speech
exaggeration
At a glance
In short
Both mean hyperbole. Chazal ostensibly use them interchangeably in the same sugya (Tamid 29a; Chullin 90b), and Rabbi Eliyahu HaBachur says outright that they mean the same thing. Divrei havai are words of hyperbole or a manner of speech, and a guzma is an overstatement. Rabbi Yaakov Emden holds that when Chazal call a statement guzma or divrei havai, it is still literally true, and only its plain implication overshoots. Rabbi Menachem Azariah of Fano reads havai as marking something to be taken seriously, though not necessarily literally.
Distinctions
The sugya that frames the question
Moshe reports the spies as having seen "great and fortified cities in the heavens" (Devarim 1:28). Tamid 29a and Chullin 90b say the Torah is speaking hyperbolically there, since the spies did not literally see Canaanite cities reaching the heavens: in Rabbi Ami's words, the Torah speaks in divrei havai. Rabbi Ami adds that the nevi'im, and even the rabbis, are also wont to speak in hyperbolic exaggerations. The same passage uses both havai and guzma for this, apparently interchangeably, so that they seem to be synonyms; their etymologies are another matter.
Havai (הבאי / הואי)
The older of the two; it is already in the Mishnah, where guzma is not. Nedarim 3:1-2 rules that nidrei havai do not take effect: a man who vows on the strength of having seen on this road as many people as left Mitzrayim, or a snake as long as the beam of an olive press, has not undertaken a vow at all, because he meant only to stress how many and how long, not to bind himself to the literal figure. Rashi (to Chullin 90b) glosses divrei havai as the way plain people often speak, coarse and overstated; they are not setting out to lie, but they are not careful to say exactly what is so. The word has two spellings and a derivation for each:
- Spelled with a vav, it looks like the verb "to be," so havai is what simply is: this is how people talk, and no more should be read into it.
- Spelled with a beis, it seems to go back to the biliteral ה-ב. Rabbi Aryeh Leib Feinstein of Brisk gives that root's core as raising the voice (Mishlei 30:15), and hyperbole is a figurative raising of the voice to be heard; Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim reads ה-ב as calling others to make something ready, though he does not treat havai itself.
- Rabbi Eliyahu HaBachur suggests havai is derived from the Aramaic hovai, a thorn (Targum to Yeshayahu 7:25, 32:13; Iyov 30:4): just as thorns count for nothing against the rest of the plant, so divrei havai count for nothing, and as untrue, beside other rhetorical devices. Rabbeinu Nissim (to Nedarim 20b) cites this first, on nidrei havai. It bears some thematic resemblance to Dr. Alexander Kohut's comparison of havai to a similar Persian word meaning breath, air, nothingness, futility.
- Rabbeinu Tam and Rabbi Eliezer of Metz are quoted as relating havai to the Biblical habaim, engaging in stupidities (Targum to Yechezkel 20:29), presumably because a hyperbole that does not fully answer to the reality it purports to describe is nothing but so much foolishness (see also Tosafos Yeshanim to Nedarim 20b).
- Rabbi Menachem Azariah of Fano: the word does not imply that something is totally null and void; havai points to something that still wants study. He finds an allusion to this in reading it as an acronym for hinei barchu es Hashem (Tehillim 134:1).
- Teshuvos Rema MiPano (§73): havai is hinei barchu es Hashem.
Guzma (גוזמא)
Neither in Tanach nor in the Mishnah; it is the Gemara's word.
- Rashi (to Bava Metzia 38a, Chullin 90b, and Erchin 11a) explains it as extra words, speech that does not answer to the fact. At Beitzah 4a the Gemara asks why a baraisa troubled to permit two obviously permitted things, and answers that the baraisa is a guzma; Rashi there takes guzma as a rhetorical device, adding to a matter in order to press it home, so that rulings entirely true were framed as though they were novel.
- Rabbi Eliyahu HaBachur (Sefer HaTishbi), gathering these sugyos, declares that guzma and havai mean exactly the same thing, the act of overstating something in a way that is not literally true.
On where the word comes from:
- Rabbi Eliyahu HaBachur (Sefer HaTishbi) and Rabbi Binyamin Mussafia (Mussaf HaAruch) hold it is a Greek loanword. Rabbi Klein reports that after some searching he could not pin down any specific Greek word behind it, and for that reason prefers to assume a Semitic origin.
- In Biblical Hebrew the root ג-ז-ם appears only five times: three as gazam, a type of grasshopper (Yoel 1:4, 2:25; Amos 4:9), and twice as the proper name Gazam, whose family were among the Nesinim who came up with Zerubavel (Ezra 2:48, Nechemiah 7:51). In rabbinic Aramaic the root took on the further sense of threatening (Targum to Tehillim 8:3, Mishlei 15:30, Iyov 30:21; Shevuos 46a).
- Rabbi Yaakov Emden: from that Aramaic sense of ג-ז-ם, to threaten. Most threats are empty, made to frighten and never meant to be carried out, and a guzma likewise does not answer to the truth.
- Rav Hirsch (to Bereishis 11:6, Vayikra 26:4, Devarim 18:10): from gazam, the locust (Yoel 1:4, 2:25; Amos 4:9), which tends to come in swarms; a guzma is something true whose numbers have been swelled. He further links the root, by the interchangeability of gimmel, yud and kuf, to yazam, planning or enterprise, the ability to make something more out of something less, and to kasam, magic, which circumvents nature's limits to yield more than usual, or else because the magician claims access to more knowledge than an ordinary man; and, by the interchangeability of zayin and shin, to geshem, a solid mass made up of a hyperbolic quantity of parts.
- Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim does not treat guzma, but his core for ג-ז is trimming that leaves part attached and part cut away: geiz, the grass left after mowing (Tehillim 72:6), gozez, shearing (Bereishis 31:19, 38:12), gazam the locust that eats some and leaves some, geza, a stump, gazis, hewn stone. Rabbi Klein builds on this together with the rabbinic gozem, to prune for the plant's own good (Avodah Zarah 50b), and suggests that a guzma is an exaggeration still rooted in a truth rather than cut loose from it.
- Rabbi Shmuel Jaffa-Ashkenazi (Yefeh Mareh, end of Yerushalmi Shekalim) reads guzma as a portmanteau of egoz plus meah, speaking of one nut as though there were a hundred; he does not explain why egozim in particular were chosen for the illustration (compare Eruvin 2b on guzma and the number one hundred).
Rabbi Klein notes one more expression for exaggeration, petumei milei, "fattening the words."
How far the exaggeration goes
Chazal's examples are from the Mishnah, and the Gemara calls some or all of them divrei havai or guzma: the tamid drinking from a golden cup (Tamid 3:4), three hundred kor of ash sometimes piled on the Mizbeach (Tamid 2:2), the Golden Vine that took three hundred Kohanim to move (Middos 3:8), the paroches that took three hundred Kohanim to immerse (Shekalim 8:5).
- Rabbi Yissachar Ber Eilenberg notes that these are a sample of rabbinic hyperbole in the Mishnah, not a complete list.
- Rabbi Yaakov Emden insists that the Mishnah is not lying: what it says is not to be taken literally exactly as it sounds, but is still true when properly understood. Three hundred Kohanim really were involved with the Golden Vine, and it took that many, Rabbi Emden assumes, because as some tired under the weight others had to take their place; only the impression that all three hundred were needed at one time is the guzma.
- Rabbi Eliyahu HaKohen of Izmir reads the spies' cities "in the heavens" the same way, since anything very tall looks to the eye as though it reaches the sky.
- Rabbi Meir Pozna of London adds a further point on that pasuk: the spies themselves said only that the cities were great and fortified (Bamidbar 13:28), and it was Moshe Rabbeinu who reported them as saying "in the heavens" (Devarim 1:28, and again 9:1), so the havai is his framing of their report.
Also discussed in
Radak on these roots
Sefer HaShorashim
ג-ז-ם
The gazam, a kind of locust.
The whole entry
One line, on יֶתֶר הַגָּזָם (Yoel 1:4), what the gazam left, of which he says הוא מין ארבה, it is a kind of locust.
יֶתֶר הַגָּזָם (יואל א, ד), הוא מין ארבה.
ה-ו-ה
To be, one in sense with הָיָה. A second sense, as in הוָֹה עַל־הוָֹה, ruin upon ruin, is breaking and evil things.
Being
וְאַתָּה הוֶֹה לָהֶם לְמֶלֶךְ (Nechemiah 6:6), and you will be a king to them; הֱוֵה גְבִיר לְאַחֶיךָ (Bereishis 27:29), be a lord to your brothers; כִּי מֶֽה־ הוֶֹה לָֽאָדָם (Koheles 2:22), for what is there for a man. In מְקוֹם שֶׁיִּפּוֹל הָעֵץ שָׁם יְהֽוּא (Koheles 11:3), the place where the tree falls, there it will be, the rule would have יֶהְוֶא, and the vav comes at rest as in וַיִּשְׁתַּחוּ, and they bowed; and in כִּי לַשֶּׁלֶג יֹאמַר הֱוֵא אָרֶץ (Iyov 37:6), for to the snow He says, be earth, the alef stands in place of a heh.
One root with היה, to be, or two
It is possible that the vav of this root stands in place of the yud of the root הָיָה, or they may be two roots; either way the sense is one.
Ruin
Another sense: הוָֹה עַל־ הוָֹה (Yechezkel 7:26), ruin upon ruin; and in another form, וְהַוַּת רְשָׁעִים יֶֽהְדֹּֽף (Mishlei 10:3), and the ruin of the wicked He thrusts away, and הַוַּת נַפְשׁוֹ הוּא וַיְעַבְּתֽוּהָ (Michah 7:3), the ruin of his own soul, and they weave it together. In the plural, עַד יַֽעֲבֹר הַוּֽוֹת (Tehillim 57:2), until ruin passes, and הַוּוֹת תַּחְשֹׁב לְשׁוֹנֶךָ (Tehillim 52:4), your tongue devises ruin, meaning that you devise it in your heart and bring it out with your tongue. The sense of them all, and of those like them, is breaking and evil things. It may be that תְּהֽוֹתְתוּ עַל־אִישׁ (Tehillim 62:4), you devise ruin against a man, is of this root and this sense.
Strong in his ruin, or his wealth
יָעֹז בְּהַוָּתֽוֹ (Tehillim 52:9), he grew strong in his ruin, means ברעתו, in the evil he does to others. Rav Saadiah reads בהותו as בממונו, in his wealth; on that reading it is from the first sense, the wealth that is his. Radak adds that it may be the same in וְהַוַּת רְשָׁעִים יֶֽהְדֹּֽף (Mishlei 10:3), and the wealth of the wicked He thrusts away, the opposite of what the same pasuk says, that Hashem does not let the soul of the righteous hunger.
וְאַתָּה הוֶֹה לָהֶם לְמֶלֶךְ (נחמיה ו, ו), כִּי מֶֽה־הוֶֹה לָֽאָדָם (קהלת ב, כב) הֱוֵה גְבִיר לְאַחֶיךָ (בראשית כז, כט), מְקוֹם שֶׁיִּפּוֹל הָעֵץ שָׁם יְהֽוּא (קהלת יא, ג), משפטו יֶהְוֶא ובאה הו"ו נחה כו"ו וַיִּשְׁתַּחוּ. כִּי לַשֶּׁלֶג יֹאמַר הֱוֵא אָרֶץ (איוב לז, ו), האל"ף תמורת ה"א. ואפשר שיהיה הו"ו בשרש הזה תמורת היו"ד בשרש הָיָה או יהיו שנים שרשים ועל כל פנים הענין אחד. וענין אחר הוָֹה עַל־הוָֹה (יחזקאל ז, כו). ומשקל אחר וַיִּבְטַח בְּרֹב עָשְׁרוֹ יָעֹז בְּהַוָּתֽוֹ (תהלים נב, ט), וְהַוַּת רְשָׁעִים יֶֽהְדֹּֽף (משלי י, ג), הַוַּת נַפְשׁוֹ הוּא וַיְעַבְּתֽוּהָ (מיכה ז, ג), וְהַיָּתִי [וְהַוָּתִי] בְּֽמֹאזְנַיִם יִשְׂאוּ־יָֽחַד (איוב ו, ב). והקבוץ הַוּוֹת בקרבה (תהלים גה, יב), עַד יַֽעֲבֹר הַוּֽוֹת (תהלים נז, ב), הַוּוֹת תַּחְשֹׁב לְשׁוֹנֶךָ (תהלים נב, ד), פירוש תחשוב בלבך ותוציא בלשונך. ופירוש יעז בהותו ברעתו שעושה לאחרים. ענין כלם והדומה להם שבר וענינים רעים. ורבינו סעדיה פירש בהותו בממונו, וחוא מענין הראשון כלומר בממון ההוה לו. ויתכן להיות כמוהו וְהַוַּת רְשָׁעִים יֶֽהְדֹּֽף (משלי י, ג), הפך מה שאמר לֹֽא־יַרְעִיב י"י נֶפֶשׁ צַדִּיק (שם). ואפשר להיות מן השרש הוה והענין הזה תְּהֽוֹתְתוּ עַל־אִישׁ (תהלים סב, ד).
Radak, Sefer HaShorashim, Berlin 1847. Public domain, digitised by Sefaria from the National Library of Israel.
Rav Pappenheim on this root
Cheshek Shlomo
ג-ז
In English, our account of his entry
Shearing: a cut that takes off the upper or outer part while the main body remains; unlike shaving, which is of hair alone and cuts close to the skin.
Shearing against shaving
גלוח, shaving, is said specifically of hair, whether of the beard, the head or the rest of the body, and it is razor-like, cutting the hair close to the flesh. It may be for grooming and adornment, as ויגלח ויחלף שמלתיו (Bereishis 41:14), and he shaved and changed his garments, or for disfigurement and spoiling, as וגלחה את ראשה (Devarim 21:12), and she shall shave her head. גזיזה, shearing, is said of anything cut so that some of it remains: of hair, as ויגז את ראשו (Iyov 1:20), and he sheared his head; and of cutting the wool from the sheep, as גזזי צאנו (Bereishis 38:12), the shearers of his sheep, and לגז צאנו (Bereishis 38:13), to shear his sheep.
Hewn stone
Cutting stones and dressing them is גזיזה as well: אבני גזית (Melachim I 5:31), hewn stones, are stones that were cut, straightened and cleared of the spurs that stuck out of them.
You are the One Who trims me
This is the sense of ממעי אמי אתה גוזי (Tehillim 71:6), from my mother's womb You are my trimmer, on the pattern of עושי and קוני, my Maker and my Possessor. That is: from the time I came out of my mother's womb until now You have always been the One Who trims me and sets me right, as a guardian does with an infant he rears, straightening it and setting it right all the time and taking from it whatever is waste or unsightly, in the manner of הוא עשך ויכננך (Devarim 32:6), He made you and established you. גוזי is a participle of the light form.
Doubled and plain
As a verb it sometimes comes with the zayin doubled, לגזז את צאנו (Bereishis 31:19), to shear his sheep, and sometimes plain, לגז צאנו (Bereishis 38:13), to shear his sheep.
Quails cut off from the sea
ויגז שלוים מן הים (Bamidbar 11:31), and it cut off quails from the sea, is a quantity of quails cut off from the vast mass of them found on the seashore; for the quail is one of the birds that travel to the warm lands in the winter, and they always gather together on the shore of the sea.
The swift cutting off
In כי גז חיש ונעפה (Tehillim 90:10), for the cutting off comes swiftly and we fly away, גז is either an intransitive verb, on the pattern of קם and שב, rose and returned, or a transitive one, on the pattern of שת in כי שת לי אלהים זרע אחר (Bereishis 4:25), for Elokim has appointed me another offspring.
The shearing and the fleece
The noun of the verb is גז, in וראשית גז צאנך (Devarim 18:4), and the first of the fleece of your flock; with the feminine he it is גזה, in על הגזה לבדה (Shoftim 6:37), on the fleece alone.
Fleece and mown grass
גז is also a noun in ירד כמטר על גז (Tehillim 72:6), let him come down like rain upon the mown grass, and there it is not the גז of גז צאנך (Devarim 18:4), the fleece of your flock. The גז of the flock is what is shorn off; the גז in Tehillim is the grass that remains after the cutting.
The gazam locust
A kind of locust is called גזם: יתר הגזם אכל הארבה (Yoel 1:4), what the gazam left the arbeh ate, and והחסיל והגזם (Yoel 2:25), and the chasil and the gazam. The mem is added, as in סלעם (Vayikra 11:22), a kind of locust found on the rocks, the סלעים; so גזם is from גז, named for the way it eats, shearing the greens.
Its companion, the yelek
Its companion, in וילק ואין מספר (Tehillim 105:34), and yelek without number, is named from מליקה, nipping, since it nips the greens; or from the sense of ילקו הכלבים (Melachim I 21:19), the dogs shall lick, which is to be explained under the root לק.
Rav Shlomo Pappenheim, Cheshek Shlomo (Shorashim), first printed from his manuscript by Moshe Tzuriel, Bnei Brak 5777. The English is our account of his entry.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Empty Exaggerations," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 2 July 2022.
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Empty Exaggerations," What's in a Word? Synonyms in the Hebrew Language (book manuscript).
Cited in the essay: Devarim 1:28 and 9:1; Bamidbar 13:28; Tamid 29a and Chullin 90b (Rabbi Ami); Mishnah Tamid 2:2 and 3:4, Middos 3:8, Shekalim 8:5, Nedarim 3:1-2; Nedarim 20b with Rabbeinu Nissim and Tosafos Yeshanim; Bava Metzia 38a, Erchin 11a, Beitzah 4a, Eruvin 2b, Shevuos 46a, Avodah Zarah 50b, with Rashi where cited; Yoel 1:4, 2:25; Amos 4:9; Ezra 2:48 and Nechemiah 7:51; Tehillim 8:3, 72:6, 134:1; Mishlei 15:30, 30:15; Iyov 30:4, 30:21; Yeshayahu 7:25, 32:13; Yechezkel 20:29; Bereishis 11:6, 31:19, 38:12; Vayikra 26:4; Devarim 18:10; Sefer HaTishbi; Mussaf HaAruch; Yefeh Mareh to the end of Yerushalmi Shekalim; Dr. Alexander Kohut; Teshuvos Rema MiPano 73.