Yisro: Write it down
The Hebrew language is blessed with many different words to refer to the act of “writing.” The most common verb that denotes that act is ketivah, inflections of which appear about 260 times in the Bible. For example, the Bible refers to the Ten Commandments being “written” on the stone tablets with forms of the word ketivah (Ex. 31:18, 32:16, 34:28, Deut. 9:10, 10:4). But there are other words used in the Bible to denote the Decalogue being “written” on the tablets, such as charut (Ex. 32:16) and pasal (Ex. 34:1, 34:4, Deut. 10:1, 10:3). If we look beyond Biblical usage, we encounter another term used to describe the words “written” on the tablets:chakuk. That word is used by Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi in his poem Yom Shabbaton when describing the fact that the commandment of Shabbat was inscribed on the twin tablets that Moses brought down from Mount Sinai. The Aramaic verb galif is used to describe that writing as well in the Zohar (Yitro 84b) and in Hebrew poetry (e.g., a yotzer for the Second Day of Pesach by the Luccan poet Rabbi Meshullam bar Kalonymus). In this essay, we explore the various synonyms used in Hebrew for the act of “writing,” tracing their respective etymologies and cognates to hone in on what exactly each words means and if/how it differs from the rest.
A long-standing tradition that dates back to the Maharal of Prague says that the first time a word appears in the Bible epitomizes the very essence of that word’s meaning and can shed light on other instances of that word elsewhere. Given that paradigm, it is quite telling that the first time a cognate of ketivah appears in the Bible is after the war against Amalek following the exodus, when Hashem tells Moses to “write [ktov] this in a book as a remembrance, and put it in the ear of Joshua, for I shall surely erase the memory of Amalek from beneath the heavens” (Ex. 17:14). In this passage, Hashem tells Moses to write down the story of the war of Amalek as He promises to rid the world of that wretched nation in the future. The upshot of this idea is that “writing” things serves to help the words last longer than if they were merely said. Writing gives those words tangible continuity and allows them to remain in a much more robust way than relaying the very same message verbally. Interestingly, Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh points out that that a similar theme is found in the very last instance of KAF-TAV-BET in the Prophets (Mal. 3:16), which refers to being written (vayikatev) in a sefer zikaron (literally, "book of remembrance"). This too focuses on the special property of written things to serve as long-lasting reminders.
Rabbi Shem Tov Gaguine even goes as far as to say that from the fact that “writing” is never mentioned in the entire Book of Genesis, Moses was the first person to ever write anything down, and him recording the story of Amalek’s attack was the first thing ever written. I’m sure most historians would disagree with this, but it’s still a fascinating suggestion to think about.
Rabbi Shamshon Raphael Hirsch (to Ex. 34:27) connects the root KAF-TAV-BET with other phonetically-similar roots, including KAF-TAV-PEH ("shoulder"), KUF-TET-PEH ("plucking/detaching"), and KUF-TET-BET ("killing"). These connections are made by invoking the interchangeability of PEH and BET, of KAF and KUF, and of TET and TAV. The way Rabbi Hirsch explains the connection, something "written" is a worthy bearer of ideas, but is still nonetheless a dangerous medium because it jeopardizes the existence of that which remains unwritten. Meaning, if something is written down, then one only has exactly what was written and is in danger of losing the idea as a whole that might include elements that are not written. This can metaphorically be represented as somebody "detaching" part of an idea from the entire edifice, which could even lead to "killing" the whole idea. It also relates to the "shoulder," which is just a corner of the body, but is not the entire body itself. As Rabbi Hirsch stresses, it is because of this danger that Hashem presented the Jews not only with the Written Torah (as it is written), but with the Oral Torah which encompasses so much more beyond that which is written. Only the Written Torah and Oral Torah in tandem lead one to the complete, accurate picture of Hashem's will.
As mentioned above, the Ten Commandments are described in the Bible as having been charut (“written”) on the tablets (Ex. 32:16). According to the classical lexicographers like Ibn Saruk, Ibn Janach, and Radak, the word charut derives from the triliteral root CHET-REISH-TAV, which only occurs in this one instance in the entire Bible. That makes this word a hapax legomenon. The use of this unique word charut in the context of the tablets is likely what led the rabbis (Shabbat 54a, Shemot Rabbah §32:1, Shir HaShirim Rabbah §8:3, and in more places) to connect that word with cheirut (“freedom”) and offer various explanations as to how the Torah’s strictures actually reflects freedom rather than servitude.
Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim explains the word charut as related to the word chor (“hole”), which derives from the biliteral root CHET-REISH. The way he explains it, charut denotes a mode of writing which engraves an open hole in the material being written. This term thus alludes to the notion that the writing on the tablets penetrated the stone through and through, and could miraculously have been seen/readable from both sides of the tablet (see Rashi to Ex. 32:15 and Shabbat 104a). A similar point about charut referring to a through-and-through hole is also made by Rabbi Shamshon Raphael Hirsch (to Ex. 32:2, 32:15).
Other commentators, including Rashi and Rashbam (to Ex. 32:16), explain the root CHET-REISH-TAV as related to the root CHET-REISH-TET. While the former root only appears once in the entire Bible (as mentioned above), the latter root appears at least twice: once in Ex. 32:4 when saying that the Golden Calf was fashion by a cheret (“stylus/engraver”) and once in Isa. 32:4 when Hashem told Isaiah to write down a certain prophecy "in cheret enosh" (Isa. 8:1), which seems to be a form of inscription (that some scholars identify as cuneiformic). The connection between charut and cheret is of course justified on the basis of the interchangeability of the letters TAV and TET.
Rabbi Shamshon Raphael Hirsch (to Gen. 41:5, Ex. 7:11) and others have understood the Biblical word chartumim (in reference to Egyptian or Chaldean “priest-magicians”) to also derive from the same root as cheret, as such people were experts in mysterious writings that were inscribed using the cheret. Either way, the type of “writing” denoted by CHET-REISH-TAV/TET is a form of “engraving” where the words are written by pressing or cutting the letters deep into the material to leave an imprint.
Another related word is charushah. When Jeremiah criticizes the Kingdom of Judah, he writes that their sins have been written down and have become engrained as part of their very being, "engraved [charushah] on the tablet of their heart" (Jer. 17:1). That word is an inflection of the triliteral root CHET-REISH-SHIN, which Menachem Ibn Saruk identifies as having five distinct meanings: “muteness,” “deafness,” “thinking,” “artisanship,” and “plowing.” Given that framework, Ibn Saruk specifically ties the word charushah to the “plowing” meaning of that root, implying that since “engraving” involves digging into the material being written on, it resembles plowing which entails digging into the ground in preparation for sowing. Similar points are made by Ibn Janach and Radak in their respective Sefer HaShorashim.
That said, it is quite plausible that CHET-REISH-SHIN relates to CHET-REISH-TAV via the consecutivity of the letters SHIN and TAV in the Hebrew Alphabet. Indeed, Ibn Saruk essentially uses charut to define charushah, and vice versa.In fact, Targum (to Jer. 17:1) uses an Aramaic cognate of charut in rendering charushah, which Rabbi Eliyahu Bachur (in Meturgaman) justifies based on the interchangeability of the Hebrew SHIN with the Aramaic TAV.Interestingly, several centuries before Rabbi Pappenheim explained that the word charut related to chor, Rabbi Moshe Zacuto (in his commentary to the Zohar Korach 177a) already offered the same claim, noting that if the Torah meant to simply say that the Decalogue was "engraved" on the tablets, it should have used the word charushah instead of charut.
Rabbi Shaul Goldman sees the root of charushah as related to other roots that begin with CHET-REISH and have a third letter from the group of interchangeable letters ZAYIN, SHIN, TZADI, TET, and TAV. Besides for charut and cheret, this grouping includes other words that relate to make a hole, like charitz (“ditch”) and charuz (“stringing/threading,” i.e. putting something through a hole, although in later Hebrew usage this term came to refer to “rhyming” and “versification”).
Although we originally presented the term pasal as meaning “writing,” the truth is that this word technically refers to “engraving/hewing.” Its root PEH-SAMECH-LAMMED only appears in the Bible in verb form six times, with four of those instances being references to Moses carving the Ten Commandments into the second pair of tablets. The other two times that such verbs appear refer to “hewing” stones for the Temple (I Kgs. 5:32) and the act of “hewing” idols from raw materials (Hab. 2:18). The overwhelming instances of this root in Biblical Hebrew are in the nouns pesel (“idol”) and pesilim (“idols”) that refer to the objects of idolatrous adoration. The discarded shavings of something hewn are “disqualified” from being used in the final object being fashioned, which is why pasul in the legal sense refers to something that has been “disqualified” from a specific Halachic purpose. Since idols are themselves disqualified by the Torah from ritual use, the final object itself is called a pesel, just like the byproducts made by the act of carving/engraving.
Rabbi Shamshon Raphael Hirsch (to Deut. 4:16) connects the root PEH-SAMECH-LAMEMD to PEH-TZADI-LAMMED (pitzel, "peeling") and BET-TZADI-LAMMED (batzal/batzel, "onion”) noting that all three terms involve cutting or otherwise removing outer layers.
In terms of the word chakuk, Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim explains it too refers to writing by way of "engraving," which entails using a metal stylus to "dig out" small grooves in a wooden or stone surface to represent letters (or pictures, or pictographs, or hieroglyphs). He explains this as the core meaning of the biliteral root CHET-KUF. The way Rabbi Pappenheim sees it, the term chok ("statute") in reference to commands or rules whose reasons are not widely known also derives from this concept. This is because with such commandments, since the rationale is not readily obvious, the exact rules must be written down in order to preserve them, as they are otherwise likely to be forgotten. As a corollary of this, a “legislator” or “law-giver” is called a mechokek (Gen. 49:10, Deut. 33:21, Jud. 5:9, 5:14, Ps. 60:9), which literally means "digger/engraver" (see Num. 21:18 in that literal sense) because he is the legal innovator who causes the need for writing down a law and engraving them for posterity.
Rabbi Shaul Goldman sees a more abstract connection between chakuk and chok, with the act of “engraving” serving to create a circumference or otherwise border/boundary around the contours of a given letter. This is conceptually similar to the notion of drawing a legal line in governing or otherwise making/enforcing laws. Similarly, he explains the word chok in the sense of “quota” as relating to apportioning specific amounts and drawing boundaries as to the limits of those quantities.
Menachem Ibn Saruk in Machberet Menachem actually uses the word mechokek to define the root KAF-TAV-BET (ketivah). I do not think that this means that Menachem understood all instances of ketivah in the Bible to refer to “engraving,” as the term ketivah is even used to describe writing Torah Scrolls (Deut. 31:9, 31:22, 31:24), which involves writing with ink on top of parchment, not engraving.
Another term used in the Bible for “writing” is pituach or pituchei chotam. For example, this type of writing is mentioned when Hashem commands that the names of the tribes should be “written” on the Shoham stones of the Kohen Gadol’s ephod (Ex. 28:9, 28:11, 28:21, 39:6, 39:14) and when commanding that upon the Kohen Gadol’s tzitz should read the words "Holy for Hashem" (Ex. 28:36, 39:30). As the Talmud (Gittin 20a) makes clear, this form of lettering entails embossing the words on a material in a way that the letters protrude from their background. This is the opposite of etching or engraving, as it is achieved by cutting or pressing down the background material in such a way that the words one is “writing” are left and pop out from the material. This can be viewed as “opening” (poteach) the background to reveal the written letters (see HaKtav VeHaKabbalah to Ex. 28:9 and Yeriot Shlomo choveret 11 yeriah 31). In Modern Hebrew, pituach refers to “development” in a broader sense, including in technological, educational, or photographic contexts.
The triliteral root GIMMEL-LAMMED-PEH does not occur in Biblical Hebrew, but is used in rabbinic sources. For example, the standard term in Targumic Aramaic for pituchei chotam is an inflection of the Aramaic term galif. Likewise, when the Torah (Ex. 20:3) forbids making an engraved image (pesel), the Midrash (Mechilta there) explains that this means one may not make a gelufah.
Rabbi Yehoshua (Jeremy) Steinberg of the Veromemanu Foundation suggests that the Aramaic triliteral root GIMMEL-LAMMED-PEH is related to the Biblical Hebrew root GIMMEL-LAMMED-BET, meaning "barber" (which appears only once in the Bible, in Ezek. 5:1), via the interchangeability of the letters PEH and BET. The way he explains it, a barber cuts a person's hair just like a person engraving a text cuts into the material used for the writing. On the other hand, Rabbi Ernest Klein (no relation) writes in his etymological dictionary of Hebrew that this term is a Herbaization of the Greek glyphein ("hollowing/engraving/carving"), which is the etymon of the English word glyph. (You can tell that the English word comes from Greek because it uses the two-letter ph combination to express the f-sound.) According to linguists, that Greek term is, in turn, derived from the Proto-Indo-European gleubh, which serves as the ultimate etymon for English words like cleave, clove, cleft, clever, and more.
Another term for “writing/noting” in the Bible is r’sham. Its triliteral root REISH-SHIN-MEM appears seven times in the Aramaic parts of Daniel (Dan. 5:24–25; 6:9–14) and only once in the Hebrew parts of Daniel (Dan. 10:21). When discussing the Ten Commandments written on the tablets, Targum (to Ex. 32:16) renders the word charut into Aramaic as reshom/rashum. Likewise, when the Bible forbids making a “tattoo,” ktovet kaka (Lev. 19:28) — which invokes an inflection of ketivah — Targum Onkelos and Targum pseudo-Jonathan use a combination of cognates of r’sham and charut to express that idea in Aramaic. A whole litany of words derives from this root including roshem (“marking/inscribing”), reshimah (“list/roll/catalog/register/record”), mirsham (“prescription”), rishmi (“official/formal”). Some of these words appear in the Mishnah (Shabbat 12:3-4, Beitzah 4:7, Sotah 2:4, Makkot 3:6, Chullin 10:3, Parah 9:1) and elsewhere in rabbinic literature, while some are Modenr Hebrew neologisms. The Arabic words rasama ("drawing/describing") and rashama ("marking/designating") are said to be loanwords from this Biblical Aramaic term.
Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim (in both Yeriot Shlomo and Cheshek Shlomo) traces this term to the biliteral REISH-SHIN, who principal tributary is the word rosh (“head”). With an added MEM as a final letter to create a triliteral root from that biliteral string, it becomes r’sham, which denotes a way of writing only the main points or headlines of a certain discourse (“notes”), rather than transcribing the discussion in full.
