two of the five times that the word appears in Exodus, it is vocalized kinam (Ex. 8:13–14). Although the singular form of this term, kinah (“louse”), does not appear in the Bible, it does appear once in the Mishnah (Parah 9:2) and multiple times in the Talmud (Shabbat 12b, 107b, Chullin 105b, Eruvin 65a, Chagigah 5a, Bava Metzia 107b, Zevachim 19a). In fact, the Bible is so consistent about using the word kinnim/kinam in a way that it includes the letter MEM that Ibn Janach (Sefer HaShorashim), Rashbam, Ibn Ezra (to Ex. 8:12), and Ibn Parchon (Machberet HeAruch) all felt the need to point out that the MEM is not part of the word’s root (but see below). They explain that kinnim is the plural form (“lice” as in many louses), while kinam is a singular form that denotes the “species of lice” as a whole.
In terms of the etymology of kinnim, all the classical lexicographers trace the word to the biliteral root KAF-NUN (including Ibn Janach, Ibn Saruk, Ibn Parchon, and Radak). Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim (in Cheshek Shlomo) defines the core meaning of the biliteral root KAF-NUN as “base/basis” in both a physical or abstract sense. From the abstract meaning come a whole slew of words including: kein (“yes,” “so/such/likewise,” “affirmative”) and nachon (“correct/true”), both of which serve to acknowledging something’s valid basis; tochnit (“plan”) and hachanah (“preparation”), which are the fundamental bases for any serious undertaking; kohen (“priest”), who is the person in charge of making sure that all “preparations” for ritual worship at a temple are in order; and kavvanah (“intention”), which is the mental preparations a person undergoes when planning for a certain task. The word kan (“base/stand/post/position”) derives from the physical meaning of this root, as it denotes a thing or place upon which the main object in question physically rests. As a corollary of this last meaning, Rabbi Pappenheim writes that kinui (“nickname,” “moniker,” “epithet” or “nomenclature”) is a linguistic base used to refer to something without actually uttering the proper name of the referent. He then writes that kinnim derives from the word kinui because lice are considered so despicable and disgusting that people refrain from attaching an actual word to those bugs and instead use kinnim as a cognate of kinui to refer to them indirectly.
Rabbi Shamshon Raphael Hirsch (to Ex. 8:12) offers a simpler explanation, connecting the word kinnim directly to the word kan by explaining that just as a kan refers to a “base” upon which the object in question is placed and is secondary to the object itself, so do lice act as parasites that are placed on a human host’s body or hair and are secondary to their host.
As mentioned above, kinnim appears at least six times in the Bible. The first six occurrences — all in the context of the Plague of Lice — are undisputed. But there may be another two instances of this word in the Bible, if we follow certain commentators. In a poignant passage that speaks of Hashem's everlastingness, Isaiah stresses how other elements of creation are set to eventually expire and disappear, while Hashem lasts forever: "...for the heavens will dissipate like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment, and its inhabitants will die like kein, but My salvation always is...” (Isa. 51:6). Targum Jonathan in this context explains the word kein as “so,” with the verse meaning that the earth will eventually wear out and its inhabitants will likewise perish. However, the 17th century Dutch Protestant scholar Ludovicus de Dieu first proposed that kein in this verse possibly means “louse,” with Isaiah’s point being that the earth’s inhabitants will die like lice. This explanation is also cited by Shadal (who notes that other scholars like Rosenmüller and Gesenius also followed this approach) and Malbim in their respective commentaries to Isaiah. It is also the understanding favored by Avraham Even Shoshan in his concordance of Biblical Hebrew and by Rabbi Dovid Tzvi Hoffmann (in his comments to Ex. 8:12).
Another possible instance of this word in the Bible is when the Ten Spies related their experience scouting out the Holy Land and told of the giants that inhabited that place. In that context, the spies said, "And we were in our eyes like grasshoppers, and we were kein in their eyes" (Num. 13:33). The classical way of interpretating the word kein in this verse is "likewise," as the spies felt small when compared to the giants and felt that the giants likewise viewed them as small when compared to themselves. However, in light of the above, Malbim (there) suggests reading the word kein here as "louse," with the spies saying that they felt as small as grasshoppers in their own eyes, and felt that in the eyes of the giants, they were as insignificant as lice.
Targum Onkelos and Targum pseudo-Jonathan (to Ex. 8:12–14) use the word kalmta for “lice” when translating the Hebrew words kinnim/kinam (as does Targum to Ps. 105:31). In our editions of Targum, that Aramaic word is spelled KUF-LAMMED-MEM.
However, there is another spelling of this word in the Talmud. In one place, the Talmud (Brachot 51b) states that “from rags [are generated] kalmei.” Rashi (there), following the notion of spontaneous generation, explains that kalmei refers to kinnim (“lice”) and the Talmud means that scraps of worn-out fabrics cause lice. Rashi explicitly adduces this understanding of the Talmud by noting that Targum translates the word kinnim as kalmta, which he sees as a cognate of kalmei. The word kalmei used in the Talmud and the Targumic word kalmta as cited by Rashi is not spelled with an initial KUF, but rather a KAF.
Likewise, the Talmud (Niddah 20b) that Ifra-Hormizd, the mother of the Sassanian king Shapur II, used to send Rava questions about menstrual blood. One time, Rava sent her a special comb that is used to kill lice as a hint to her that the blood that she asked about was actually the blood of dead lice. In that context again, the Talmud uses the Aramaic word kalmei and spells it with an initial KAF. So far, we have two Aramaic words for “lice” — KUF-LAMMED-MEM and KAF-LAMMED-MEM. This Aramaic word also has a counterpart in the Akkadian kalmatu, which also means “lice.” [Rabbi Nosson of Rome’s Sefer HeAruch is inconsistent regarding whether the Talmudic Aramaic word kalmei should be spelled with a KUF or a KAF (see his entries on the roots SAMECH-REISH-KUF and KAF-LAMMED-MEM).]
Interestingly, an international group of archeologists led by Dr. Daniel Vainstub from Ben-Gurion University reported in 2022 that they had discovered an ivory comb with a Canaanite inscription on it that read: “May this tooth root out the lice [kamal] of the hair and the beard.” As my readers hopefully know by now, the ancient Canaanite language is very closely related to Biblical Hebrew and both are part of the Semitic family of languages (along with Aramaic, Arabic, Akkadian, and other languages). In light of this, it comes as no surprise that a cognate of kalmta and kalmei would occur on this Canaanite comb, but the surprise is that the final two consonants in the word have been transposed from LAMMED-MEM to MEM-LAMMED. Being Canaanite, this text is almost certainly older than the Targumic texts mentioned above (which were written in Aramaic), so it seems that KUF-MEM-LAMMED is the original spelling of the Semitic word for “lice,” and KUF-LAMMED-MEM represents a later metathesizing of the final consonants. The Canaanite form of this word is also preserved in the Arabic word قمل(quml), which still means “lice.”
Similarly, the Sefire treaty texts (discovered in northern Syria and dating to the end of the First Temple period), are an important corpus of Aramaic inscriptions that record a treaty between two Syrian kings, outlining mutual obligations, divine oaths, and curses upon treaty violations. One of those curses calls for lice to do something to the one who fails to uphold the agreement, but the text breaks just before it says what the lice were supposed to do. Either way, the Aramaic word for "louse/lice" in that context is spelled KUF-MEM-LAMMED, just like the word in the Canaanite ivory comb. It should be noted that Professor Chaim Tawil questions translating the word in question as “lice,” because in context it refers to a crop-consuming pest, not lice which stay on a people’s body. Instead, he sees this word as referring to “vermin of the field,” which actually parallels the use of the word kinah the one time it appears in the Mishnah (Parah 9:2) in the sense of a “a kinah of the grain.” [There is also a triliteral root KUF-MEM-LAMMED in Biblical Hebrew (Isa. 19:6, 33:9), which refers to “rotting/molding/withering.” It is quite possible that the word used in the Sefire text might actually be a declension of that root.]
At this point, we now have three forms of the Aramaic word for “lice”: KUF-LAMMED-MEM, KAF-LAMMED-MEM, and KUF-MEM-LAMMED. It should be noted that cognates of this word have not been found to occur in other Semitic languages like Hebrew, Ugaritic, or Phoenician. Yet, the three Aramaic terms andthe Biblical Hebrew kinnim, while not attested in the respective other language, all mean "lice." This observation suggests the possibility of a shared etymological origin, positioning these terms as cognates. Notably, just as the KUFin Imperial Aramaic shifts to a KAF in Talmudic Aramaic, the LAMMEDin the Aramaic terms might correspond to the NUN of the Biblical Hebrew kinam, aligning with the phonetic interchange patterns of the letters LAMMED, MEM, NUN, and REISH. By this reasoning, KAF-LAMMED-MEMcould be equated with KAF-NUN-MEM, indicating that the MEM in kinam forms part of the root, contrary to the traditional lexicographical interpretations cited above. Furthermore, this hypothesis supports the idea that Biblical Hebrew contains two distinct terms for lice: kinnim(the plural form of kinah) and kinam, a singular form that is cognate with aforementioned Aramaic terms.
After coming up with this suggestion, I consulted with Rabbi Dr. Yitzchak (Jared) Greenblatt and Rabbi Shaul Goldman who agreed that this supposition is indeed tenable. I later saw that Dr. Alexander Kohut (1842–1894) in He'Aruch HaShaleim cites the Maskillic scholar Peretz Smolenskin (1842–1885) as explaining that the Talmudic Aramaic KAF-LAMMED-MEM is cognate with the Biblical Hebrew KAF-NUN-MEM. If this supposition is correct, then KAF-NUN-MEM (Biblical Hebrew), KUF-MEM-LAMMED (Canaanite, Imperial Aramaic, and Arabic), KUF-LAMMED-MEM (Targumic Aramaic, and Akkadian), and KAF-LAMMED-MEM (Talmudic Aramaic) are not actually synonyms, but are simply different forms of the very same word!
When David tried to explain to King Saul that it was beneath the king’s honor to chase after David as a legitimate threat, David compared himself to a parosh (I Sam.24:14, 26:20). Metzudat Zion (to I Sam. 24:14) defines the word parosh as a type of “black kinah that jumps.” In popular parlance, this refers to a “flea.” The classical lexicographers (i.e., Ibn Saruk, Ibn Janach, and Radak) see the word parosh as derived from the quadriliteral root PEH-REISH-AYIN-SHIN, although Rabbi Hirsch (to Gen. 25:6) includes the word parosh in his discussion of quadriliteral roots that are really comprised of triliteral roots with an added final SHIN. Interestingly, name Parosh also appears in the Bible as a given masculine name in lists of people who lived in the beginning of the Second Temple period (Ezra 2:3, 8:3, 10:25, Neh. 3:25, 7:8, 10:15). [On the possible differences between parosh and kinah, see Tosafot and Tosafot HaRosh (to Shabbat 12a).]
Public service announcement from my wife Shira Yael Klein: Tea Tree oil kills lice dead, but remember never to use any essential oils without diluting them first.
