body
mask
מסוה · מסכה · פרצוף · סותה · מסכת
Bottom line
Masveh is the Biblical mask or veil, and it appears only of the covering Moshe Rabbeinu put over his face. Masechah in Tanach is not a mask at all but a molten image, cast metal, as in egel masechah; the modern sense of "mask" is a later development. Partzuf is a face, a Greek loan-word, and it is the word the early poskim use for the Purim custom. The trap: reading the modern masechah back into a pasuk turns a golden calf into a disguise.
At a glance
| Hebrew | translit | English | what sets it apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| מסוה | masveh | mask, veil | Biblical, only of Moshe's face-covering; a cloth with holes for eyes, nose, mouth (Ibn Parchon) |
| מסכה | masechah | molten image | cast metal, from nesech, pouring (Ibn Janach, Radak); "mask" only in Modern Hebrew |
| פרצוף | partzuf | face | Greek prosopon; the poskim's word for the Purim masks (Rema, Orach Chaim 696:8) |
| סותה | suto | his garment | Bereishis 49:11; a cognate of masveh (Rashbam, Ibn Ezra, Chizkuni) |
Where the authorities disagree
Whether masveh has any relative in Tanach. Rabbi Yehuda Chayyuj, Ibn Janach, Radak, and Rabbi Shlomo Ibn Parchon: masveh is the sole derivative of the root SAMECH-VAV-HEI, standing alone. Rashi suggests instead that the word comes from Aramaic, finding apparent cognates of it in the Gemara (Kesubos 60a, 62b). Rashbam (to Shemos 34:33), Ibn Ezra (to Bereishis 49:11 and Shemos 34:33), and Chizkuni: suto, Yehudah's "clothing" in Bereishis 49:11, is its cognate, so masveh means a fabric before it means a mask; Menachem Ibn Saruk (Machberes Menachem) files both under the one-letter root SAMECH. Donash Ibn Labrat rejects that reading of suto, taking it as kesuso, "his covering," with a missing KAF. The Bottom line follows the suto cognates, which make sense of Ibn Parchon's definition: a masveh is cloth first, and a mask by use.
Where masechah as "mask" comes from. Ibn Janach and Radak: the root is NUN-SAMECH-KAF, nesech, pouring, hence molten metal; the same root also carries "hiding" and "covering," which would be the bridge to a mask. Alternatively the root is MEM-SAMECH-KAF, mixing, both of liquids (Yeshayahu 5:22, Mishlei 9:2, 9:5) and of threads into cloth (masach, a curtain; masechet, Shoftim 16:13-14), which would make masechah and masveh near neighbours after all. That root, the column adds, seems to be congruent with the more familiar MEM-ZAYIN-GIMMEL, "to mix" or "dilute," samech and zayin being interchangeable and kaf and gimmel likewise. A third line is foreign: Rabbi Dr. Ernest Klein and Avraham Even-Shoshan hold that Modern Hebrew masechah in the sense of "mask" also developed under the pull of phonetically similar words in other languages, the English mask, the French masque and the Arabic maskhara. Nothing in translation turns on which is right, since the mask sense is post-Biblical either way.
Distinctions
masveh (מסוה)
Three times in Tanach, all in Shemos 34:29-35, of the covering over Moshe Rabbeinu's shining face. Rabbi Shlomo Ibn Parchon (Machberes HeAruch): a fabric laid over the face with holes cut for the eyes, nose, and mouth. On the suto reading the literal sense of masveh is "clothing" or "fabric"; the word sutot in that sense appears in the Mishnah (Keilim 16:7), and the Rambam, in his commentary to the Mishnah there, connects it to the Biblical suto. Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim ties masveh and suto to stav, autumn: soft, spongy fabrics worn against the cold, or cloths laid over one's clothes to keep them from dirt, as one does in that season. Rabbi Ephraim Lenchitz uses masveh for the Ashkenazi Purim custom, and Rabbi Zerach Eidlitz uses partzuf and masveh both.
masechah (מסכה)
In Tanach a cast-metal figure: egel masechah, the molten calf (Shemos 32:4, 32:8; Devarim 9:16; Nechemiah 9:18). Only in Modern Hebrew does it mean a mask. The related masechet has its own life: in Mishnaic Hebrew the woof threads running across a weave (Rabbeinu Chananel to Shabbos 59b; Rambam to Keilim 21:1; the Rash to Negaim 11:9), and thence a tractate. Sefer Chassidim 929: a masechta is the woven fabric of the rulings on one topic. Tosefos Yom Tov (introduction): from maschah yeinah, "she mixed her wine" (Mishlei 9:2), a tractate being a mixture of laws. Rabbi Binyamin Mussafia suggests SAMECH-KAF, to listen (haskeis, Devarim 27:9), since listening is the core mechanism by which Torah she'be'al peh, typified by the Mishnah, is transmitted.
partzuf (פרצוף)
Once in the Mishnah (Yevamos 16:3) and often in Gemara and Midrash, with the Aramaic partzufa; a Greek loan-word, prosopon, literally "facing the eyes," pros being "toward" and ops "eye" (as in optometry). The column adds from the Oxford English Dictionary that the Latin persona, a mask worn by an actor, also derives from prosopon, and is the etymological ancestor of the English word person. The earliest poskim to record the Purim custom call it wearing partzufim, "faces" (Mahari Mintz 17; Rema to Orach Chaim 696:8; Rabbi Yuzpa Shamash on the old traditions of the community of Worms), so the custom was literally to wear faces on one's face.
The column closes with why. The Gemara (Megillah 12a) says the Jews of Achashverosh's time were liable to destruction for having bowed to Nevuchadnetzar's idol, but since they had not really forsaken Hashem and bowed only out of fear, they were not truly deserving of it: as their idolatry was superficial only, so their ordeal was one that looked like destruction on the surface and did not end in it. Elsewhere (Chullin 139b) the Gemara reads the Purim story as Hashem hiding "His face" (Devarim 31:18), as though wearing a mask over His true plans. On that basis Rabbi Moshe Chagiz writes that the Purim custom of wearing partzufim mimics how Hashem dealt with Klal Yisrael then, a facade of intending destruction with no such intention behind it.
Rendering guidance
- Trap: English "mask" will absorb masveh, partzuf, and modern masechah. In a pasuk, masveh is "mask" or "veil" and masechah is "molten image"; never let the second take the first's English.
- Shemos 34:33-35: "veil" reads better than "mask" for Moshe Rabbeinu, since the point is shielding others from the light, not disguise.
- In a teshuvah or minhagim sefer on Purim, render partzufim "masks," with the literal "faces" in a gloss where the wordplay matters.
- Masechet in a Mishnaic context is "woof threads"; in a bibliographic one it is "tractate." Do not carry the weaving sense into a citation.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Purim: Fake Faces," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 8 Adar 5781 (2021-02-20): raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/9092-purim-fake-faces.md. Primary loci cited: Shemos 32:4, 32:8, 34:29-35; Bereishis 49:11 (the article prints Ibn Ezra "to Gen. 49:69"; the locus is 49:11); Devarim 9:16, 27:9, 31:18; Shoftim 16:13-14; Yeshayahu 5:22; Mishlei 9:2, 9:5; Nechemiah 9:18; Megillah 12a; Chullin 139b; Kesubos 60a, 62b; Mishnah Yevamos 16:3, Keilim 16:7 and 21:1, Negaim 11:9; Shabbos 59b; Mahari Mintz 17; Rema to Orach Chaim 696:8; Sefer Chassidim 929. The article's comparative material is reported as the article gives it: the Greek prosopon behind partzuf with the Latin persona and English person from the Oxford English Dictionary, and the English, French and Arabic words that Rabbi Dr. Ernest Klein and Avraham Even-Shoshan see behind Modern Hebrew masechah.