Beshalach: Follow the Leader (Part 2/2)
Continuing our discussion of words for “leading” in Biblical Hebrew, another word we have yet to discuss is nachah. Variants of this term appear about forty times throughout the Bible, with four of those instances in the Book of Exodus: Firstly, the Bible relates that when Hashem led the Jews out of Egypt, He did not “lead” (nacham) them on the path that goes through Phillistine territory (Ex. 13:17), but rather took a more roundabout route towards the Holy Land that brought the Jews to the Red Sea. Secondly, Hashem provided the Jews travelling the desert with a special pillar of cloud to “lead” the way for them (lanchotam), as reported in Ex. 13:21. Later on, at the Song of the Sea, the Jews praised Hashem’s role in the exodus for “leading” (nachitah) them out of Egypt with His everlasting kindness (Ex. 15:13). Finally, Moses is commanded by Hashem at Mount Sinai to “lead” (nechei) the nation, that is, instruct them, in the way that He told him (Ex. 32:34).
In his essay on the differences between the apparent synonyms noheg, molich, nachah, and nohel, Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim explains the word nachah as related to menuchah (“rest/relaxation”) because it refers to a style of leadership that sees itself as only responsible for protecting one’s charges from any malevolent or undesirable mishaps, and thus bring them to a state of menuchah. In doing so, Rabbi Pappenheim explains the word menuchah as deriving from either the biliteral NUN-CHET or the monoliteral CHET. [Following from the “leading” sense of this term, Modern Hebrew uses the expression mancheh for an “M.C.” or “master of ceremonies” because that person leads the proceedings.]
Examples abound of how nachah specifically connotes saving those under one’s leadership from bad, as Rabbi Pappenheim explains: The pillar of cloud that lead the Jews while they travelled the desert is described with the verb nachah (Ex. 13:21, Neh. 9:12). This is because the main job of the Clouds of Glory was to protect the Jewish People and remove any impediments that might trip them up as they went through the wilderness. In a similar vein, when the Jews said at the Song of the Sea, "You led [nachitah] with Your kindness this nation that You redeemed" (Ex. 15:13), this refers to Hashem saving the Jews by taking them out of Egypt and thereby removing them from a dangerous place.
Another terminology used in Biblical Hebrew for the act of “leading” is nohel. One of the most famous appearances of this term is in the Song of the Sea. After Hashem performed a great miraculous feat by splitting the Red Sea in a way that allowed the Jews to cross and the Egyptians to drown, the Jews gave thanks to Him in the Song of the Sea, saying, inter alia: "You led [us] with Your strength to Your holy abode" (Ex. 15:13), using a cognate of nohel (nehaltah). Various other forms of this word in Hebrew include menahel (“principal/manager”), hanhalah (“administration”), and the Modern Hebrew term mankal (which is a contraction of the phrase menahel klali, “general manager”).
How do the terms noheg, molich, nachah, and nohel — which all relate to “leading” — differ from one another? The various commentators offer several ways of answering this question, and we will look at some of those approaches.
Rabbi Shlomo Aharon Wertheimer writes that noheg (discussed in the Part 1 of this essay) implies “leading” from a position of power and strength. This is illustrated from the fact that the Bible reports that the day before the onset of the Plague of Locust, Hashem "led" an easternly wind (Ex. 10:13) — using the verb nihag to denote the Master of Universe leading that gust. Similarly, the aforementioned Egyptian chariots forcefully led their riders through the muck and mud straight into the Red Sea bank, whereby they drowned (Ex. 14:25). In both of these cases, forms of the term noheg appear in the Biblical text.
By contrast, Rabbi Wertheimer explains that the term nohel implies a more caring form of leading that provides those under one's leadership with the sustenance and nourishment needed to thrive. In that way, when Jacob tells Esau that he will slowly continue "leading" (etnahalah) his entourage towards the Holy Land and Mount Seir (Gen. 33:14), he uses a cognate of nohel because Jacob's relationship to his family saw him as a fatherly leader and provider. When Joseph led Egypt as the viceroy under the Pharaoh, Joseph sustained that population during a famine, as the Bible explicitly says “and he led [vayinahaleim] them with bread" (Gen. 47:17). Again, Joseph played the role of the benevolent ruler leading his constituents and providing for their needs. Similarly, as mentioned above, after Hashem split the Red Sea, the Jews used a cognate of nohel (nahaltah) when singing His praises (Ex. 15:13).
As mentioned above, Rabbi Pappenheim explains that the term nachah refers to a type of leadership wherein the leader’s role is simply to protect those in his charge from adversity or hardship. By contrast, Rabbi Pappenheim explains that the term nohel denotes the leader who not only saves those whom he leads from negative things, but actively helps them in a positive, nurturing way. This can be inferred from the Song of the Sea, wherein the verb nachah is used when referring to Hashem “leading” the Jews out of Egypt (protection from bad), while nohel is used when referring to Him “leading” the Jews into the Holy Land. [Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg in HaKtav VeHaKabbalah (to gen. 47:17) offers an abbreviated presentation of Rabbi Pappenheim’s way of explaining the differences between these apparent synonyms.]
In a slight variation on this theme, Rabbi Shimon Goldblit in Leshon Chachamim argues that noheg implies “leading” by saving those in one’s charge from damage or otherwise being hurt (similar to Rabbi Pappenheim’s explanation of nachah), while nohel implies a form of leadership that not only saves one’s constituents from all things negative, but even helps them in a positive sense (per Rabbi Pappenheim). Thus, when describing Hashem as leading the Jewish people through the wilderness, the Psalmist uses the verb vayinahageim (Ps. 78:52), a cognate of noheg, in order to stress that although the Jews wandered through a dangerous and desolate place, Hashem led them in a way that protected them from all the dangers of the desert. Based on this, Rabbi Goldblit notes that the custom among the Yeshivas is to call the administrator a menahel because not only does the administration oversee the educational institution and neutralize all hurdles in the educational process, they are also the ones in charge of seeing to the overall successes of every individual student (whether in terms of their learning or their personal growth).
Rabbi Moshe Tedeschi Ashkenazi in his work Otzar Nirdafim on Hebrew synonyms offers another way to differentiate between these terms. He insists that noheg implies the acting of leading passively, i.e., when a leader either stands in front of or behind those in his charge and watches over them as they travel forward of their own accord. On the other hand, he sees nohel as referring to when the leader actively has a hand in helping those in his charge go farther than they would have otherwise had the ability to do. Within this framework, he explains nocheh as “leading” a person to their final destination (and not just leading them on a temporary excursion to help them along towards their goal, without yet reaching it).
Malbim (to Ps. 31:4) writes that the terms nachah and nohel imply leading with nachat, while noheg implies a more heavy-handed brand of leadership. Nachat is a difficult term to translate into English, but perhaps might be best expressed as “pleasantry” and “calmness.” Malbim further writes that nohel specifically implies leading those who are already tired or otherwise have depleted their energy, as they need extra encouragement and inspiration to achieve their potential. A similar explanation is offer by Rabbi Yosef Shapotshnick of London in his work Revid HaZahav to the Siddur (when explaining Az Yashir).
Moreover, Malbim (to Ex 10:13) also adds that noheg implies a form of leadership that entails engaging in deliberate intervention, while nachah and nohel imply more “hands off” laissez faire styles of leadership that allow things to progress more naturally. Interestingly, Malbim sees this meaning of noheg in the Biblical passage that tells of Hashem "leading" (nihag) an easternly wind before the onset of the Plague of Locust (Ex. 10:13), as that verse implies Him actively intervening in nature and bringing about something that would not have otherwise happened.
Rabbi Yehuda Leib Shapira-Frankfurter writes in HaRechasim LeVikah that nachah and nohel always have a positive connotation, as they imply an element of greatness on the part of the leader who is doing the “leading.” In other words, these terms invoke the image of a strong person who leads weaker people, or an older person who leads younger people, whereby the leader uses his greatness as a way of helping those under him. Rabbi Shapira-Frankfurter explains that in contrast to this, the term noheg can sometimes connote the negative position of “leading” somebody or something to its downfall. This is seen in Ex. 14:25 at the Red Sea, when the Egyptians’ chariots “led” their riders to their own watery demise. This explanation is also cited by Rabbi Ezra Reuven Dangoor (the Chief Rabbi of Baghdad) in his Adei Zahav . [Recall that in Part 1 we discussed the negative side of noheg/minhag.]
Rabbi Shapira-Frankfurter’s great-nephew Rabbi Shamshon Raphael Hirsch (to Ex. 13:17) explains that noheg refers to a sort of blind leadership, whereby people simply follow the leader without giving it much thought, while nachah connotes a shared mindset whereby those being led see the leader as bringing them towards their desired, common goal.
Once we are talking about the term nohel, I thought it would be interesting to share a fascinating discussion from Rabbi Yosef Grayever of Ostrow in his work Gelilei Chesef. In that book, he presents a long exposition on the biliteral string HEY-LAMMED, which he sees as the ultimate root of many different words in Hebrew. He sees the core meaning of that string as relating to the concept of “separating,” and traces the term nohel to that meaning. The way he explains it, nohel denotes the concept of actively supervising those in one's charge by thinking about how one can aid them and by doing everything in one's ability to save them and “separate” them from anything bad that might come upon them (this somewhat resembles Rabbi Pappenheim and Rabbi Goldblit’s explanations cited earlier by explaining nohel as an active form of “leading”).
Other words that Rabbi Grayever connects with HEY-LAMMED include: ohel (“tent,” which separates out a private space within a more public area), hilula (“wedding” in Talmudic Aramaic, because matrimony separates a married woman from all other men besides her husband, although in later Kabbalistic discourse this term refers to the “celebration” of a yarzheit), hallel/tehillah ("praising," a way of verbalizing how the object of one's praises is outstanding and separate from the rest), holelut ("foolishness," a way of marking an unworthy pursuit from which people ought to abstain and separate themselves), hilulim (used in Lev. 19:24 to describe the “holy” fruits of a tree’s fourth year that ought to be separated from other fruits in that they must be brought to the Holy Temple), ahal (“aloe,” a fragrance whose natural ability to spread its smell farther than other fragrances leads to it being categorized separately from other fragrances), halah ("henceforth/forward," a way of specifying a stretch of time or space as a separate entity), halom (“here,” a specific place that is separate from other places on account of its importance), yahal/halo ("illumination," as the spread of light allows a person to differentiate and thus separate between different objects that cannot be discerned in the dark), and halmah (“breaking,” the act of smashing or splitting one thing into multiple separate parts). [If some of this sounds a bit familiar, it may be because we briefly mentioned Rabbi Grayever’s explanation of halom in “Here We Go” (Jan. 2025), or because we offered a similar account of the derivatives of the biliteral HEY-LAMMED in the name of Rabbi Pappenheim in “The Hebrew Hammers Part 2” (Dec. 2024).]
Two more etymology-based insights are in order: Rabbi David Chaim Chelouche (Ohr Chadash to Gen. 33:14) traces the verb nohel to the biliteral HEY-LAMMED, whose core meaning he sees as related to "light." The way he explains it, it is the role of the leader to "enlighten" those in his charge as to the correct path and help them follow that vision.
Finally, Rabbi Shmuel Yehudah Steiger (in Avnei Shayish) and Mr. Yehoshua Yaron of Haifa (in Mevo L’Midrash HaLashon) see both nohel and noheg as derived from the biliteral NUN-HEY (with an added LAMMED or GIMMEL), which they explain as denoting the concept of “drawing/pulling.” In both cases, the leader is “pulling” his constituents along a certain path by taking the initiative. One particular verse uses the verb vayinahu (I Sam. 7:2), which derives from NUN-HEY to denote the Jewish People “following” the path set out by Hashem and allowing themselves to be “pulled along” by His dictates. Rabbi Steiger and Mr. Yaron also see nachah as relating to this root, with the letter CHET simply being placed in between the NUN and HEY. Similarly, they also connect a rare verb form of the word nahar (“river”) in the sense of “leading” to this biliteral root. That term only appears four times in Biblical Hebrew (Isa. 2:2, Jer. 31:12, Mic. 4:1, Jer. 51:44), but relates to nahar because the river’s current pulls water along a certain path, just as a leader drags those under his leadership through a certain current. [For more about the word nahar and how it might differ from its apparent synonyms nachal and yeor, see “Down by the River” (Jan. 2019).]
