nature
fish
At a glance
In short
Dag is the Hebrew for fish and the only one Tanach uses; nun and kavra are its Aramaic counterparts, both fish, though whether kavra means fish in general or one particular kind remains unclear (Tosafos to Moed Katan 11a). Nun never occurs in Tanach in the sense of fish; where it does occur, in Yehoshua bin Nun, it is a man's name, and the fish sense is a derashah on it. Shibuta and sandal are named species, and tanin is a sea monster.
Distinctions
Nun (נון)
The ordinary Aramaic word, as nun, nuna and nuni, and the Targumim's standard rendering of the Hebrew dag; it remains the standard word for fish in Hebrew's Semitic sister languages, Aramaic and Ugaritic alike. Kiddushin 25a records that a town mocked Rav Hamnuna, whose name sounds like cham nuna, hot fish, by calling him kar nuna, cold fish. In Ksav Ivri the letter nun is drawn like a fish. Rabbi Aharon Marcus theorizes that the word's absence from Tanach is deliberate: the Canaanites and other nations deified the fish or sea-creature the word denotes, turning Nun into the name of a god, and Biblical Hebrew left the word out of every book to downplay that, leaving dag as the standard.
Kavra (כוורא), shibuta (שיבוטא) and sandal (סנדל)
Kavra is common in Judeo-Aramaic beside nun, and the doubt about its scope is old (Tosafos to Moed Katan 11a). Dr. Marcus Jastrow notes that the Mishnaic kaveres means a beehive or basket (Sheviis 10:7; Bava Basra 5:3; Keilim 8:1, 15:1, 22:10; Ohalos 5:6, 8:1, 8:3, 9:1) and so explains kavra as live fish kept in a cauf, a basket, which would let the word cover any fish housed in such a portable tank. On the other hand Chullin 109b, which says kavra tastes like the girusa bird (Jastrow: the moor hen), reads like one species rather than a class. Shibuta: Chullin 109b, that its brain tastes like pork and so serves as the kosher stand-in for that taste; Kiddushin 41a, that Rava salted shibuta in honor of Shabbos. There is an ancient tradition of a fish that does not swim on Shabbos (Radak to Bereishis 2:3; Yalkut Reuveni to Bereishis 2:2; Shevet Mussar ch. 11), and on that basis some sources connect shibuta, spelled with a tes, to Shabbos, spelled with a tav, identifying the shibuta as that fish (Megadim Chadashim to Shabbos 119a). Sandal: the Mishnah (Bechoros 8:1, Kerisos 1:3, Niddah 3:4) discusses the halachic status of a miscarriage shaped like a sandal; Niddah 25b explains that the shape is that of a sea-fish, and Rashi (there and to Kesubos 39a), his son-in-law Rivan (to Yevamos 12b) and, by implication, the Yerushalmi (Niddah 3:4) take sandal as an actual fish by that name; Meiri (to Yevamos 12b) adds that it resembles a free-floating piece of meat with no clear limbs, on which Rabbi Klein wonders in passing whether a jellyfish is meant.
Tanin (תנין) and nin (נין)
Bereishis 1:21, the sea-monsters of the fifth day.
- Rabbi Aharon Marcus argues that the tav is not part of the root, leaving nun at the core, and explicitly rejects the scholarly speculation that taninim is a Sanskrit loanword.
- Rav Hirsch (to Bereishis 1:21) also suggests that tannin derives from nun, but adds that nun itself derives from nin, offspring (in Modern Hebrew, great-grandchild), comparing this to dag, whose primary sense is fecundity.
- The Vilna Gaon writes that nachash is to land as tanin is to sea, an analogy which suggests that tanin is a sea snake (possibly an eel or something similar).
- Rashi (to Bereishis 1:21 and Niddah 22b) simply writes that a tanin is a big fish.
Where the authorities disagree
Which came first, nun or nin.
- Rav Hirsch (to Bereishis 1:21): nun derives from nin, offspring, the fish named for its fruitfulness; he compares this to dag, which primarily denotes fecundity.
- Rabbi Ron Yosef Chaim Masoud Abuchatzeira: the reverse. Berachos 20a teaches that fish are fruitful and multiply in large quantities because the ayin hara has no hold on them, so naming descendants by the fish-word turns the ayin hara from them; he compares this to the well-known custom among Tunisian Jews, especially those of Djerba, of giving children fish-related names to immunize them against the ayin hara. Examples: masculine Hayuta/Hauita ("fish" in some North African dialects of Arabic, though in Aramaic it means "snake"), Manani (grouper, possibly also related to nun), Bugid (striped red mullet), Hadir (torpedo fish), Karutz (bass), Uzifa, Wurgana; feminine Shelbia (salema porgy), Svirsa, Murgana, Manana (the feminized Manani), and Baharia (mermaid).
Why Ninveh may be named for a fish.
- Rabbi Avraham Rivlin: nun plus naveh, a fish inside a house, and Yonah, who refused to go, was made to live out the name inside a fish.
- Rabbi Nissim Paniri: Yonah and Ninveh share letters, Yonah's name lacking the second nun, so Hashem put him inside a nun to supply it.
- Rabbi Aryeh Moshe Teicholtz suggests that the name recalls the fish-cult worshipped there.
What kavra and shibuta are.
- Whether kavra means fish in general or a particular fish remains unclear (see Tosafos to Moed Katan 11a).
- Dr. Marcus Jastrow reads it as live fish kept in a basket, which would let it cover any fish so housed.
- Chullin 109b favors a species.
- On shibuta, Jastrow says probably the mullet, others the sturgeon or porpoise.
- Drs. Zohar Amar and Ari Zivotofsky identify the shirbot or shabout (Arabibarbus grypus), which Rabbi Klein calls the most definitive approach and which fits the Yerushalmi (Taanis 4:5) that shibuta is found in Bavel and not in Eretz Yisrael.
- Minchas Chinuch (550:2) suggests the name can cover kosher and non-kosher fish both.
Yehoshua bin Nun. His father's name was Nun (Divrei HaYamim I 7:27).
- An apocryphal midrash made famous by Rabbi Avraham Vilner has Yehoshua put into the river as a small child and swallowed by a fish, the fish caught and brought to Pharaoh, the child found inside, raised in Pharaoh's house and risen to Chief Executioner; Rabbi Yitzchak Yishaya Weiss of Neve Achiezer in Bnei Brak has already debunked the midrash's provenance.
- Other traditions give two further reasons for the name: Midrash HaBiur (to the haftarah of Shelach), that he would swallow the thirty-one kings of Canaan like a fish, and Megaleh Amukos 27, that Hashem was ready to hear his tachanunim once he entered the Land.
Also discussed in
Radak on these roots
Sefer HaShorashim
כ-ו-ר
The crucible in which the smith melts silver and gold; the kor, a measure, which is the chomer, thirty se'ah; and the land where one dwells.
The melting pot
מִכּוּר הַבַּרְזֶל (Devarim 4:20), "from the iron crucible"; כְּהִתּוּךְ כֶּסֶף בְּתוֹךְ כּוּר (Yechezkel 22:22), "as silver is melted in a crucible"; and מַצְרֵף לַכֶּסֶף וְכוּר לַזָּהָב (Mishlei 17:3), "a refining pot for silver and a crucible for gold": it is the vessel in which the smith melts the silver and the gold.
The measure
כֹּרִים עֶשְׂרִים אֶלֶף (Divrei HaYamim II 2:9), "twenty thousand kor": the kor is the chomer, and it is thirty se'ah.
Where one dwells
מְכֹרֹתַיִךְ וּמֹלְדֹתַיִךְ (Yechezkel 16:3), "your dwellings and your birthplaces", with a cholam; and with a shuruk under the kaf, בְּאֶרֶץ מְכֻרוֹתַיִךְ (Yechezkel 21:35), "in the land of your dwellings", which is like מגורותיך, your dwelling places; and so עַל־אֶרֶץ מְכוּרָתָם (Yechezkel 29:14), "to the land of their dwelling".
מִכּוּר הַבַּרְזֶל (דברים ד, כ), כְּהִתּוּךְ כֶּסֶף בְּתוֹךְ כּוּר (יחזקאף כב, כב), מַצְרֵף לַכֶּסֶף וְכוּר לַזָּהָב (משלי יז, ג), הוא הכלי שמתיך בו הצורף הכסף והזהב. כֹּרִים עֶשְׂרִים אֶלֶף (דברי הימים ב' ב, ט), הכור הוא החומר והוא שלשים סאים. מְכֹֽרֹתַיִךְ וּמֹלְדֹתַיִךְ (יחזקאל טז, ג), בחולם. ובשרק הכ"ף בְּאֶרֶץ מְכֻֽרוֹתַיִךְ (יחזקאל כא, לה), כמו מגורותיך. וכן עַל־אֶרֶץ מְכֽוּרָתָם (יחזקאל כט, יד).
נ-י-ן
נִין, whose sense he says is like בן, a son; מָנוֹן is another pattern of the word, and יִנּוֹן another form of it.
Like a son
וְנִין וָנֶכֶד (Yeshayahu 14:22), and son and grandson; וּלְנִינִי וּלְנֶכְדִּי (Bereishis 21:23), and to my son and to my grandson; נִינָם יָחַד (Tehillim 74:8), their sons together: their sense is like בן, a son.
Other forms
On another pattern, וְאַחֲרִיתוֹ יִהְיֶה מָנוֹן (Mishlei 29:21), and at his end he will be manon, a word he glosses no further; and a passive of it, יִנּוֹן, in לִפְנֵי שֶׁמֶשׁ (Tehillim 72:17), before the sun his name shall be carried on.
Written of under ינה too
Radak notes that he has already written of נִינָם יָחַד (Tehillim 74:8) under the root ינה.
וְנִין וָנֶכֶד (ישעיה יד, כב), וּלְנִינִי וּלְנֶכְדִּי (בראשית כא, כג), נִינָם יָחַד (תהלים עד, ח), ענינם כמו בן. ומשקל אחר וְאַֽחֲרִיתוֹ יִהְיֶה מָנֽוֹן (משלי כט, כא). והנפעל ממנו לִפְנֵי שֶׁמֶשׁ יִנֹּין [יִנּוֹן] שְׁמוֹ (תהלים עב, יז). וכבר כתבנו נִינָם יָחַד בשרש יָנָה.
ש-ב-ט
A tribe, in sense a family but larger than one; a rod, for striking or for chastening; and, since a ruler holds a rod, the head and ruler himself.
Tribe and family
לְשֵׁבֶט וּלְמִשְׁפָּחָה (Shoftim 18:19), for a tribe and for a family; שְׁבָטִים שִׁבְטֵי יָהּ (Tehillim 122:4), the tribes, the tribes of Hashem; בְּכָל שִׁבְטֵי בִנְיָמִן (Shoftim 20:12), through all the tribes of Binyamin; and הִתְעוּ אֶת מִצְרַיִם פִּנַּת שְׁבָטֶיהָ (Yeshayahu 19:13), they led Mitzrayim astray, the cornerstone of her tribes. The sense of them all is family, but the tribe is larger than the family: מִשְׁפְּחוֹת שִׁבְטֵי בִנְיָמִן (Shmuel I 9:21), the families of the tribes of Binyamin, and וַיַּקְרֵב אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל לִשְׁבָטָיו (Yehoshua 7:16), he brought Yisrael near by its tribes, and afterwards וַיַּקְרֵב אֶת מִשְׁפַּחַת יְהוּדָה, he brought near the family of Yehudah.
One word for all the tribes
וְיִשְׂרָאֵל שֵׁבֶט נַחֲלָתוֹ (Yirmiyahu 10:16), and Yisrael is the tribe of His inheritance, where the one word covers all the tribes together.
The rod
וְכִי יַכֶּה אִישׁ אֶת עַבְדּוֹ אוֹ אֶת אֲמָתוֹ בַּשֵּׁבֶט (Shemos 21:20), and if a man strikes his servant or his maidservant with the rod; תְּרֹעֵם בְּשֵׁבֶט בַּרְזֶל (Tehillim 2:9), You shall break them with a rod of iron; וּפָקַדְתִּי בְשֵׁבֶט פִּשְׁעָם (Tehillim 89:33), I will visit their sin with a rod; שֵׁבֶט מוּסָר יַרְחִיקֶנָּה מִמֶּנּוּ (Mishlei 22:15), the rod of discipline drives it far from him. It is a מטה, a staff, and the family is likewise called a מטה, as he writes at the root נָטָה, since in a family each one is a rod and a staff to his fellow.
Rain as rod or as kindness
אִם לְשֵׁבֶט אִם לְאַרְצוֹ (Iyov 37:13), whether for a rod or for His land, is the rod of chastening: sometimes the rain comes as a rod and a chastisement upon the world, sweeping away the seed and ruining everything, and sometimes לְאַרְצוֹ, for His land, that is, for the world's need, because its people do His will; and אם לחסד, whether for kindness, since sometimes He brings it in kindness though the people of the world are guilty.
The ruler called a rod
Since a ruler carries a rod in his hand, and since the rod for chastening the people is in his hand, the head and the ruler are called שֵׁבֶט: שֵׁבֶט מֹשְׁלִים (Yeshayahu 14:5), the rod of rulers; לֹא יָסוּר שֵׁבֶט מִיהוּדָה (Bereishis 49:10), the sceptre shall not depart from Yehudah; שֵׁבֶט מִישֹׁר שֵׁבֶט מַלְכוּתֶךָ (Tehillim 45:7), a sceptre of uprightness is the sceptre of your kingdom. It is also said together with a scribe: מֹשְׁכִים בְּשֵׁבֶט סֹפֵר (Shoftim 5:14), they that handle the scribe's rod.
Tribes or judges
הֲדָבָר דִּבַּרְתִּי אֶת אַחַד שִׁבְטֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל (Shmuel II 7:7), did I speak a word with one of the tribes of Yisrael, means with the heads and the kings; and the parallel pasuk has אֶת אַחַד שֹׁפְטֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל (Divrei HaYamim I 17:6), one of the judges of Yisrael.
לְשֵׁבֶט וּלְמִשְׁפָּחָה (שופטים יח, יט). בחמש נקודות. שֶׁשָּׁם עָלוּ שְׁבָטִים שִׁבְטֵי־יָהּ (תהלים קכב, ד). בְּכָל־שִׁבְטֵי בִנְיָמִן (שופטים כ, יב). הִתְעוּ אֶת־מִצְרַיִם פִּנַּת שְׁבָטֶֽיהָ (ישעיהו יט, יג), ענינם משפחה. אך השבט גדול מהמשפחה, כמו שאמר מִשְׁפְּחוֹת שִׁבְטֵי בִנְיָמִן (שמואל א ט, כא). וכמו שאמר וַיַּקְרֵב אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל לִשְׁבָטָיו (יהושע ז, טז). ואחר כן וַיַּקְרֵב אֶת־מִשְׁפַּחַת יְהוּדָה. ויהיה שבט כלל לכל השבטים וְיִשְׂרָאֵל שֵׁבֶט נַֽחֲלָתוֹ (ירמיהו י, טז). וענין אחר וְכִֽי־יַכֶּה אִישׁ אֶת־עַבְדּוֹ אוֹ אֶת־אֲמָתוֹ בַּשֵּׁבֶט (שמות כא, כ). תְּרֹעֵֽם בְּשֵׁבֶט בַּרְזֶל (תהלים ב, ט). וּפָקַדְתִּי בְשֵׁבֶט פִּשְׁעָם (תהלים פט, לג). שֵׁבֶט מוּסָר יַרְחִיקֶנָּה מִמֶּֽנּוּ (משלי כב, טו). הוא מטה. וכן נקראת המשפחה מטה כמו שכתבנו בשרש נָטָה זה כי המשפחה שבט ומטה כל אחד לחבירו מבני המשפחה. וכן אִם־לְשֵׁבֶט אִם־לְאַרְצוֹ (איוב לז, יג). שבט המוסר, רוצה לומר פעמים יבא המטר לשבט ולמוסר בעולם שישטוף הזרעים וישחית הכל ופעמים לארצו כלומר לצורך העולם לפי שהם עושים רצונו, ולפיכך אמר לארצו אם לחסד ופעמים לחסד ימציאנו אף על פי שבני העולם חייבים. ונקרא הראש והמושל שבט כי דרך המושל להיות שבט בידו. ועוד כי בידו שבט מוסר העם שֵׁבֶט מֹשְׁלִֽים (ישעיהו יד, ה). לֹֽא־יָסוּר שֵׁבֶט מִֽיהוּדָה (בראשית מט, י). שֵׁבֶט מִישֹׁר שֵׁבֶט מַלְכוּתֶֽךָ (תהלים מה, ז). ונקרא עם סופר שבט מֹֽשְׁכִים בְּשֵׁבֶט סֹפֵֽר (שופטים ה, יד). הֲדָבָר דִּבַּרְתִּי אֶת־אַחַד שִׁבְטֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל (שמואל ב' ז, ז). כלומר עם הראשים והמלכים. וכן במקומו בדברי הימים (א' יז, ו) אֶת־אַחַד שֹֽׁפְטֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל.
ת-נ-ן
The tannin: on dry land a kind of snake, in the water a kind of great fish shaped like a snake; it is written too with a mem in place of the nun.
On land and in the water
וַיְהִי לְתַנִּֽין (Shemos 7:10), "and it became a tannin", and the plural אֶת־ הַתַּנִּינִם הַגְּדֹלִים (Bereishis 1:21), "the great tanninim". Those spoken of on dry land are one of the kinds of snake, and those spoken of in the water one of the kinds of great fish shaped like snakes.
A mem in place of the nun
הַתַּנִּים הַגָּדוֹל הָֽרֹבֵץ בְּתוֹךְ יְאֹרָיו (Yechezkel 29:3), "the great tannim crouching in the midst of his rivers", and כַּתַּנִּים בַּיַּמִּים (Yechezkel 32:2), "like a tannim in the seas": it is the way of the language for mem and nun to come one for the other, as מוֹף and נוֹף, Mof and Nof, and כְּמֹהֶם and כְּמֹהֶן, both meaning like them.
With the doubled letter dropped
In Eichah 4:3 the tannim חָלְצוּ שַׁד, "have drawn out the breast", and so מְעוֹן תַּנִּים (Yirmiyahu 9:10), "a lair of tannim". The feminine plural is לְתַנּוֹת מִדְבָּֽר (Malachi 1:3), "to the tannos of the wilderness", and the Targum renders תנים as ירודין, a word Radak does not explain.
Why it draws out the breast
On חָלְצוּ שַׁד, "they have drawn out the breast", the Targum in Megillas Eichah says that these creatures have breasts up to their faces, and when they suckle their young, so that the young should not see them, they choke them and eat them. Midrash Tanchuma says that when the tannin comes to suckle, its mother sees it from afar and draws out her breasts, so that it should suckle and not see them covered and refuse.
וַיְהִי לְתַנִּֽין (שמות ז, י), כְּפִיר וְתַנִּֽין (תהלים א, ג) ׄבְּלָעַנִו [בְּלָעַנִי] כַּתַּנִּין (ירמיה נא, לד). ובא במ"ם מקום הנו"ן הַתַּנִּים הַגָּדוֹל הָֽרֹבֵץ בְּתוֹךְ יְאֹרָיו (יחזקאל כט, ג), כַּתַּנִּים בַּיַּמִּים (יחזקאל לב, ב), כי כן מנהג הלשון לבא מ"ם ונו"ן כאחד מוֹף ונוֹף, כְּמֹהֶם, כְּמֹהֶן. והקבוץ אֶת־הַתַּנִּינִם הַגְּדֹלִים (בראשית א, כא). הנזכרים ביבשה הם מין ממיני הנחשים, והנזכרים במים הם מין ממיני הדגים הגדולים כדמות הנחשים. ובנפול אות הכפל גַּם־תַּנִּין [תַּנִּים] חָלְצוּ שַׁד (איכה ד, ג), מְעוֹן תַּנִּים (ירמיה ט, י). ובקבוץ הנקבות לְתַנּוֹת מִדְבָּֽר (מלאכי א, ג), תרגום תַּנִּים יְרוֹדִין. ובמגלת איכה גַּם־תַּנִּין [תַּנִּים] חָלְצוּ שַׁד, אילן ירודתא אית להון מסון עד אפיהון כד אינון מנקן ית בניהון דלא ליהווין חמיין יתהון חנקן אכלין להון. ובמדרש תנחומא גַּם־תַּנִּין [תַּנִּים] חָלְצוּ שַׁד התנין הזה כשבא לינק אמו היא רואה אותו מרחוק וחולצת שדיה בשביל שיינק ולא יראה שדיה מכוסים ואינו יונק.
Radak, Sefer HaShorashim, Berlin 1847. Public domain, digitised by Sefaria from the National Library of Israel.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Fun with Fish (Part 2/2)," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 5 June 2021.
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Slithering Serpents and Sea Snakes - Part 1," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 1 July 2017.
Cited in the essay: Bereishis 1:21 with Rav Hirsch and Rashi, 2:2-3; Divrei HaYamim I 7:27; Berachos 20a; Kiddushin 25a, 41a; Moed Katan 11a with Tosafos; Chullin 109b; Niddah 22b and 25b with Rashi; the Vilna Gaon; Yevamos 12b with Rivan and Meiri; Kesubos 39a with Rashi; Yerushalmi Niddah 3:4 and Taanis 4:5; Mishnah Bechoros 8:1, Kerisos 1:3, Niddah 3:4; Sheviis 10:7, Bava Basra 5:3, Keilim 8:1, 15:1, 22:10, Ohalos 5:6, 8:1, 8:3, 9:1 (Mishnah, on kaveres); Radak to Bereishis 2:3; Yalkut Reuveni; Megaleh Amukos 27; Midrash HaBiur; Minchas Chinuch 550:2; Megadim Chadashim to Shabbos 119a; Shevet Mussar ch. 11; Rabbi Aharon Marcus; Rabbi Ron Yosef Chaim Masoud Abuchatzeira; Rabbi Avraham Rivlin; Rabbi Nissim Paniri; Rabbi Aryeh Moshe Teicholtz; Rabbi Yitzchak Yishaya Weiss; Dr. Marcus Jastrow; Drs. Zohar Amar and Ari Zivotofsky.