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ציון · ירושלים · עיר דוד · מצודת ציון · הר ציון · ציון
Bottom line
Tziyon and Yerushalayim are not interchangeable. Tziyon is the City of David, a separate walled city that only later came inside the walls of Yerushalayim; the nechamah formula says "the mourners of Tziyon and Yerushalayim" because they are two. Where tziyon stands for the Beis HaMikdash or for Klal Yisrael, it is the common noun tziyun, "outstanding", not the place. Render each by its own name and never write one for the other; where the Hebrew uses Tziyon for the whole city, some sources call it a synonym, though the column suggests that synecdoche, the part naming the whole, may be the more accurate term.
At a glance
| Hebrew | translit | English | what sets it apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| ציון | Tziyon | Tziyon, Zion | the City of David, separately walled, outside Yerushalayim proper (Rashi, HaParchi, Radbaz, Azkiri) |
| ירושלים | Yerushalayim | Jerusalem | the Holy City; spelled singular, read dual, for the two cities joined (Targum to Tehillim 133:1) |
| עיר דוד | Ir David | City of David | Tanach's name for Tziyon, also Metzudas David (Rashi to Shmuel II 8:7) |
| ציון | tziyun | outstanding | the common noun: tziyon for the Mikdash or for Klal Yisrael (Tukachinsky) |
Where the authorities disagree
Whether Tziyon is a separate city. Rabbi Ashtori HaParchi, the Radbaz, and Rabbi Elazar Azkiri all prove from Melachim I 8:1 (and Divrei HaYamim II 5:2) that they are two: Shlomo gathered the elders in Yerushalayim in order to bring the Aron up from the City of David, which is Tziyon. Rashi (to Sotah 5a, Yoma 77b) says flatly that Tziyon is outside Yerushalayim. Rabbi Yechiel Michel Tukachinsky disagrees with some of this: Tziyon in Tanach is not always an adjoining city but at times a neighborhood inside Yerushalayim. The Zohar (Idra Zuta 296b) says the two are two spiritual levels, one the aspect of rachamim and the other the aspect of din, which the column takes as suggesting that both names denote one physical place. The Bottom line follows the first group, which has the pasuk.
Where Har Tziyon is. Tehillim 48:3 places it yarkesei tzafon, in the north.
- North of the city. Ibn Ezra and Radak: the northern part of Yerushalayim.
- Har HaZeisim. Rashi cites Dunash ibn Labrat that Har Tziyon is another name for the Mount of Olives.
- South, and "north" is not geography. Midrash Socher Tov asks the question outright, that Har Tziyon lies to the south, and answers that "north" here points to the intense elation felt at a chatas slaughtered north of the mizbeach (Vayikra 1:11). The thirteenth-century Rabbi Yosef Tuv-Elem (Bonfils), in his super-commentary Tzafnas Panei'ach to Vayikra 1:11, argues for the south against Ibn Ezra, on the grounds that the Midrash's author, Rabbi Yochanan, actually lived in Eretz Yisrael, and that he himself lived in Yerushalayim and saw that Har Tziyon lies south of the old city. He grants that Ibn Ezra visited Yerushalayim as well, but assumes Ibn Ezra came only after he had already written, mistakenly, that Har Tziyon lies to the north.
The column's own comment is that none of the first three sources agree with what we today call Har Tziyon, which is southwest of the Old City, and that the Midrash makes this very point. Translate yarkesei tzafon literally and put the machlokes in a note.
How wide "the mountain of Tziyon" is. HaParchi, a prominent rabbinic topographer, concedes that "mountains of Tziyon" or "mountain of Tziyon" can mean not Har Tziyon itself but the mountains of that general vicinity, taking in Har Tziyon, Har HaMoriah, and Har HaZeisim, so that when Tziyon appears alongside the Mikdash it covers the Temple Mount as well. Tukachinsky reaches the same place from the other side: where tziyon means the Mikdash, Har Tziyon is Har HaMoriah.
Distinctions
Tziyon (ציון)
Called Ir David and Metzudas David, and walled on its own (Rashi to Shmuel II 8:7). Yerushalayim's outer walls were only later extended to enclose it, which may have happened in the late first Beis HaMikdash period or at the beginning of the second. Because it was added later, its halachic status for eating kodashim and maaser may not have matched the rest of the city, and the inner wall called chomas beis pagi went on marking Yerushalayim proper off from Tziyon even in the late second Beis HaMikdash period, by which time the two had merged; that wall marked out where within greater Yerushalayim one might eat from the korbanos. The Vilna Gaon (to Yeshayahu 1:9): the populations differed too, the noblemen living in Tziyon and the common people in Yerushalayim.
The column tells the following of the Rogatchover Gaon, whom it describes as an anti-Zionist rabbinic figure. Asked his opinion of Zionism, he did not answer directly but replied playfully that Tziyon is an area outside Yerushalayim proper where gentile heretics historically gathered: the Mishnah rules that spittle found in the Upper Marketplace is presumed to come from a non-Jew (Shekalim 8:1), and he explained that this is the area called Tziyon. By pointing out that Tziyon in Mishnaic times was essentially a slum he registered his disapproval of the secular Zionists, whom he held to be like those historical heretics.
Yerushalayim (ירושלים)
Written Yerushalem in Tanach and in Aramaic, a singular form, from which the English "Jerusalem" comes; the traditional pronunciation Yerushalayim is a dual, which is heard as alluding to two cities joined into one. The Targum reads shevet achim gam yachad (Tehillim 133:1) as the unity of the twin cities, and the column's illustration is Buda and Pest becoming Budapest.
tziyon as a common noun
Rabbi Tukachinsky: at Yoel 4:18 and Tehillim 2:6 tziyon names the Beis HaMikdash, and at Yeshayahu 51:3 it names Klal Yisrael. In those places it is not a proper name at all but the common noun from tziyun, a marker, hence something singled out and outstanding.
Rendering guidance
- Never translate Tziyon as "Jerusalem" or fold the two into one name. In HaMakom yenachem eschem b'soch she'ar aveilei Tziyon v'Yerushalayim, both names stand.
- Where the tefillos say v'sechezenah eineinu b'shuvcha l'Tziyon or u'mizbeach chadash b'Tziyon tachin, they name the Mikdash by Tziyon. Keep "Tziyon" in the English and note the synecdoche; writing "Jerusalem" erases the figure. The same holds at Yirmiyahu 31:5 and Tehillim 132:14.
- Trap: an English text that uses "Zion" loosely for the Jewish people, the city, and the Temple in successive lines makes all three sound like one referent. Follow Tukachinsky and distinguish: the place, the Mikdash, and Klal Yisrael.
- In a frum text, Tziyon and Yerushalayim are preferable to "Zion" and "Jerusalem", which carry a translated, outside register.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Twin Cities: Zion and Jerusalem," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 16 Av 5778 (2018-07-28): raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/7874-twin-cities-zion-and-jerusalem.md. Primary loci cited: Melachim I 8:1 and Divrei HaYamim II 5:2; Shmuel II 8:7 with Rashi; Rashi to Sotah 5a and Yoma 77b; Vilna Gaon to Yeshayahu 1:9; Tehillim 48:3 with Ibn Ezra, Radak, and Rashi citing Dunash ibn Labrat; Midrash Socher Tov and Rabbi Yosef Tuv-Elem, Tzafnas Panei'ach, to Vayikra 1:11; Yirmiyahu 31:5; Tehillim 132:14, 2:6, 133:1 with Targum; Yoel 4:18; Yeshayahu 51:3; Shekalim 8:1; Zohar, Idra Zuta 296b. The article closes by saying that much of its information was culled from Har HaKodesh by the late Rabbi Moshe Nachum Shapiro and Ir HaKodesh VeHaMikdash by Rabbi Yechiel Michel Tukachinsky; that is the whole of what it attributes to the former.