cutting

Distinctions

bokea (בקיעה)

The Torah's verb for the sea opening (Shemos 14:15, 14:21). Rabbi Shmuel Borenstein of Sochatchov (Shem MiShmuel): bokea is a splitting from the inside out, as a hatchling bursts out of its egg (Yeshayahu 34:15) or wine bursts a flask (Gittin 26a). On his reading the Written Torah, in which Hashem speaks, says bokea because from Above the sea split at His word, from within itself; the Oral Torah, speaking from the vantage of Klal Yisrael, says korea because from below the sea looks acted upon from outside.

korea (קריעה)

Tearing. Halachically, Shulchan Aruch HaRav (Orach Chaim 340:17, cited in the article as Shulchan Aruch HaGraz) defines korea as ripping apart two things that were joined together but were once separate. Rabbi Yitzchok Meir Alter of Ger, the Chiddushei HaRim, was asked this very question, and answered that he had much to say but was stopped from Above from giving a full answer; he could reveal only a partial one, built on that halachic definition. The Midrash has Hashem stipulating with the water at Creation that it would one day split for the Jews to cross, so the water can be seen as having already been split from the time of Creation, and at the sea He was parting what had already once been parted. That is why the Oral Torah calls it kriyas Yam Suf. Why the Written Torah says bokea, he said, he cannot reveal.

Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim: korea is tearing or ripping something soft, which comes apart easily. Hence kriah, the mourner's rending of his garment. On this basis, the column adds, we can explain the fixed phrase kriyas Yam Suf: it notes that vis-a-vis Hashem, tearing the sea was no great feat, as though He tore something that tears easily.

gozer (גזירה)

Tehillim 136:13 calls the sea "cut into cuts" (l'gezarim), and Maariv thanks Hashem for passing His children between the gizrei Yam Suf. Rabbi Pappenheim gives two accounts, in two separate discussions, and both are usable: gozer is precision cutting with an instrument, so that whatever is deliberately cut out of a larger whole is nigzar or a gizrah; and gozer is the sawing motion of a blade applied continuously, drawn back and forth until it has cut through something especially thick, as with people (Melachim I 3:25), animals (Bereishis 15:17), or wood (Melachim II 6:4). The sea, being reckoned eminently thick, takes this verb. From the first sense comes gezeirah, a decree, the ruling cut out of the surrounding give-and-take and left to stand alone. Rav Hirsch (to Tehillim 136:13): the Psalmist chose gozer precisely because it means deciding as well as cutting, since at the sea two nations' fates were decided.

Rabbi Pappenheim and others trace gozer to the biliteral ג-ז, primarily "shaving" or "trimming," a cut that leaves part attached and part detached: geiz, the grass left after trimming (Tehillim 72:6); gozez, shearing wool (Bereishis 31:19, 38:12); gezel, robbing a man of one possession and leaving the rest intact; gazam, the grasshopper that eats some produce and leaves the rest; geza, a tree whose top has been truncated; gazis, hewn stone, part shaved down and the rest left in place. The column adds, in a bracketed aside, that the Modern Hebrew gezer ("carrot") is not directly part of this discussion, being derived from the Arabic word for that root vegetable, jazar (which also means "cut" in Arabic).

chatichah (חתיכה)

The commonest word for cutting, yet a cognate appears only once in Tanach (Daniel 9:24). Rabbi Pappenheim: it is primarily cutting down the middle, into two halves. Rabbinic Hebrew adopted it as the general word and widened it to cutting of every sort.

batar (בתר)

Also a cutting in half, but Rabbi Pappenheim narrows it: cutting an animal in two for a covenant, the parties passing between the halves. Hence Bris Bein HaBesarim (Bereishis 15) and Yirmiyahu 34:18-19. He reads batar as kin to bris, the same three consonants. Harei bater (Shir HaShirim 2:17) is a pair of mountains that appear to have been originally formed as one and to have been split from each other over time.

netach (נתח)

Cutting an animal into many pieces rather than two, and not for a covenant: the butcher selling different parts of the body, the cook cutting meat to fit a pot. Rabbi Pappenheim contrasts it with petitah by focus, not by quality of the cut: netach keeps its eye on the whole body being cut up, petitah on the pieces produced. The Modern Hebrew nituach ("surgery") comes from this Biblical root.

petitah (פתיתה)

Breaking something up by hand (Vayikra 2:6); hence pas, bread broken into pieces. Rabbi Pappenheim links the biliteral פ-ת to pituy, persuading, since one who must be talked round has had his heart torn into parts, part agreeing and part not, the opposite of acting b'lev shaleim; and to mofes, the sign that convinces.

The rest of the family

Milah, cutting off the top of something: the foreskin, the tops of stalks (Iyov 18:16, 24:24) and grass (Tehillim 37:2), the dulling of the tips of arrows (Tehillim 58:8); one who does this cutting is a mohel. (The column adds that he seems to remember reading somewhere that mohel or milah refers specifically to cutting something round, but cannot recall where.) Poleach, cutting open (Tehillim 141:7; Mishlei 7:23), with pelach the piece cut out, and Rabbi Pappenheim says something similar here: the hallmark of a pelach is that it is cut off from a greater circular parent, shaped so that its origin in something round or spherical is obvious, an orange segment or a wedge, a "sector" in geometrical terms (Shir HaShirim 4:3; Shmuel I 30:12). Ketev, a cut that slices into the thickness without severing through, like a paper cut; all four occurrences (Devarim 32:24; Yeshayahu 28:2; Tehillim 91:6; Hoshea 13:14) are of an illness that cuts the innards without severing them. Primah (Vayikra 13:45, 21:10), which Rabbi Pappenheim sharpens against kriah: each act of kriah makes one more tear separating one piece from the whole, while one act of primah starts many pieces coming away at once, as a loosely woven fabric unravels. Gada, truncating in order to destroy or render useless. Ketzitzah, chopping with a single strong blow, from ק-צ, "end," since chopping creates two new ends. Ketifah, severing what was only flimsily attached, the word for plucking a flower. Kares, cutting in the sense of spiritual excision.

Rendering guidance

• Keep the three sea-verbs distinct in English: "split open" for bokea, "tear" or "rend" for korea, "cut" for gozer. Krias Yam Suf is conventionally "the splitting of the sea," which is fine as a fixed English phrase, but where a passage is asking why the Oral Torah says korea, render it "tearing" so the question survives translation.
• Trap: "split" will swallow both bokea and korea, and English has no natural way to mark inside-out against outside-in. Where a source turns on that difference, say it: "burst open from within," "torn open from without."
• Gezeirah in a mussar or halachic passage is "decree." Where a source plays on the cutting sense (Tehillim 136:13 and Rav Hirsch there), let the English carry both: "cut" in the body, "decreed" noted alongside.
• Kriah for mourning stays transliterated or reads "rending," never "cutting."
• Netach and chatichah both reach English "piece." If a passage counts pieces, besarim is two, nesachim is many.
• Where primah and kriah appear together, mark the difference: one tear that unravels the whole against one tear that removes one piece.

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Cut it Out! (Part 1 of 2)," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 13 Shevat 5779 (2019-01-19), and "Cut it Out! (Part 2 of 2)," 20 Shevat 5779 (2019-01-26): raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/8098-cut-it-out-part-1-of-2.md and sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/8107-cut-it-out-part-2-of-2.md. Primary loci cited: Shemos 14:15, 14:21; Shulchan Aruch HaRav, Orach Chaim 340:17; Yeshayahu 34:15; Gittin 26a; Tehillim 136:13, 72:6, 37:2, 58:8, 91:6, 141:7; Bereishis 15, 15:17, 31:19, 38:12; Melachim I 3:25; Melachim II 6:4; Daniel 9:24; Yirmiyahu 34:18-19; Shir HaShirim 2:17, 4:3; Vayikra 2:6, 13:45, 21:10; Iyov 18:16, 24:24; Mishlei 7:23; Shmuel I 30:12; Devarim 32:24; Yeshayahu 28:2; Hoshea 13:14; Rav Hirsch to Tehillim 136:13. The article's bracketed aside deriving the Modern Hebrew gezer from Arabic is reported here as he gives it.