ritual
fasting
צום · תענית · עינוי · צומת
Bottom line
Tzom is the Biblical word for a fast, abstaining from food; taanis is the Mishnaic word for a fast day, built on inui, affliction, and so wider than food alone. The names are not free variants: Tzom Gedaliah and Taanis Esther carry their words for a reason, and the two proposed reasons are given below. Do not render inui as "fasting"; it is affliction, of which fasting is one form.
At a glance
| Hebrew | translit | English | what sets it apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| צום | tzom | fast | Biblical; from "gathering" per Radak in his father's name, hence a fast the whole nation joins |
| תענית | taanis | fast day | from inui, affliction; the Mishnaic term, and already in Ezra 9:5 |
| עינוי | inui | affliction | the Torah's word for Yom Kippur; abstaining from food is only part of it |
Where the authorities disagree
What separates tzom from taanis.
- Level of obligation. Rabbi Akiva Shlomo Deutsch-Dayan of Geneva first raises and then rejects the simple answer, that tzom is Biblical Hebrew and taanis Rabbinic, because taanis itself appears at Ezra 9:5 (he grants that Ezra sometimes writes closer to Rabbinic Hebrew, and still rejects it). Instead: tzom is a fast required by law, taanis one declared ad hoc or kept as a custom without being strictly obligatory. Hence Tzom Gedaliah, which Yirmiyahu prescribed by prophetic fiat, against Taanis Esther, which was instituted in post-Talmudic times and of which the Rema writes that it is not obligatory and one may be lenient when necessary (Orach Chaim 686:2). The fasts declared in the Purim story itself are called tzomos because at that time they were obligatory.
- Mode of fasting. Rabbi Avraham Etiel Gurwitz, from Rambam's own usage: tzom is the undertaking to refrain from food and drink, which is why Rambam uses it in Hilchos Nedarim for a personal fast; taanis is the acceptance of a day as halachically distinct, whose distinction rules out eating and drinking, which is why Rambam uses it in Hilchos Taaniyos.
The article leaves the two approaches standing side by side; Rabbi Gurwitz "takes a different approach," and nothing decides between them. Ours, for rendering purposes: where a text uses both words in one breath, Rabbi Gurwitz's distinction is the finer instrument; where the question is why a given fast bears the name it bears, Rabbi Deutsch-Dayan's answers it.
Where tzom comes from. Tzom and its variations appear close to fifty times in Tanach and usually refer to abstaining from eating. It is probably related to tzamei, thirsty, since one who fasts generally ends up thirsty. Nonetheless, Radak (Sefer HaShorashim, and to Melachim I 21:9) reports in his father's name that tzom literally means gathering, and proves it from the Mishnah's tzomes hagidim (Chullin 4:7), the point in an animal's leg where the sinews converge; Modern Hebrew's tzomes, a junction, preserves the sense. The gathering reading is the one that carries a derashah, below.
Distinctions
tzom (צום)
Zechariah 8:19, foretelling a time when the four fast days will be turned into holidays, days of joy and gladness, names them by their months: the fast of the fourth (17 Tammuz, when the walls were breached), the fifth (9 Av, the destruction and the exile), the seventh (3 Tishrei, when Gedaliah ben Achikam was assassinated), and the tenth (10 Teves, when the siege began). All four mark stages of the churban of the first Beis HaMikdash.
taanis (תענית)
Built on inui, so it names the affliction rather than the abstention. The Torah uses verb forms of inui for what is required on Yom Kippur (Vayikra 16:29 to 31, 23:27 to 32; Bamidbar 29:7), and refraining from food and drink is one of the things included in it. Strictly, then, taanis does not mean "fast" at all but "self-affliction". Taanis Esther, kept the day before Purim, and Taanis Bechoros, kept by many firstborn before Pesach, both carry this word.
the gathering reading in Yeshayahu
Rabbi Yechiel Heilpern cites Rabbi Moshe Di'Segovia Benveniste on the Yom Kippur haftarah. When the people protest "Why have we fasted (tzamnu) and You did not see, afflicted our souls (ininu) and You do not know" (Yeshayahu 58:3), their choice of tzom, on Radak's sense of gathering, is itself the claim: we fasted as one. The Gemara says that a fast which does not take in everyone, the sinners of Yisrael included, is no fast (Kerisus 6a). Yeshayahu's answer is that the unity was a front; they made a show of loving one another so that favors would come back to them. And their inui was no better: they claimed to be dulling the body to sharpen the soul, while in truth they declared fast days for their own convenience, needing time free of their regular schedules to harass those who owed them money, "on the day of your fast you pursue your desires, and press all those who are indebted to you." The fast Hashem does want is the one that "breaks open the shackles of wickedness, unties the bonds of injustice, sends free the oppressed, and cuts off all iniquities" (58:3 to 6).
Rendering guidance
- Tzom Gedaliah and Taanis Esther keep their Hebrew names; do not standardize both to "the Fast of". If they must be Englished, "the Fast of Gedaliah" and "the Fast of Esther", with a note that the Hebrew words differ.
- Trap: English "fast" absorbs tzom, taanis, and inui alike. Reserve "fast" for tzom, "fast day" for taanis, and "affliction" for inui. In Yeshayahu 58:3 both appear in one pasuk and the parallelism depends on the difference.
- On Yom Kippur, the Torah never says tzom; it says v'inisem es nafshoseichem, "you shall afflict your souls". Writing "you shall fast" narrows a mitzvah that includes more than food.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "United We Fast," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 14 Tammuz 5777 (2017-07-08): raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/7332-united-we-fast.md. Primary loci cited: Zechariah 8:19 (the article prints 9:19; the four fasts are listed at 8:19); Vayikra 16:29 to 31 (the article prints 16:19 to 21; the inui of Yom Kippur is 16:29 to 31), 23:27 to 32; Bamidbar 29:7; Ezra 9:5; Melachim I 21:9 with Radak; Radak, Sefer HaShorashim, in the name of his father; Chullin 4:7 on tzomes hagidim; Yeshayahu 58:3 to 6; Kerisus 6a; Rambam, Hilchos Nedarim and Hilchos Taaniyos; Rema, Orach Chaim 686:2 (the article prints 886:2).