society
communal activist
עסק · עשק · עסקן · עוסק · שדל · שתדלן
Bottom line
An askan is a communal activist: he is busy with the matter himself and gets it done. A shtadlan is an intercessor or lobbyist: he works on the authorities to change their position. The Yiddish macher is simply a doer. Behind them stand esek, dealing with a matter (and in Tanach, fighting over one), and shadal, making an effort or persuading. Do not render both askan and shtadlan as "activist"; the whole distinction is that one acts and the other persuades.
At a glance
| Hebrew | translit | English | what sets it apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| עסק | esek | dealing, matter, business | Tanach: the quarrel over Yitzchak's well (Bereishis 26:20); Mishnah: being occupied with a thing, sometimes to the point of inattention |
| עסקן | askan | communal activist | verifies and does for himself (Rashi to Chullin 57b); gets his hands dirty |
| שדל | shadal | persuade, make an effort | Onkelos' word for pitui (Shemos 22:15); a campaign to sway (Ramban) or any attempt (Targum to Yechezkel 38:4) |
| שתדלן | shtadlan | intercessor, lobbyist | goes to the authorities on the community's behalf; persuasion, not action |
| שדר | shadar | strive, contend | Biblical Aramaic (Daniel 6:15); cognate to shadal by lamed/reish interchange (Ramban's theory) |
Where the authorities disagree
Where the Mishnaic esek comes from. Rabbi Binyamin Mussafia (1606-1675) in Mussaf HaAruch: the rabbinic sense of "busy, preoccupied" derives from Greek, though he supplies no cognate Greek word. Dr. Alexander Kohut (1842-1894) in Aruch HaShaleim presumes that Rabbi Mussafia meant the Greek ἀσχέω (áschéó), which the column glosses, on the strength of Google Translate, as "I don't care", possibly what a man already busy with one thing feels about being asked to do another. Kohut himself rejects that etymology and assumes instead that the Rabbinic Hebrew sense grows out of the root's original Biblical meaning, the sin of ע-ש-ק morphing into a samech in Rabbinic Hebrew, an interchange the column calls not at all unusual. Kohut neglects to explain the semantic shift from esek as "fighting" to esek as "busy dealing"; Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein supplies that bridge himself, and to him the connection is patently obvious, since fighting is marked by the obstinate persistence of parties who refuse to back down, and that same perseverance describes those who toil for the public good. He adds that even in rabbinic literature esek somewhat retains its Biblical sense, since it sometimes refers specifically to a matter that is subject to controversy (Rashi to Shavuos 31a, Bava Metzia 14a). Follow Kohut's second reading with Rabbi Klein's bridge; that is where the column comes out.
What eshtadur is. Menachem Ibn Saruk (Machberes Menachem): a quadriliteral root א-ש-ד-ר, unrelated to shadal. Ramban seems to take the aleph as extraneous to the core root ש-ד-ר, and reads the word as rebellion, contravening (Ezra 4:15, 4:19). Ramban's reading is what allows shadar and shadal to be one family, and Rabbi Ernest Klein accepts it.
How wide shadal is. Ramban (to Bereishis 32:25, Shemos 22:15) points out that shadal has various meanings, and centers one of them on persuasion: Onkelos renders Yaakov's wrestling with the angel of Esav (vaye'aveik) as ishtadel, and Ramban sees that struggle as each side trying to convince the other, using esek itself to define shadal. But the Targum to Yechezkel 38:4 and Rus 2:19 uses shadal for any sort of attempt or effort, whether or not a second party is being worked on, which is the sense of the ordinary hishtadlus, and of hishtadel lihyos ish (Avos 2:5, and see 4:18) and yishtadel adam (Berachos 58a). To Rabbi Klein it seems that "attempting" is the base, with persuading, rebelling, and fighting derived from it, since each is a matter of not backing down. That ordering is the one to follow.
Distinctions
esek (עסק, עשק)
The root ע-ש-ק occurs exactly twice in Tanach, both in one pasuk: Yitzchak named the well Esek because Avimelech's shepherds his'asku, fought, with his own (Bereishis 26:20). In the Mishnah the samech form means being taken up with something, often so taken up that another act is done haphazardly or unknowingly (Shekalim 6:2, Rosh Hashanah 4:8, Sotah 1:9, Kiddushin 4:14, Eduyos 2:5, Kerisos 4:3, Taharos 7:8, Niddah 8:2, Zavim 2:2). From there: osek b'divrei Torah for toil in learning; esek as an affair one must attend to (Maaser Sheini 4:7, Shabbos 23:4); esek gadol for making much of the cutting of the Omer (Menachos 10:3); and the Targumim's esek (Bereishis 12:17, 20:11, 20:18; Yehoshua 14:6) and iska (Koheles 3:1, 3:18, 7:8, 8:2) for any matter needing attention. Esek also means commerce (Avos 4:10), as does the Aramaic iska (Rashi to Berachos 56a, Shabbos 19b, Moed Katan 22a, Kesubos 80b, Kiddushin 30b), and it extends to other transactions including shidduchim (Kesubos 8a, Bava Metzia 68b). In Modern Hebrew an osek is a freelancer and issuk one's occupation.
askan (עסקן)
Rashi (to Chullin 57b): Rabbi Shimon ben Chalafta was called an askan because he would not simply accept what other authorities reported but went out to test it himself. The word therefore carries the extra exertion of doing a thing with one's own hands, which is exactly the modern communal askan.
shadal (שדל) and shtadlan (שתדלן)
Targum Onkelos renders pitui, seducing or convincing, as shadal (Shemos 22:15), and Rashi (there, and to Yoma 35b, Kiddushin 31a) confirms that the Hebrew and Aramaic terms match. The Aramaic term recurs throughout the Gemara for convincing, cajoling, or seducing another into agreeing to what one wants. It seems to derive from the root ש-ד-ל, but no words from that root appear in Tanach itself. Sforno (to Bereishis 26:20) reads the shepherds' his'asku as hishtadlu, that they were trying to talk Yitzchak's men out of the well, which is the bridge from esek to shtadlanus. A shtadlan, then, is one whose work is to work on others. (One homograph to watch: the column notes in an aside that the Italian scholar R. Shmuel Dovid Luzzatto, 1800-1865, whom it calls controversial, is known by his initials as Shadal.)
shadar (שדר)
Biblical Aramaic, where it appears at least once: Daryavesh, distressed at Daniel's sentence, mishtadar until sunset to save him (Daniel 6:15), meaning he tried everything he could (Tosafos to Kiddushin 39b). Pseudo-Rasag there gives an explanation similar to Ramban's and likewise reaches for esek, that the king had to fight to convince his officers to save Daniel; Ramban theorizes that shadal and shadar are cognates, on the ground that lammed and reish often interchange, and notes that some versions of Avos 2:5 read hishtadar for hishtadel. Watch the other sense: in post-Biblical Aramaic shadar means "to send", which has nothing to do with striving (see the malach/shaliach entry).
macher (Yiddish)
The Yiddish macher, from mach, to do, is the cognate of English "make": not a technical word, just a man who goes around getting things done for the good of the community, as the askan and the shtadlan do.
Rendering guidance
- The three in one line: an askan is busy with the community's affairs and deals with whatever arises; a shtadlan intercedes with the authorities to change their minds; a macher just does things.
- Trap: "activist" and "operator" will each swallow both askan and shtadlan. Where a passage sets them side by side, use "activist" for the first and "intercessor" (or "lobbyist", in a modern setting) for the second.
- Hishtadlus in a mussar context is "effort" or "one's own effort", the Targum's wide sense, not "lobbying". Reserve the persuasion sense of shadal for where a second party is being worked on.
- Bereishis 26:20: Esek as a well's name wants a gloss, not a translation. "He called the well Esek, because they had contended with him" keeps the wordplay visible.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Toldos: The Doers and Fighters," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 2 Kislev 5783 (2022-11-26): raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/10720-toldos-the-doers-and-fighters.md. Primary loci cited: Bereishis 26:20 with Sforno, and 12:17, 20:11, 20:18, 32:25; Shemos 22:15 with Targum Onkelos and Rashi; Yehoshua 14:6; Yechezkel 38:4; Rus 2:19; Daniel 6:15 with Tosafos to Kiddushin 39b and pseudo-Rasag; Ezra 4:15, 4:19; Koheles 3:1, 3:18, 7:8, 8:2; Avos 2:5, 4:10, 4:18; Berachos 56a, 58a; Moed Katan 22a; Kesubos 8a and 80b; Bava Metzia 68b; Kiddushin 30b; Chullin 57b with Rashi; Shavuos 31a and Bava Metzia 14a with Rashi; Menachos 10:3 and the Mishnaic esek loci above; Mussaf HaAruch; Machberes Menachem; Aruch HaShaleim. Loci follow the article's numbering, which is the Hebrew one (Bereishis 32:25, Shemos 22:15, Daniel 6:15); in English versification these are Bereishis 32:24, Shemos 22:16 and Daniel 6:14. The article opens with a question put to his Twitter followers by Rabbi David Bashevkin of the OU, what the difference is between a shtadlan and an askan, and the closing paragraph is its answer, which the Bottom line above reproduces. Both the Greek etymology and its rejection are Dr. Alexander Kohut's in Aruch HaShaleim, reported here as the column reports them; the derivation from Biblical ע-ש-ק is likewise Kohut's, while Rabbi Klein's own contribution is the semantic bridge and the Rashi support.