beauty

Distinctions

hod (הוד)

Root ה-ו-ד. Vilna Gaon: self-beauty, as the sun's light expresses the sun's own essence; of a person, his inner good, his morality, which is then reflected in his face. Moshe's karnei hod (Rashi to Shemos 34:34) is inner goodness shining through physically. Malbim: inner beauty, the beauty of character (humble, merciful, just), which the eye cannot see and only the intellect beholds; "give of your hod to him" (Bamidbar 27:20) is no physical gift but the unseeable spiritual beauty Moshe passed to Yehoshua. Rabbi Simcha Maimon: hence "the face of Moshe is like the sun, the face of Yehoshua like the moon" (Bava Basra 75a), Yehoshua's hod being received, as the moon's is. The same root gives hodaah, admission and thanksgiving: one recognizes what he knows deep down to be true and lets it come to the front by saying it aloud, so again hod is what lies beneath. Sifrei (Devarim 33:17): hod is the quality of kingship, the full sovereignty, possibly (the column's suggestion) because a king assumes inherent powers; Shlomo receives hod malchus (Divrei HaYamim I 29:25). Of Hashem, Malbim: His hod is hidden, deeper than we can perceive; Rav Hirsch: His hod is His essence.

hadar (הדר) and adar (אדר)

Root ה-ד-ר. Vilna Gaon: reflected beauty, the moon's light whose true source is the sun; hadras panim is the visible beauty of the face. Rabbi Moshe Shapiro: Aramaic hadar means "to return", apt for the moon, which sends back what it receives. Rabbi Mecklenburg citing Shadal: kin to the Aramaic for going backwards, since one who beholds a thing in its full glory recoils in awe. Malbim: outward beauty; the esrog tree is eitz hadar because its fruit is beautiful to the eye; of Hashem, His hadar is how He interacts with creation and reveals Himself; Rav Hirsch: His role in the world. Moshe's blessing to Yosef, "like a firstborn ox, hadar is his" (Devarim 33:17), uses hadar and not hod: Yehoshua of Efrayim would lead but with only the outer trappings of kingship, so Moshe is called a king (Zevachim 102a) and Yehoshua never is. Rabbi Simcha Maimon: for the same reason the Chashmonaim, kohanim and not of royal stock, have hadar malchus (Daniel 11:20), kingship true in practice and not in essence, against Shlomo's hod malchus. Yosef mirrors Yaakov (Bereishis 37:2 and Rashi) yet is not an Av, being only a reflection of that potential: hadar, not hod; and this, the column says, is the connection the Kabbalists allude to between the month of Adar, when Moshe died and Yehoshua took over, and the tribe of Yosef. Sefer HaKushyos (the thirteenth-century school of Chassidei Ashkenaz): Adar is named because in it the hadar of the trees shows itself, spring being at hand, or because in it Moshe, the glory of Yisrael, was born. Tanach in several places speaks of Hashem as "wearing" hod and hadar (Tehillim 104:1; Iyov 40:10; Mishlei 31:25). So too the Midrash: when Yisrael were exiled to Bavel they still had their clothes until they reached Adullam, where the gentiles of that city came out and stripped them, leaving them bare and shamed, and the Midrash finds the allusion in "gone from the daughter of Tzion is all her hadar" (Eichah 1:6), hadar there meaning clothing. There is a fundamental connection, the column concludes, between glory and clothing, which it defers to a later essay.

The wider cluster

Rabbi Shlomo of Urbino (Ohel Moed) lists ten words for beauty: yofi, hod, hadar, adar, naeh (naaveh), ziv, ziz, tzvi, shefer (shapir), tov. This entry settles only hod and hadar; shefer and tov are in the tov / noam / shapir entry, tzvi in the ratzon entry. Ziv, radiance, is the old name of Iyar.

Rendering guidance

• hod: "splendor" as the default, "majesty" where kingship is in view (Sifrei, hod malchus: "royal majesty"). Karnei hod: "rays of splendor".
• hadar: "glory"; "beauty" where the sense is plainly physical (eitz hadar, hadras panim: "a glorious countenance" or "beauty of face"). Hadar malchus: "royal glory".
• Together, הוד והדר (Tehillim 104:1 and the liturgy): "splendor and glory". Do not invert, and do not collapse to "glory and majesty" unless hod has been "majesty" throughout the passage.
• Trap: "glory" (and "majesty") will happily take both words. Assign before drafting: hod is the inner, owned light; hadar is the outer, reflected light. That inner/outer axis is shared by the Gaon, Malbim and Rav Hirsch, so it is safe to lean on.
• Second trap: kavod is also commonly "glory" (kevod Hashem). In a passage with kavod and hadar both present, give kavod "honor" and keep "glory" for hadar; see the kavod / yakar entry.
• Hodaah: "acknowledgment" or "thanksgiving" by context; the etymology the column gives supports "acknowledgment" as the root sense.

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "The Beauty of Adar," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 2 Adar II 5778 (2018-02-17): raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/7644-the-beauty-of-adar.md. Primary loci the article cites: Sefer HaKushyos on the name Adar; Rabbi Shlomo of Urbino, Ohel Moed, the ten words for beauty; the Vilna Gaon's sun/moon analogy; Rashi to Shemos 34:34; Bamidbar 27:20 with Malbim; Bava Basra 75a with Rabbi Simcha Maimon; Sifrei to Devarim 33:17; Zevachim 102a; Divrei HaYamim I 29:25; Daniel 11:20; Bereishis 37:2 with Rashi; Tehillim 104:1; Iyov 40:10; Mishlei 31:25; Eichah 1:6 with the Midrash on the exiles stripped at Adullam; Rav Hirsch on Hashem's hod and hadar; the Babylonian month-name Addaru. The Rendering guidance above is this guide's own; the Vilna Gaon's sun and moon, Rabbi Moshe Shapiro's Aramaic hadar, and Rabbi Mecklenburg citing Shadal are given as the column gives them.