speech
falsehood
At a glance
In short
Sheker is falsehood outright, false already when it was said. Whether it must also be knowing is disputed: Rabbi Edel and Rabbi Mecklenburg say it must, and Rabbi Klein offers a possible defense of Rabbi Albo's broader sheker, which covers the inadvertent untruth too. Kazav is a lie that time exposes, one that sounded true and only later proved false; the Gra's example is a man who meant it when he said it and then did not keep his word. Kachash is denial, a false answer to a claim that already stands against the speaker. The three are not interchangeable, and the Yom Kippur confession b'kachash uvchazav names two of them side by side.
Distinctions
Sheker (שקר)
The Torah's own word: midvar sheker tirchak (Shemos 23:7), and lo teshakru in the prohibition of Vayikra 19:11.
- Rabbi Yosef Albo (Sefer HaIkkarim 2:27) works from emes, truth, as the antonym of both sheker and kazav: truth requires agreement between the statement and reality, and between the mouth and the heart. Sheker is the break in the first, a statement out of joint with the way things are.
- Rabbi Yehuda Leib Edel presses him: if sheker is any objective untruth, how can the Torah forbid testifying sheker or swearing sheker (Vayikra 19:11-12), given that a man can present things only as he perceives them, and given that Shevuos 26a exempts one who swore falsely while thinking that what he said was true? To Rabbi Edel this suggests sheker must carry an element of advertent deceit.
- Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg reaches the same place from the wording: the Torah writes lo teshakru and not lo sechazvu, which shows the prohibition covers deliberate lying and not mistaken lying (on his reading kazav is the mistaken lie, and sheker the purposeful or deceptive one).
- Rabbi Klein suggests, though, that Rabbi Albo may be defended by holding that the general definition of sheker does cover any objective untruth, inadvertent or wanton, and that the Gemara is applying a separate scriptural imperative, derived from Vayikra 5:4, which limits the prohibition of false testimony and false oaths to one who perjures knowingly. On that defense Albo's broad sheker stands.
- Rav Hirsch (to Bereishis 9:21, 21:23, 43:11), taking kuf and kaf as interchangeable, joins sheker to shikur, a drunkard: as the drunk's imagination throws up what has no place in reality, sheker is what stands outside the real.
- Shadal (to Shemos 20:7): shav is related to nashaf, nashav and sha'af, breath and air, nothingness; from there it widened to anything false, a statement that is only air with no substance.
Kazav (כזב)
Scripture uses it plainly for falsehood: "the remnant of Israel do no iniquity and speak no kazav" (Tzefaniah 3:13).
- Albo: kazav is the break in the second equation, the mouth saying what the heart does not hold.
- The Vilna Gaon (to Mishlei 12:25) draws the line by time instead: sheker was a lie the whole time, kazav became a lie afterward. A man who says he will do what he never intended has spoken sheker; a man who meant it and then failed to keep his word has spoken kazav. Rabbeinu Yosef Bechor Shor (to Bamidbar 23:19) likewise reads kozev as one who does not keep his word. Rabbi Yehuda Leib Shapira-Frankfurter draws the consequence: the Torah never forbade saying kazav, because at the moment of speech there is no kazav yet; it becomes one retroactively. Rabbi Klein notes that this fits the ma'ayan machziv, the spring that had water and has dried up.
- Malbim (Yair Ohr): sheker has no validity at all, while kazav has some purchase on reality, seeming true at first and only later fully exposed. In Sefer HaCarmel he adds that one utterance can sometimes be both at once: sheker from the speaker's side, who knew, and kazav from the hearer's side, who cannot yet disprove it. That is what the phrase sheker v'chazav holds together.
- Rav Hirsch (to Shemos 7:11, 21:17) links the root כ-ז-ב to כ-ש-ף, witchcraft: what looks real on the surface and proves wholly untrue, and Yechezkel indeed uses kazav of witchery (13:6, 13:7, 13:9, 21:34, 22:28).
Kachash (כחש)
Usually rendered "denial," and forbidden in the same pasuk as sheker (Vayikra 19:11).
- Malbim (Sefer HaCarmel): a sheker meets no immediate contradiction when it is spoken, while a kachash is contradicted before it is uttered, said into the teeth of the other party's claim.
- Rav Hirsch (to Vayikra 5:21, 19:11, Devarim 9:7) makes it a false reaction to another's claim, and contrasts it with ka'as, anger (taking ches with ayin and shin with samech as interchangeable): ka'as is a real and warranted response to another's wrongdoing, kachash a manufactured response of denial to another's warranted claim.
- Rabbi Yonah Wilheimer sets kazav against kachash as the two shapes a lie can take: kazav says of what is not that it is (fabrication), kachash says of what is that it is not (denial). It would seem, Rabbi Klein adds, that on Rabbi Wilheimer's reading sheker is then an umbrella term over both.
Rabbi Shlomo Aharon Wertheimer seems to grade all three by how soon the lie can be caught: sheker, everyone knows it is false the moment it leaves the mouth; kachash, plausible but not refutable outright; kazav, any lie whose falsity can be discovered only later.
Also discussed in
- Drunkennessשיכור / שקר
- Forgettingשכח / כחש (כ-ח-ש)
Radak on these roots
Sefer HaShorashim
כ-ז-ב
To lie, and to be proved a liar, all one sense; the noun כָּזָב is a lie, and with an added alef אַכְזָב, a lying spring.
Every man is a liar
כָּל־הָאָדָם כֹּזֵֽב (Tehillim 116:11), every man is a liar. The pasuk, as he explains it: I had great faith, for even when I was fleeing in my poverty and in my haste I would say that every man who says the kingship will not be mine is a liar, and that is the great faith.
Proved false
יוֹכִיחַ בְּךָ וְנִכְזָֽבְתָּ (Mishlei 30:6), He will rebuke you and you will be shown a liar; הֵן־תֹּחַלְתּוֹ נִכְזָבָה (Iyov 41:1), his hope is proved false. עֵד אֱמוּנִים לֹא יְכַזֵּב (Mishlei 14:5), a faithful witness does not lie, even in matters that are not testimony, that is, even in idle talk. וְאִם־לֹא אֵפוֹ מִי יַכְזִיבֵנִי (Iyov 24:25), and if not, who will prove me a liar, means who will make my words out to be a lie. All of them are one sense.
Waters that do not fail
אֲשֶׁר לֹֽא־ יְכַזְּבוּ מֵימָֽיו (Yeshayahu 58:11), whose waters do not fail, he takes the way of וְתִירוֹשׁ יְכַחֶשׁ בָּֽהּ (Hoshea 9:2), the wine fails her, and כִּחֵשׁ מַֽעֲשֵׂה־זַיִת (Chavakuk 3:17), the olive crop fails.
אַכְזָב, with an alef
The noun with an added alef: תִֽהְיֶה לִי כְּמוֹ אַכְזָב (Yirmiyahu 15:18), will You be to me like an אַכְזָב, which he explains as like a lying spring. The prophet was complaining before Hashem, who had promised him נְתַתִּיךָ הַיּוֹם לְעִיר מִבְצָר (Yirmiyahu 1:18), I have made you today a fortified city, while they were cursing him and striking him. So too בתי אַכְזִיב לְאַכְזָב (Michah 1:14), the houses of Achziv shall be an אַכְזָב, which is said for elegance, since Achziv is the name of a town, as it says וּקְעִילָה וְאַכְזִיב וּמָֽרֵאשָׁה (Yehoshua 15:44), and Keilah and Achziv and Mareishah. אַכְזָב is כזב, a lie.
כָּל־הָאָדָם כֹּזֵֽב (תהלים קטז, יא), ופירוש הפסוק האמנתי כי אדבר אמונה גדולה היתה לי, כי הייתי מדבר כאשר עניתי כלומר כאשר הייתי בעניי בורח וכשהייתי בחפזי הייתי אומר כל האדם כוזב, כלומר אפילו בזמן שהייתי נחפז ועני מאד הייתי אומר כל האדם שאומר שלא חהיה לי המלוכה כוזב הוא וזו היא האמונה הגדולה. והנפעל יוֹכִיחַ בְּךָ וְנִכְזָֽבְתָּ (משלי ל, ו), הֵן־תֹּחַלְתּוֹ נִכְזָבָה (איוב מא, א). והשם שָׁוְא וּֽדְבַר־כָּזָב (משלי ל, ח), וַתְּדַבֵּר אֵלַי כְּזָבִים (שופטים טז, י), וַיַּתְעוּם כִּזְבֵיהֶם (עמוס ב, ד). והשם בתוספת אל"ף תִֽהְיֶה לִי כְּמוֹ אַכְזָב (ירמיה טו, יח), ופירוש תהיה לי כנגד השם יתעלה כי היה מתרעם הנביא על שהבטיחו ואמר לו נְתַתִּיךָ הַיּוֹם לְעִיר מִבְצָר (ירמיה א, יח), והם היו מקללים ומכים אותו. ופירוש כמו אַכְזָב כמו מקור כזב. ואמר אכזב וכמוהו בתי אַכְזִיב לְאַכְזָב (מיכה א, יד), והיא דרך צחות, כי אכזיב שם עיר כמו שנאמר וּקְעִילָה וְאַכְזִיב וּמָֽרֵאשָׁה (יהושע טו, מד). ואכזב הוא כזב פלימנ"ט בלע"ז. והפעל הכבד [פִּעֵל] עֵד אֱמוּנִים לֹא יְכַזֵּב (משלי יד, ה), אפילו בדברים שאינם עדות כלומר אפילו בדברי הבאי לא יכזב. לֹא אִישׁ אֵל וִֽיכַזֵּב (במדבר כג, יט), אַל־תְּכַזֵּב בְּשִׁפְחָתֶֽךָ (מלכים ב' ד, טז), אֲשֶׁר לֹֽא־יְכַזְּבוּ מֵימָֽיו (ישעיה נח, יא), וּבִלְשׁוֹנָם יְכַזְּבוּ־לֽוֹ (תהלים עח, לו). וכבד אחר [הִפְעִיל] וְאִם־לֹא אֵפוֹ מִי יַכְזִיבֵנִי (איוב כד, כה), כלומר שישים דברי לכזב. כלם ענין אחד. ופירוש לֹֽא־יְכַזְּבוּ מֵימָֽיו על דרך וְתִירוֹשׁ יְכַחֶשׁ בָּֽהּ (הושע ט, ב), כִּחֵשׁ מַֽעֲשֵׂה־זַיִת (חבקוק ג, יז).
כ-ח-ש
To deny and to lie; by borrowing, of a crop that belies the hope of those who wait on it; and in another sense, to grow lean.
Denial and falsehood
וְכִחֵשׁ בַּֽעֲמִיתוֹ (Vayikra 5:21), he deals falsely with his fellow; וַתְּכַחֵשׁ שָׂרָה (Bereishis 18:15), and Sarah denied it; אָלֹה וְכַחֵשׁ (Hoshea 4:2), swearing and lying. The adjective is בָּנִים כֶּֽחָשִׁים (Yeshayahu 30:9), sons who deal falsely, and the noun is in סְבָבֻנִי בְכַחַשׁ (Hoshea 12:1), they have ringed me round with falsehood, and וּבְכַֽחֲשֵׁיהֶם שָׂרִֽים (Hoshea 7:3), and the princes with their lies. All of them mean denial and falsehood.
The hope that is failed
כִּחֵשׁ מַֽעֲשֵׂה־זַיִת (Chavakuk 3:17), the work of the olive has lied, is a borrowed use: it belies the hope of those who wait on it. So too וְתִירוֹשׁ יְכַחֶשׁ בָּֽהּ (Hoshea 9:2), and the new wine will lie to her, that is, it will belie their hope. The last word is one of two where one would suppose בָּם and the Mesorah has it read בָּהּ.
Lean flesh
In another sense the word means lean: וּבְשָׂרִי כָּחַשׁ מִשָּֽׁמֶן (Tehillim 109:24), my flesh has grown lean and lost its fat, and so Chazal speak of a בהמה כחושה, a lean animal (Bava Kamma 65b). The noun is וַיָּקָם בִּי כַֽחֲשִׁי (Iyov 16:8), my leanness rises up against me; and וְיִכָּֽחֲשׁוּ אֹֽיְבֶיךָ לָךְ (Devarim 33:29) means your enemies will be lean and poor and humbled before you.
Strangers who submit, or who deny
בְּנֵי נֵכָר יִתְכַּֽחֲשׁוּ ־לִי (Shmuel II 22:45) he leaves open between the two senses. It may belong with the lean and the humbled, strangers who grow lean and submit before me; or it may be from the first sense, as he wrote above, that out of great dread they will deny what they did and the evil they did, and say they never did it.
וְכִחֵשׁ בַּֽעֲמִיתוֹ (ויקרא ה, כא), כִּחֵשׁ לֽוֹ (מלכים א' יג, יח), כִּֽחֲשׁוּ בַּֽי"י (ירמיה ה, יב), בְּנֵֽי־נֵכָר יְכַֽחֲשׁוּ־לִֽי (תהלים יח, מה), וַתְּכַחֵשׁ שָׂרָה (בראשית יח, טו). אָלֹה וְכַחֵשׁ (הושע ד, ב). וההתפעל בְּנֵי נֵכָר יִתְכַּֽחֲשׁוּ־לִי (שמואל ב' כב, מה). והתאר בָּנִים כֶּֽחָשִׁים (ישעיה ל, ט). והשם סְבָבֻנִי בְכַחַשׁ (הושע יב, א), וּמֵאָלָה וּמִכַּחַשׁ יְסַפֵּֽרוּ (תהלים נט, יג). והקבוץ וּבְכַֽחֲשֵׁיהֶם שָׂרִֽים (הושע ז, ג), כלם ענין כפירה וכזב. ועל דרך ההשאלה כִּחֵשׁ מַֽעֲשֵׂה־זַיִת (חבקוק ג, יז), פירוש כזב תוחלת המיחלים אליו. וְתִירוֹשׁ יְכַחֶשׁ בָּֽהּ (הושע ט, ב), כלומר יכזיב תוחלתם. ובָהּ מן ב' דסבירין בָּם וקורין בָּהּ על פי המסורת. וענין אחר וּבְשָׂרִי כָּחַשׁ מִשָּֽׁמֶן (תהלים קט, כד), פירוש רזה. וכן בדברי רבותינו ז"ל (בבא קמא סה, ע"ב) בהמה כחושה. והשם וַיָּקָם בִּי כַֽחֲשִׁי (איוב טז, ח). והנפעל וְיִכָּֽחֲשׁוּ אֹֽיְבֶיךָ לָךְ (דברים לג, כט), כלומר שיהיו כחושים ודלים ונכנעים לך. וההתפעל בְּנֵי נֵכָר יִתְכַּֽחֲשׁוּ־לִי (שמואל ב' כב, מה). או יהיו מהענין הראשון כמו שכתבנו ופירושו שיכפרו על מה שעשו והרעו יכפרו עתה מרוב מורא ויאמרו שלא עשו.
ש-ק-רhis headword שׁקר
Falsehood and treachery: to deal falsely, to break faith; the noun שֶׁקֶר, a lie, which in some pesukim means for nothing, without cause.
Dealing falsely
אִם־ תִּשְׁקֹר לִי וּלְנִינִי (Bereishis 21:23), that you will not deal falsely with me or with my offspring; וְלֹֽא־ שִׁקַּרְנוּ בִּבְרִיתֶֽךָ (Tehillim 44:18), and we did not break faith with Your covenant; וְלֹֽא־תְכַֽחֲשׁוּ וְלֹֽא־ תְשַׁקְּרוּ (Vayikra 19:11), you shall not deny and you shall not deal falsely. The sense is lying and betrayal, and the Targum of מַדּוּעַ נִבְגַּד אִישׁ בְּאָחִיו (Malachi 2:10), why do we betray one another, uses this very verb.
The noun
מִדְּבַר־ שֶׁקֶר תִּרְחָק (Shemos 23:7), keep far from a false word; דֹּבֵר שְׁקָרִים (Tehillim 101:7), a speaker of lies; בְּשִׁקְרֵיהֶם וּבְפַֽחֲזוּתָם (Yirmiyahu 23:32), by their lies and their recklessness.
Where it means for nothing
Some of them carry the sense of חִנָּם, for nothing: אֹיְבַי שֶׁקֶר (Tehillim 35:19), my enemies without cause; שֶׁקֶר רְדָפוּנִי (Tehillim 119:86), they pursued me without cause; לַשֶּׁקֶר שָׁמַרְתִּי (Shmuel I 25:21), for nothing I kept guard; הִנֵּה לַשֶּׁקֶר עָשָׂה עֵט שֶׁקֶר סֹֽפְרִֽים (Yirmiyahu 8:8), see, it has worked for nothing, the pen of the scribes for nothing. The word שָׁוְא likewise can mean for nothing, as he has written.
Radak’s root שׁקר
אִם־תִּשְׁקֹר לִי וּלְנִינִי (בראשית כא, כג). והשם מִדְּבַר־שֶׁקֶר תִּרְחָק (שמות כג, ז), בשש נקודות. אֹיְבַי שֶׁקֶר (תהלים לה, יט), שֶׁקֶר רְדָפוּנִי (תהלים קיט, פו), דֹּבֵר שְׁקָרִים (תהלים קא, ז), בְּשִׁקְרֵיהֶם וּבְפַֽחֲזוּתָם (ירמיה כג, לב). והכבד [פִּעֵל] וְלֹֽא־שִׁקַּרְנוּ בִּבְרִיתֶֽךָ (תהלים מד, יח), לֹא יְשַׁקֵּר וְלֹא יִנָּחֵם (שמואל א' טו, כט), בָּנִים לֹא יְשַׁקֵּרוּ (ישעיה סג, ח), וְלֹֽא־תְכַֽחֲשׁוּ וְלֹֽא־תְשַׁקְּרוּ (ויקרא יט, יא), ענין הכזב והבגד. ותרגום מַדּוּעַ נִבְגַּד אִישׁ בְּאָחִיו (מלאכי ב, י) מָא דֵין נְשַׁקֵר גְבַר בַּאֲחוֹהִי. אך יש מהם ענין חִנָּם, אֹיְבַי שֶׁקֶר, שֶׁקֶר רְדָפוּנִי, לַשֶּׁקֶר שָׁמַרְתִּי (שמואל א' כה, כא), הִנֵּה לַשֶּׁקֶר עָשָׂה עֵט שֶׁקֶר סֹֽפְרִֽים (ירמיה ח, ח). וכן מלת שָׁוְא כמו שכתבנו.
Of the eyes: to sharpen them and hint with them; the Targum renders a glimpsing eye with this root, and Chazal call a woman who gazes about סקרנית.
Eyes that signal
וּֽמְשַׂקְּרוֹת עֵינָיִם (Yeshayahu 3:16), and making signs with the eyes: that is, they sharpen their eyes and hint with them. He gives the vernacular word for it as well.
The Aramaic and the midrash
The Targum of עַיִן שְׁזָפַתּוּ (Iyov 20:9), an eye glimpsed him, is עֵינָא סְקַרְתֵּיהּ, an eye looked on him. And in the words of Chazal (Bereishis Rabbah 18): if I create her from the eye, she will be a gazer; and Chava stood and was a gazer, as it says ותרא האשה, and the woman saw.
Radak’s root שׂקר
[פִּעֵל] וּֽמְשַׂקְּרוֹת עֵינָיִם (ישעיה ג, טז), כלומר מחדדות אותם ורומזות בהם ובלע"ז גיננט"ץ [ציניי"ר קו"ן לוקיי"ו]. ותרגום עַיִן שְׁזָפַתּוּ (איוב כ, ט) עֵינָא סְקַרְתֵּיהּ. ובדברי רבותינו ז"ל (בראשית רבה פרשה יח. דף כ, עד) אברא אותה מן העין תהיה סקרנית, עמדה חוה והיתה סקרנית שנאמר ותרא האשה.
Radak, Sefer HaShorashim, Berlin 1847. Public domain, digitised by Sefaria from the National Library of Israel.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Mishpatim: Feeding the Lie," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 13 February 2021.
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Feeding the Lie," What's in a Word? Synonyms in the Hebrew Language (book manuscript).
Cited in the essay: Shemos 23:7; Vayikra 19:11-12; Vayikra 5:4 and 5:21; Tzefaniah 3:13; Shevuos 26a; Sefer HaIkkarim 2:27; Rav Hirsch to Bereishis 9:21, 21:23, 43:11, Shemos 7:11, 21:17, Vayikra 5:21, 19:11, Devarim 9:7; the Vilna Gaon to Mishlei 12:25; Rabbeinu Yosef Bechor Shor to Bamidbar 23:19; Malbim, Yair Ohr and Sefer HaCarmel; Yechezkel 13:6, 13:7, 13:9, 21:34, 22:28; Shadal to Shemos 20:7.