pressure

Distinctions

lachatz (לחץ) and d'chak (דחק)

The Haggadah, on the mikra bikkurim declaration v'es amaleinu v'es lachatzeinu (Devarim 26:7), explains lachatz as d'chak and brings as its raya Shemos 3:9, v'gam raisi es halachatz asher Mitzrayim lochatzim osam, another lachatz verse. The derashah therefore begs for a deeper explanation, since it defines a word by a word and proves it from a second pasuk carrying the very same word. Every authority below is answering the same two questions: what divides lachatz from d'chak, and how the second pasuk shows that the first one's lachatz really is d'chak.

• Rabbi Eliezer Ashkenazi (1512-1585, Maaseh Hashem): lachatz does not necessarily imply anything nefarious in the one applying it, and typically connotes pressure applied to extract some benefit from the one pressured. Calling it d'chak says the Mitzrim were not merely reaping the benefit of the Jews' work but had malevolent intentions and meant them harm.
• Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim of Breslau (1740-1814) takes it conversely (see Shoftim 2:18, Yoel 2:8): lachatz is pressuring a man chiefly to make him suffer, d'chak is pressuring another for one's own benefit even at his cost, and in its crudest sense pushing a man out of his place so that another can take it, where the intention is not to hurt the one pushed but to benefit the one who replaces him. On his reading the Haggadah's gloss softens the pasuk: the Mitzrim's primary goal was to benefit themselves, the Jews' suffering being collateral damage, so that the Jews were pushed aside only where the two sets of interests collided, and in general, he argues, they had the same rights and privileges as Egyptian citizens.
• Rabbi Shimon Schwab (1908-1995): lachatz focuses on the one applying the pressure and says nothing about whether it worked; one man may be resilient enough to withstand it and another too weak to bear it, and lachatz covers both. D'chak is pressure strong enough actually to force the other's hand. So Devarim 26:7 reports only that pressure was applied, and the Haggadah adds that it succeeded in pushing the Jews into doing the Mitzrim's bidding. His proof is that in the second pasuk the Mitzrim are the subject and Yisrael the object of the verb, so the pressure landed. (The article cites this pasuk as Yechezkel 3:9; the locus is Shemos 3:9.)
• Rabbi Dr. Refael Binyamin Posen (1942-2016) reads it through Targum. Lachatz covers physical pressure and psychological pressure both. Where it is physical, Onkelos renders it with d'chak, as with Bilam's foot pressed against the wall (Bamidbar 22:25); where it is psychological, Onkelos uses ע-ו-ק, as in the prohibition against pressuring a ger (the article cites Yechezkel 22:20; the Torah's prohibition is Shemos 22:20). Onkelos renders Devarim 26:7 as d'chak, so the Haggadah is saying that Hashem pitied them not only for the psychological pressures they bore but that even the bare physical pressure was enough to sway His decision to release them.
• The Malbim, Rabbi Meir Leibush ben Yechiel Michel Weiser (1809-1879), seems to somewhat contradict himself across four places. To Shoftim 2:18: lachatz is financial pressure and forced labor, d'chak is restriction on where one may live. To Shemos 3:9: negisah is the financial pressure and forced labor, lachatz the restriction on where one may live. To Yeshayahu 3:5: negisah is pressure to extract money or free labor, while d'chak and lachatz do not imply taking anything from the man. In Midrash Haggadah: lachatz is either the pressure of deprivation (Melachim I 22:27, Yeshayahu 30:20, Divrei HaYamim II 18:26) or the pressure of physical confinement, and the Haggadah's gloss picks the second, the cramped quarters the Mitzrim confined them to.

negisah (נגישה)

When Moshe first tried to free them, Pharaoh stopped supplying straw and kept the quota, and the pasuk says v'hanogsim atzim (Shemos 5:13), two words for pressure in one clause, the taskmasters driving the people to work as though the straw were still coming. Targum Neofiti renders nogsei as dachkoi (Shemos 5:14), cementing the tie between negisah and d'chak, and the Targum known as Yonatan renders lo yigos (Devarim 15:2), the lender forbidden to press for his debt after shemittah, with a d'chak cognate as well.

Pappenheim traces negisah to the biliteral ג-ש, closeness, notwithstanding the sin: gishah (drawing as near as possible), gush (a tightly packed clump), geshem (rain from clouds of highly concentrated vapor), and he even suggests Goshen, the one region the Jews were allowed to settle, for its compact dirt against the sandier rest of Mitzrayim. So negisah is marked by repeated encounters between the one pressing and the one pressed, the two as close as can be, standing over a man and not giving him space to breathe. Malbim (to Yeshayahu 3:5) draws a further line: negisah is pressing a man to pay money he does not actually owe, nosheh is pressing for money he is already obligated to pay.

atz (אץ)

Bereishis 19:15, vayaitzu hamalachim b'Lot (the article prints 19:9). Onkelos renders it d'chak, and Rabbi Posen concludes from this that the malachim did not merely urge Lot verbally but physically pushed him out. Pappenheim reads it otherwise: from the biliteral א-צ and ultimately the single letter צ, going out, so atz is pressing a man to move faster. The malachim pressed Lot to leave sooner; the nogsim pressed the Jews to work faster. One who is hurried has no patience for the next stage and must be out of his present state at once.

alatz (אלץ)

Once in Tanach: Delilah pressing Shimshon for the secret of his strength (Shoftim 16:16), a hapax as Rashi and Machberes Menachem both note. Targum there renders it d'chak. Ramban (to Bereishis 32:25) treats the aleph of alatz as interchangeable with the ches of chalatz, itself a metathesis of lachatz; Radak in Sefer HaShorashim likewise associates alatz with lachatz. Ibn Janach dissents, glossing the verb "making him angry" rather than putting pressure on him. Pappenheim traces it to ל-צ, logical verbalizing, whence melitzah (verbal justification or defense, also translation) and leitzanus (scorn or mockery), so alatz is the adept use of words to cajole a man and convince him into something.

Rendering guidance

• Devarim 26:7 with the Haggadah: "and our pressure, this is the crowding," or better, keep both transliterated and gloss once. Rendering both "oppression" or both "affliction" leaves the reader with a derashah that explains a word by itself.
• Shemos 5:13: "the taskmasters pressed them," with nogsim as "taskmasters" and atzim as "urging them on" or "driving them to hurry." Two verbs of pressure sit in one clause, so one English word will not do for both.
• Bereishis 19:15: "the malachim urged Lot on." If Rabbi Posen's reading is wanted, "pressed Lot" and note the Targum; Pappenheim's reading gives "hurried Lot."
• Shoftim 16:16: "she pressed him with her words," or following Pappenheim "she cajoled him." Following Ibn Janach it would be "she vexed him"; say which.
• Devarim 15:2, lo yigos: "he shall not press [for payment]." Not "oppress," which is too strong for a creditor collecting a real debt, and Malbim's negisah/nosheh line depends on the difference.
• Trap: English "oppress" and "press" will absorb lachatz, d'chak and negisah at once, and "urge" will absorb atz and alatz. Where two stand in one pasuk or one derashah, give each its own word; where one stands alone in narrative, plain "pressed" is right.

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Pesach: Putting Pressure," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 15 Nissan 5782 (2022-04-16): raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/9658-pesach-putting-pressure.md. Primary loci: Bereishis 19:15 (article: 19:9), 32:25; Shemos 3:9 (article, in the Schwab paragraph: Yechezkel 3:9), 5:13, 5:14, 22:20 (article: Yechezkel 22:20); Bamidbar 22:25; Devarim 15:2, 26:7; Shoftim 2:18, 16:16; Melachim I 22:27; Yeshayahu 3:5, 30:20; Yoel 2:8; Divrei HaYamim II 18:26; the Haggadah Shel Pesach on v'es lachatzeinu; Targum Onkelos, Targum Yonatan and Targum Neofiti at the loci above; Rashi and Machberes Menachem on the alatz hapax; Radak, Sefer HaShorashim; Ibn Janach; Ramban to Bereishis 32:25; Rabbi Eliezer Ashkenazi, Maaseh Hashem; Rabbi Shimon Schwab; Rabbi Dr. Refael Binyamin Posen; Malbim to Shoftim 2:18, Shemos 3:9 and Yeshayahu 3:5 and in Midrash Haggadah. Three loci are corrected rather than repeated: the article's Yechezkel 3:9 in the Schwab paragraph is Shemos 3:9, its Yechezkel 22:20 for the ger prohibition is Shemos 22:20, and its Gen. 19:9 for vayaitzu is Bereishis 19:15. The article also calls Delilah Shimshon's wife, which the entry does not follow. Nothing the article cites is omitted.