Mishpatim: Hidden Things
While the Torah makes it clear that a person who lights a fire has personal liability for anything that that fire might end up consuming (Ex. 22:5), the rabbis (Mechilta there and Bava Kamma 60a–62a) adds that if the fire burnt up something that was “concealed” (i.e., not readily visible to the one kindling the flame), then one’s liability is more limited. The Hebrew word that the rabbis used in reference to something “hidden” is tamun. Other words that mean essentially the same thing in Hebrew include safun, tzafun, ganuz, mustar, and ne'elam. In this essay, we look at those various Hebrew words for “hidden” things and discuss whether or not these words are truly synonymous. In doing so, we trace these words to their etymological roots and highlight some of their close linguistic relatives.
The word tamun is an inflection of the Biblical Hebrew TET-MEM-NUN, which refers to “hiding/concealing.” In at least eight of the thirty-one instances of this root in the Bible, it refers to laying a “hidden” trap that is unbeknownst to one’s victim (Jer. 18:22, Ps. 9:16, 31:5, 35:7–8, 64:6, 140:6, 142:4). In some instances, this root is used when referring to “burying” (i.e., concealing something in dirt or sand), like when Jacob “buried” idolatrous contraband from Shechem (Gen. 35:4), when Moses “buried” the Egyptian man that he had killed (Ex. 2:12), or when the two spies dispatched by Joshua “buried” themselves in flax (Josh. 2:6). The term hatmanah in Mishnaic Hebrew refers to “embedding” food within a heat source or insulator to keep it warm (see Shabbat 2:7, 4:1–2, Beitzah 2:6, and Eduyot 3:10). Given this view of how declensions of TET-MEM-NUN are used in Hebrew, it seems that tamun in reference to something “hidden” refers simply to anything which is placed within another material that covers it and conceals it from view.
Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim traces tamun to the biliteral root TET-MEM, whose core meaning he explains as “blocking/impeding.” In Rabbi Pappenheim’s estimation, the main derivative of that two-letter root includes a radical ALEPH to form the word tumah (“impurity”). That term refers specifically to a certain legal “blockage” that stops or forbids a person from taking certain courses of action. In other words, the main ramification of ritual impurity from the Torah’s perspective pertains to what is permitted and what is forbidden. For that reason, eating forbidden foods or engaging in forbidden fornications are branded forms of tumah because they are actions from which one is legally enjoined. Likewise, a state of “ritual impurity” — no matter how it came about — serves to prohibit a person from entering the Temple and eating holy foodstuff. Basically, an impure person is “blocked” from doing things that pure people are open to doing. In this way, Rabbi Pappenheim even writes that the Biblical Hebrew word tameh (“impure”) is essentially synonymous with the Mishnaic Hebrew word assur (“forbidden”).
The word tamun in the sense of “hiding” relates to this root because when something is hidden, people are “blocked” from being able to reach it or otherwise access it. Other words that Rabbi Pappenheim sees as related to this two-letter root include the Biblical Hebrew atum (“closed/sealed”) and the Mishnaic Hebrew tumtum (that is, a person of ambiguous gender whose genitals are “hidden”). Rabbi Pappenheim also writes that tamun differs from its apparent synonyms in that it usually implies “hiding” something in the ground, which the others words do not.
Another term used in Biblical Hebrew in reference to something “hidden” in safun. Variants of that word can be spelled with an SAMECH (Deut. 33:21, I Kgs. 7:3, 6:9) or a SIN (Deut. 33:19), as Rashi (to Deut. 33:19) has already noted that the two spellings are interchangeable. Rabbi Yosef Kimchi (in Sefer Zikaron) explains that this is due to the interchangeability of the letters SAMECH and SIN. Rabbi Kimchi (there) adds that tzafun is also related to safun via the interchangeability of the letter TZADI with SAMECH/SIN. Cognates of tzafun comes up more than thirty times in the Bible, including when Moses’ mother “hid” him for three months before she had to put him in a basket and send him down the Nile River (Ex. 2:2). In fact, Menachem Ibn Saruk in Machberet Menachem actually uses the word tzafun to define safun.
On the other hand, Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim offers two slightly-different etymological justifications for these two terms: He traces safun to the biliteral root SAMECH-PEH (“edge/end”), seemingly explaining that when something is “hidden,” what is usually its external, outer side is obscured by something that hides its presence, so that the item in question cannot be seen at all. In contrast, he traces tzafun to the biliteral root TZADI-PEH (“floating/covering”) which more directly refers to “hiding” something by embedding it within something else that covers it. Rabbi Pappenheim further explains that TZADI-PEH-NUN denotes “hiding” something specifically for the purpose of preserving and saving it. On the other hand, he explains that safun implies hiding something in an organized and deliberate basis (while the other words can imply “hiding” something in a hasty or ad hoc context).
Interestingly, Shadal (to Lev. 11:5) says writes that the etymology of the Hebrew word shafan (“rabbit”) relates to the term tzafun because rabbits dig holes and “hide” in them. As an aside, the given name Shafan appears thirty times in the Bible and was borne by a scribe in Josaiah’s court. [The word tzaphon (“north”) also seems to derive from the same root as tzafun. For more about that word, see “Looking Four Directions” (Dec. 2016). There are also given names like Tzifyon/Tzfon (son of Gad, see Gen. 46:16, Num. 26:15) and Zephaniah/Zephanyahu (borne by four different people) in the Bible. For a discussion of how sefinah (“boat”)might related to safun, see my earlier essay, “Boats, Ships, and Nautical Rhapsody” (Jan. 2021).]
The term ganuz (“hidden”) is an inflection of the Biblical Hebrew ginzei (Ezek. 27:24, Est. 3:9, 4:7) or ganzach (I Chron. 28:11), and the Biblical Aramaic ginzaya (Ezra 5:17, 6:1, 7:20). All of those words refer to royal “storehouses,” where the king might “hide” some of his most treasured items. Aramaic inflections of this term also appear in Targum when rendering various Biblical Hebrew words that refer to “storage” like otzar (Isa. 39:6), tzrurah (I Sam. 25:29), and pikadon (Gen. 41:36).
In Mishnaic Hebrew, the root GIMMEL-NUN-ZAYIN not only refers to a noun for “storage/treasure,” but is also used in the verb form to refer to the act of "hiding" something. Thus, when Hezekiah was said to "hide" the Book of Remedies (Pesachim 4:9), the Hasmonean were said to "hide" the stones of the altar that the gentiles defiled (Middot 1:6), and the Ark of the covenant was said to have been hidden "hidden" (Shekalim 6:1-2), verb forms of ganaz are used.
The term genizah is also used in the Mishnah (Shabbat 9:6, 16:1, Sanhedrin 10:6) in reference to an honorable way of disposing of used or ruined holy writings, like burying them. In fact, the Arabic janaz means to “bury” and is a cognate of this Hebrew/Aramaic word. The Mishnaic Hebrew usage lends itself to the phrase Cairo Genizah, which refers to a cache of documents that were disposed of in a synagogue in Old Cairo during the Medieval period. [In the vernacular, a genizah is sometimes called sheimos (literally, “names”) because by the letter of the law, only documents that contain written instances of Hashem’s name require burial.]
The Talmud (Bava Batra 11a) talks about King Munbaz who freely gave from his royal treasury to the poor during a famine. When questioned as to why he wasted the treasures that his forefathers had worked so hard to accrue, he explained that he was racking up merits to prepare himself for the World to Come, "They stored [ganzu] for This World, but I am storing for The World to Come."
In light of the “storage” meaning of ganuz, Rabbi Yehoshua (Jeremy) Steinberg of the Veromemanu Foundation suggests a link between the root GIMMEL-NUN-ZAYIN and the root KAF-NUN-SAMECH (which usually means “enter,” but can sometimes referred to things being “stored” or otherwise “in-gathered,” as in the word kanus). Rabbi Ernest Klein writes that ganuz and ganzach are related to the Persian ganza/ganj ("treasure"). In Modern Hebrew, a ganaz refers to an "archivist" or the "curator/keeper" of a treasured collection. [There is a famous auction house called Genazym, which specializes in Jewish antiques.]
Another familiar term that is related to ganuz is gizbar, usually translated as “treasurer.” This term appears twice in the Bible (Ezra 1:8, 7:21) and many times in the Mishnah (Peah 1:6, 2:8, 4:8, Bikkurim 3:3, Shekalim 2:1, 5:2, 5:6, Challah 3:3-4, Menachot 8:2, 8:6, Meilah 3:8). In the Mishnah, this term refers specifically to a representative of hekdesh (i.e., consecrated property owned by the Holy Temple). Scholars have explained that gizbar is actually loanword from the Old Persian ganzabara/ginzbara, that changed its form slightly as the NUN assimilated with the ZAYIN.
Professor Edward Yechezkel Kutscher explains that the -bar element of gizbar is cognate with the German bahre and the English bear, as a gizbar is one who “bears/carries” the responsibility of the treasury. If you find this connection bizarre, you should be reminded that Old Persian, German, and English are all considered by linguists to be Indo-European languages that share a theoretical linguistic ancestor known as Proto-Indo-European (PIE).
Likewise, the Biblical Aramaic term gidabar (Dan. 3:2–3) is an Aramaicized form of gizbar — with the Hebrew ZAYIN morphing into an Aramaic DALET (as often happens when switching between those two languages). Apparently, gizbar/gidabar is also the ultimate etymon of the given names Jasper, Caspar, and Gaspar.
The Rabbinic Hebrew word mistorin ("mystery") has a fascinating etymology. The word mistorin appears several times in Midrashic literature: For example, the Midrash (Midrash Shmuel §28:1) states that because Rachel chose silence as her modus operandi (in order to not embarrass her sister Leah), Rachel’s descendants became “masters of mistorin,” which refers to the hidden, esoteric parts of the Torah. Another Midrash (Midrash Shocher Tov to Ps. 114, Bamidbar Rabbah §20:21) states that one of reasons the Jews merited to be redeemed from Egypt was that "they did not reveal their mistorin." A third Midrash (Tanchuma Lech Lecha §19) states that Hashem only revealed the mistorin behind the commandment of circumcision to Abraham. An additional Midrash (Tanchuma Vayera §5) states that the Mishnah (and the rest of the Oral Torah) comprises Hashem's mistorin and therefore He did not want it to be written down (because then it would be revealed to everyone, just like the Written Torah was translated into Greek).
The word mistorin resembles in both sound and meaning a word derived from a Hebrew root, but its origin actually lies in a Greek term. The Hebrew root SAMECH-TAV-REISH appears over one-hundred times in the Bible and means "hiding/concealing.” One inflection of that root is the word mistar (wherein the initial MEM is obviously radical to the etymological stem), which refers to a “hidden/protected” place. Examples include the verses: "And there shall be a booth for shade by day from the heat, and for a refuge and a shelter [mistor] from storm and rain" (Isa. 4:6), and “he is a lurking bear for me, a lion in the hidden [mistar] places” (Lam 3:10). On the other hand, the English word mystery comes from the Greek word mysterion, which referred to “secret” ritual ceremonies that were attended only by certain initiates. Such initiates were called mystes in Greek, which is a word that ultimately begat the English word mystical and mysticism.
Depending on which Midrashic work one is consulting and which version of that book is being used, the word mistorin is sometimes spelled with a TET and sometimes spelled with a TAV. Hillel Halkin (writing under the penname Philologos in the Forward, Aug. 19, 2012) surmises that the TET spelling was the original spelling and reflected the word mistorin as a Greek loanword. However, eventually scribes forget about the Greek etymology of this word and began to spell it with a TAV to connect it to the Hebrew root SAMECH-TAV-REISH, as though it were a native Hebrew word and inflection of that root. Halkin suggests that this confusion may have happened when Arabic replaced Greek as the main language of Jews in the Near East (in Geonic times), which led some Jews to no longer recognize the Greek origin of this word and therefore assume its relationship with the Hebrew SAMECH-TAV-REISH.
Either way, Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim harnesses various Biblical proof-texts to show that the triliteral root SAMECH-TAV-REISH refers to something “hidden” both in the sense of being hidden from people knowing about it (i.e., a “secret,” seter) or being hidden from the senses (i.e., something whose view is physically obscured or obstructed in a way that it cannot be seen, hastarah). He writes that it is in the latter sense that this root was redefined in Rabbinic Hebrew to refer to the act of “destroying,” as when one destroys something, it can no longer be seen or perceived. [In popular parlance, a stirah refers to a “contradiction.” Perhaps this is because when two things stand in contradistinction or opposition to each other, the resolution is at first “hidden” from the one who points out their incongruency. Or perhaps each contradictory statement “blocks/hides” the veracity of the other statement. Or perhaps the existence of a contradictory statement can be viewed as “destroying” the force of the original statement.]
On the other hand, Rabbi Pappenheim writes that the word ne’elam (“hidden”) refers specifically to something “hidden” in the intellectual sense. He relates it to the biliteral root AYIN-LAMMED (“above” or “atop,” like in the word al) because something that is ne’elam lies “above” one’s range of intellectual perception, which is why it is hidden from him.
Rabbi Yehuda Leib Shapira-Frankfurter, sometimes known as Ralash, writes in HaRechasim LaVikah (as cited in HaKtav VeHaKabbalah to Gen. 49:6) that the while sod denotes a “secret” or “hidden matter” that people speak about quietly, ta’alumah (a cognate of ne’elam)or seter refer to things that are so hidden that only one person knows about them and to which nobody else is privy. [For more about Hebrew synonyms for “secret,” see my earlier essay “Revealing the Secret” (Oct. 2022). Others words for "hidden" things include pele/nifla, nichbeh/mitchabeh, tzanua, camun, and more, but we cannot treat all of these words in thi
