bed

Distinctions

mitah (מטה)

The common word. The root is disputed: Menachem ibn Saruk gives mem-tes; Radak (Sefer HaShorashim) gives mem-tes-tes or נ-ט-ה; Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim (Yerios Shlomo, Cheishek Shlomo) gives tes-hei; Rabbi Aharon Marcus suggests the single letter tes, which he reads as movement to the side, gathering under it stiyah (deviation), natah (to incline), titah (turn aside), tata (broom), tach (plastering), taah (erred), and more. Every one of these yields the same sense: to incline or stretch out, which is what a man does with his body to lie down. The column notes the same phenomenon in Greek, where kline, a bed, derives from klino, to incline, slant or bend, and that this Greek root underlies the English recline, incline, climax, climate and clinic. Malbim, in one place: mitah is any piece of furniture one lies or reclines on, a sofa, couch or loveseat included, while eres is specifically what one sleeps on. Rabbi Shlomo Aharon Wertheimer suggests that mitah is the wooden-framed bed. In Rabbinic usage mitah can also mean a bier or coffin.

eres (ערש / ערס)

Nine appearances in Tanach, the famous one being Og's iron eres at Devarim 3:11. In many instances the Targumim render both Hebrew words by the cognate arsa, which would suggest that they mean the same thing, and that mitah is primarily Hebrew while eres is an Aramaic word borrowed into Hebrew; the Hebrew spells it with a sin and the Aramaic with a samech, letters that often interchange. Readings:

• Rashbam (to Devarim 3:11): Og's eres was his crib. The point of its being iron is that Og as an infant was already so strong that an ordinary crib would have broken, and an infant, less aware of his own movements, needs the sturdier bed more than a grown man does. Modern Hebrew follows this, eres a cradle and arisah a crib.
• Rabbi Nosson of Rome (Sefer HeAruch): the root ע-ר-ש/ע-ר-ס, from which eres is ostensibly derived, is an expression of mixture. Building on that, other commentators explain that arisah, dough (Bamidbar 15:21), the biblical equivalent of the Mishnaic isah, belongs to the same root, dough being ingredients kneaded together. Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg and Rav Hirsch point out that in some sources arisah is conjugated as a verb (see Berachos 37b), which implies the root is primarily an act of mixing or mutual connection; on that basis they explain an eres as a bed whose sides are fastened to each other by strips or bars running through the middle, or built of woven or layered planks, so that the bed itself shows the marks of mixing and mutual connection.
• Rabbi Shlomo Aharon Wertheimer suggests the difference is material, not structure or configuration. Eres is the iron- or metal-framed bed, mitah the wooden one.
• Malbim: mitah is generic, eres is a custom-fitted bed, whether for the sick (Tehillim 41:4), for a child (Og's case), or for a pampered woman (Mishlei 7:16). Talmudic Aramaic arsa can also mean a coffin (Kesubos 103a), which sits well with his reading, though mitah too is used that way.

the mussar and kabbalistic readings

Rabbi Aviad Sar-Shalom Basilea (Emunas Chachamim) posits that mitah is typically the word for the bed of husband and wife, and so stands for the right balance of influencer and receiver, the man the influencing and initiating force, the woman the receiving and building one; it is therefore the word thematically evocative of tzaddikim, who keep that balance by recognizing their own receptive role before Hashem. Eres, by contrast, connotes the bed of the wicked, a connotation seen best in its use for the wicked Og. Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Kaidanover (Kav HaYashar) likewise associates eres and arisah with the forces of evil, connecting eres with an ayin to its homophone eres with an aleph, poison, an allusion to the poisonous snake in Gan Eden that first brought sin into the world by enticing Chavah. In short, on these readings mitah is the bed of the righteous and eres the bed of the wicked.

The Torah's use of arisah for the dough of challah (Bamidbar 15:21) has been read by some as a deliberate echo of eres: as one consecrates his dough and sets it aside for the Kohen, so must a man consecrate his bed, either by giving himself to Hashem's service the moment he wakes, before he rises, or by keeping what is done in that bed holy and pure.

Rendering guidance

• מטה: "bed," or "couch" where the source is Malbim's broader sense.
• ערש: "bed" in plain prose; "bedstead" where the frame is the point (Og's iron eres, Devarim 3:11); "crib" or "cradle" where Rashbam's reading is being followed.
• Trap: "bed" absorbs both, and so does Targum's arsa. If a source is darshening the choice of word (Og's eres against a tzaddik's mitah), the translation has to keep the Hebrew visible or the derashah is lost.
• Where the two stand together in one verse, take Ramchal's option only if the context is plainly poetic parallelism; otherwise render mitah "bed" and eres "couch" or "bedstead" so the pair does not collapse.
• עריסה of challah is "dough," not "bed"; keep the connection for a note, not for the body text.

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Beds of the Righteous," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 9 Av 5779 (2019-08-10), https://articles.ohr.edu/articles/beds-of-the-righteous; raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/8364-beds-of-the-righteous.md. Primary loci cited: Devarim 3:11; Bamidbar 15:21; Tehillim 41:4; Mishlei 7:16; Berachos 37b; Kesubos 103a; Radak, Sefer HaShorashim; Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim, Yerios Shlomo and Cheishek Shlomo; Sefer HeAruch; Emunas Chachamim; Kav HaYashar; the Greek kline and klino. Everything in the Distinctions traces to the column, its Greek and English etymologies included; the Rendering guidance is this guide's own. One note on the article's wording: it renders Og's bed at Devarim 3:11 as "nine handbreadths its length and four handbreadths its width," where the pasuk has amos, cubits, not tefachim.