In Part I of this mini-series, we discussed the rhyming words chil, zachil, and dachil all of which refer to the state of being scared and the physical effects of such a feeling. In this essay, we will treat the words ra’adah, ziyah, and retet, which are also related to that theme. In our upcoming final installment, we will discuss more Hebrew terms that refer to such fear tremors, including chareid, rogez, ra’ash, and ga’ash.
The Mishnah (Taanit 4:8) states that the greatest days for the Jewish People are Yom Kippur and the Fifteenth of Av. The Talmud (Taanit 30b, Bava Batra 121a) explains that Yom Kippur is such a happy day because not only is it a day of forgiveness and atonement, but it is also the day that the Jewish People received the second pair of Tablets at Mount Sinai. Indeed, in one of the more somber passages in Psalms, the Psalmist admonishes one to “Serve Hashem in fear, and rejoice in ra’adah [trembling]” (Ps. 2:11). In explicating this passage, the Talmud (Yoma 4b) explains that the “rejoicing” here refers to the reception of the Tablets at Mount Sinai, while the term ra’adah in that verse refers to the fact that the Torah was given “with dread, with fear, with retet, and with ziyah.” The last two terms are seemingly synonymous with ra’adah, as they also refer to the concept of “trembling” or “shuddering” in fear of something scary. In this installment, we explore the etymologies of these three additional synonyms for “shaking in fear” and attempt to better understand what, if anything, is the difference between them.
The term ra’adah and its various inflections are all derivatives of the triliteral root REISH-AYIN-DALET, and appear a total of nine times throughout the Bible. One famous example is when the Song of the Sea mentions that ra’ad (“fearful shaking”) had taken hold of the strongmen of Moab (Ex. 15:15). Another famous example is in Psalms 104, which depicts Hashem’s control over all facets of nature, stating among other things: “He gazes towards the land and she [the land] quivers (vatirad) / He touches the mountains, and they smoke up” (Ps. 104:32).
Rabbi Shlomo Aharon Wertheimer asserts that ra’adah primarily refers to a physical shaking which is internally felt in one’s body, but not discernably visible on the outside. As support for this assertion, he cites the verse wherein Daniel describes his apocalyptic encounter with an angel, by saying, “And I stood shaking [marid]” (Dan. 10:11). Rabbi Wertheimer contrasts this with the term chil (discussed in Part 1), which he claims refers to physical tremors that can be seen by the onlooker (except for in cases like Ps. 55:5, wherein the chil in question was explicitly said to take place in one’s heart).
Nonetheless, Malbim offers a different explanation, arguing that ra’adah refers to the act of “quaking” in fear specifically in a situation where a person is so full of inner fear that said fear becomes manifest outwardly in the form of physical tremors. In Modern Hebrew, the term re’idat adamah (literally, “quivering of the land”) refers to what we call in English an “earthquake.”
As mentioned above, the Talmud states that the Torah was given with ziyah — which also refers to “shaking in fear.” Interestingly, many people misquote the Talmud as saying that the Torah was given with zeiyah, which means “sweat.” Despite that obvious error, there is nonetheless an etymological connection between the words ziyah and zeiyah. This is because Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim traces both of those words to the two-letter root ZAYIN-AYIN, whose core meaning he sees as relating to “movement triggered by anxiety.”
One of the basic words derived from that root is the verb za, which appears in the Book of Esther. It says about Mordechai that even though Haman had decreed that everyone must bow down to him, “he [Mordechai] did not rise or za (move) from him [Haman]” (Est. 5:9). In this context, the word za means that even as he passed by Haman, Mordechai still maintained his cool composure and he remained completely unaffected and unmoved — despite being in front of someone important like Haman, whose presence should have instilled in Mordechai fear or reverence, especially if Mordechai was illegally refraining from bowing to him. In this case, the anxiety or disturbance denoted by za is something that comes from an outside source, but Mordechai was left unshaken by his encounter with such an external adversary.
This is similar to the case of the giving of the Torah, where ziyah in the sense of “trembling” or “agitation” accompanied that magnificent event. Nonetheless, it should be stated that there are at least two ways of understanding the nature of this ziyah that was present during the Revelation at Mount Sinai. Firstly, the Torah describes that when Hashem revealed Himself to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai, there were dramatic natural phenomena: “Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because Hashem had come down upon it in fire; its smoke rose like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled [vayecherad] very much” (Ex. 19:18). Targum Onkelos translates the word vayecherad in that verse as ziyah, so perhaps ziyah mentioned by the rabbis refers to this trembling of the mountain.
Alternatively, ziyah refers to the emotional agitation/trembling felt by the Jewish People themselves, as the Revelation at Sinai was a moment of extreme awe, and the people were deeply shaken by the experience: “And it was on the third day, when it was morning, and there were sounds and lightning, and a heavy cloud on the mountain, and the very strong sound of a shofar — and the entire nation that was in the camp trembled [vayecherad]” (Ex. 19:16). Targum Onkelos here too translates the word vayecherad in that verse as ziyah. If so, the ziyah mentioned in the Talmud might actually refer to the Jewish nation’s overwhelming awe of being in Hashem’s direct Presence, and not to the mountain itself shaking. [We will discuss the word chareid and some of its various forms in the next installment of this essay.]
There is a possible proof-text for this second explanation, as the Torah states: “And the entire nation saw the sounds [thunder] and torches [lightning], the sound of the horn, and the mountain in smoke; and the nation saw and they stirred [tenuah], and they stood from a distance” (Ex. 20:15). The Midrash (Mechilta D’Rabbi Yishmael BaChodesh §9) explains that “and they stirred” refers to ziyah, thus possibly supporting our second approach. Baal HaTurim (to Ex. 20:15) sees this “shaking” as an allusion to the fact that when Jews study Torah, they typically gyrate and shake around.
As mentioned above, Rabbi Pappenheim argues that the word zeiyah derives from the same core root. That word famously appears in the Bible when Hashem curses Adam after eating from the Tree of Knowledge, by saying “by the zeiyah (sweat) of your brow shall you consume bread” (Gen. 3:19). When the body is at rest, the skin pores remain closed, but when the body heats up due to physical activity or emotional tension, the pores open up, causing moisture to exude. In this way, zeiyah refers to the biological reaction of the body, whereby sweat emerges due to inner heat caused by physical exertion, anger, or fear. Sweat is thus linked to internal agitation, which contrasts nicely with za/ziyah that usually refer to the effects of an external agitation.
Looking at the root ZAYIN-AYIN more broadly, Rabbi Pappenheim compares the type of “shuddering” denoted by this root to the trembling of a harp string, which is held tightly in place by the instrument, yet still manages to move. While this movement might cause some displacement, it is ever so slight that it can only be perceived by touch and not by sight. In this way, ZAYIN-AYIN likewise denotes a “quivering movement” that is so subtle that it cannot be seen by the eye, but if one felt the subject in question, one’s tactile senses would be able to sense it vibrating and shaking in its boots.
One of the curses that the Torah says will befall the Jewish People should they fail to keep the Torah is that they will be a “za’avah for all the kingdoms of the earth” (Deut. 28:25). Unfortunately, this prophecy came to fruition, as Jeremiah says, on account of the Kingdom of Judah’s sins under the reign of King Hezekiah’s son Manasseh (Jer. 15:4, see also Jer. 24:9, 29:18, 34:17, Ezek. 23:46, II Chron. 29:8 all of which use the word za’avah in this context). Targum Onkelos (to Deut. 28:26) translates the word za’avah as ziyah, which is probably what led Rashi (there) to write that za’avah means “fear” and “shaking in fear.” Rashi further explains that za’avah refers to the idea that when other peoples will hear about whatever will affect those stricken with za’avah, those who hear will become so scared that they hope that such punishments do not happen to themselves. By the way, Rashi (Lev. 20:18, I Sam. 20:30, Jer. 15:4) explicitly writes that the vocalized VAV in the word za’avah is not part of its core root, which consists of just ZAYIN-AYIN.
In Mishnaic Hebrew (Berachot 54a), the term zava’ah refers to an “earthquake,” which is understood as the trembling or agitation of the Earth (in this case due to internal pressure caused by interactions between the different tectonic plates, although Rabbi Pappenheim gives an alternate explanation based on the science of his times that understood that air and gases trapped underground cause earthquakes). Rabbi Pappenheim sees this term as another declension of the biliteral root ZAYIN-AYIN.
Additionally, Rabbi Pappenheim understands that two terms for “anger” are also derived from the root ZAYIN-AYIN, za’am (when a final MEM is added) and za’af (when combined with the biliteral root ALEPH-PEH, “face” in reference to the shaking or movement of the face, reflecting agitation or anger).
Interestingly, the Torah singles out the prohibition of idolatry in that when a person mistakenly commits that sin, he must offer a special sin-offering consisting of a one-year old she-goat (eiz). Rabbi Mordechai Kohen of Safed (1523–1598) writes in Siftei Kohen (to Num. 15:27) that the significance of this is that when a person mistakenly violates that particular sin, his bringing an eiz (spelled AYIN-ZAYIN) should “shake” (spelled ZAYIN-AYIN) him up and cause him to deeply think about his life choices that led to him mistakenly violating that serious prohibition. [Although in Rabbinic Hebrew something described as mizazea refers to something “scary” which can cause ziyah, Modern Hebrew has slightly redefined that adjective as referring to something “heartrending” or an otherwise especially “saddening,” “upsetting,” or “disturbing” occurrence.]
When the Talmud refers to the Torah being given at Mount Sinai with retet, that word is spelled with a double TAV. However, in Biblical Hebrew, there are two ways of spelling the word retet, one with a double TAV and one with a double TET. Each of those two terms appears only once in the Bible: The word retet with a TAV appears in the prophet Hosea’s denunciation of the idolatry committed by the Kingdom of Israel. In that context, Hosea talks about how Ephraim (a synecdoche that refers to the Kingdom of Israel as a whole) had originally once been considered an important part of the Jewish People at large, but once they dabbled in Baal worship, they were no longer as prominent. The way this idea is metaphorically expressed, Hosea says: “When Ephraim spoke, [everybody else] would retet (“shake in fear”) … and he became guilty with the Baal, and he died” (Hos. 13:1). The word retet with a TET appears when the prophet Jeremiah sees that “Damascus [a synecdoche for the Kingdom of Aram] has become weakened… and retet has taken hold of her, pain and pangs have gripped her like a woman in birth” (Jer. 49:24).
When it comes to retet with a TAV, Radak and Ibn Janach in their respective Sefer HaShorashim define the word as ra’adah, while Menachem Ibn Saruk in Machberet Menachem actually uses the words chil and retet (with a TET). All three of those lexicographers trace retet to the triliteral root REISH-TAV-TAV. Radak and Ibn Janach’s definition seemingly derives directly from Targum, wherein retet (with a TAV) is the Aramaic equivalent to the Hebrew ra’adah. For example, when the Song of the Sea states that ra’ad had taken hold of the strongmen of Moab (Ex. 15:15), Targum Onkelos translates ra’ad into Aramaic as reteta (using a double TAV).
When it comes to retet with a TET, Ibn Saruk (who traces it to the biliteral REISH-TET) defines it as chil and retet (with a TAV), while Radak (who traces it to the triliteral REISH-TET-TET) defines it as just retet (with a TAV). As somewhat of an outlier, Ibn Janach defines retet with a TET as referring to “pain in the joints,” and not to “trembling” or “shaking.” Rabbi Pappenheim (who traces this term to the biliteral REISH-TET, like Ibn Saruk) synthesizes these two approaches by explaining that retet with a TET refers to a disease whereby one’s nerves and muscles suddenly flex/relax multiple times consecutively, which causes epileptic-like convulsions (perhaps he is referring to something akin to Parkinson’s Disease), or to a disease that causes contractions in one’s stomach that resemble the contractions of a woman giving birth.
It makes sense to argue that retet (spelled with a double TAV) and its homonym retet (spelled with a double TET) are actually the same word due to the interchangeability of the letters TAV and TET. This point has already been made by rabbinic philologists like Rabbi Avraham Bedersi (in Chotam Tochnit), Rabbi Yosef Kimchi (in Sefer HaGalui), Rabbi Shlomo Ibn Parchon (in Machberet He’Aruch), and others.
The term retet (with a TAV) appears in the Talmud both in the sense of “shaking” without any connotation of fear, and in the sense of “fear” without any connotation of shaking. For example, the Talmud (Chullin 24a-24b) states that a Kohen becomes disqualified from serving in the Holy Temple once he has become “too old,” which is defined as the age at which his hands and feet start “shaking” (yirtat) because he has grown too weak to control the relevant muscles. In this case, retet refers to physically “shaking” without connoting anything related to “fear.” In other cases, the halachic concept of mirtat refers to a person being too “scared” to jeopardize his believability or professional standing — even if he is not physically “shaking in fear” (for examples, see Avodah Zarah 32b, 40b, 61b). In Modern Hebrew, the “vibrating” mode on a cellphone is called retet or retitah.
When comparing the word retet to some of its ostensible synonyms, Rabbi Shlomo Aharon Wertheimer argues that retet represents a lighter form of “shaking/quaking” than do ra’adah and chil.
To be continued…n
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein is an author and freelance researcher based in Beitar Illit. He studied in Yeshiva Gedolah of Los Angeles, the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem, and Beth Medrash Govoha of America in Lakewood, and received semichah from leading rabbis. He also holds an MA in Jewish Education from Middlesex University/London School of Jewish Studies. Rabbi Klein authored two popular books that were published by Mosaica Press, as well as countless scholarly articles published in various venues. His articles on Hebrew synonyms are commissioned by Yeshivas Ohr Somayach in Jerusalem and have appeared on their website since 2016.
