action
pulling and drawing
משה · משך · שאב · שאף · משי
Bottom line
Moshech is the general verb: pull, draw, taking something from its place toward oneself. Moshe is narrow and almost always in water: draw out of the water (Rashbam). Shoev is draw water, in Tanach from a well; shoef is its air counterpart, inhale, and in sheifah, yearning (Wertheimer). English "draw" swallows all four; where the Hebrew is moshe, keep the water.
At a glance
| Hebrew | translit | English | what sets it apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| משה | moshe | draw out of water | only from within water (Rashbam, Rabbi Chelouche) |
| משך | moshech | pull, draw | the general term; includes moshe (Rabbi Chelouche) |
| שאב | shoev | draw water | water, from a well (Wertheimer) |
| שאף | shoef | inhale, yearn | air, not water; hence sheifah, a settled longing (Wertheimer) |
| משי | meshi | silk | what is drawn from the silkworm (Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim) |
Where the authorities disagree
The root of moshe. The triliteralists (Ibn Chayyuj, Ibn Janach, Radak) give מ-ש-ה; Menachem Ibn Saruk gives the biliteral מ-ש. Rashi (Shemos 2:10) takes up the question over mishisihu and rules with the triliteralists, rejecting Menachem by name.
Whether moshe and moshech share a root. Rabbi David Chaim Chelouche brings both back to one biliteral מ-ש, "move or remove from place," keeping the difference semantic only. Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim separates them: on his rule that a mem prefixed to a two-letter root reverses it (ח-ק engrave against מחק erase, ר-ד rule against מרד rebel), moshe rests on ש-ה (equalize, whence shaveh, shav, shaanan) and moshech on ש-ך (settled in place, whence shochen, mashkon, shechem). Each verb undoes its own root's stability.
Which stage of drawing shoev names. Rav Hirsch (to Bereishis 24:65, Devarim 28:22): the filling of the bucket, and Targum Onkelos supports him, rendering shoev as mamlei, "fills." Rabbi Yaakov Berger infers from Ramban (Bereishis 24:17) that the core act is the lowering of the bucket into the well.
Whether shoev and shoef are one word. Rav Hirsch links them through the interchange of beis and pei. Midrash Sechel Tov (to Bereishis 24:11), the earliest to notice the pairing, records the likeness and rejects it on principle, accepting letter-interchange derashos for proper names only. Rabbi Shlomo Aharon Wertheimer keeps the two apart in practice, shoev for water and shoef for air; the Bottom line follows him, the usage being consistent.
Distinctions
moshe (משה)
Rare as a verb. "Ki min hamayim mishisihu," "for I drew him from the water" (Shemos 2:10); "yamsheini mimayim rabbim," "He drew me out of many waters" (Shmuel II 22:17, Tehillim 18:17). Rashbam (Shemos 2:10) fixes the sense: drawing out from within water; Rabbi David Chaim Chelouche makes moshech the hypernym and moshe the water-specific species. At Yeshayahu 63:11 Radak in Sefer HaShorashim records that some read moshe there as this verb, while Targum, Rashi, Mahari Kara, Ibn Ezra and Radak himself read it as the name. Rav Hirsch pairs מ-ש-ה with מ-צ-ה (squeeze) through shin and tzadi: one extracts a solid from liquid, the other liquid from a solid.
moshech (משך), shoev (שאב) and shoef (שאף)
Moshech has about forty appearances: pull something toward oneself, extended to stretching, dragging, and leading; at Shoftim 5:14 it is used for writing, mosh'chim b'shevet sofer, since ink is pulled from the pen. Shoev, root ש-א-ב, some twenty appearances, nearly all of drawing water from a well; later Hebrew widened it to a wick drawing up oil (Shabbos 2:4) and a magnet, even shoeves (Sotah 47a). Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim traces it to ש-ב, "return," so that shoev halts flowing water inside a vessel. Shoef, root ש-א-ף, is inhaling (Yirmiyahu 2:24, 14:6; Yeshayahu 42:14; Tehillim 119:131), and yields sheifah, a longing taken inside (Koheles 1:5; Iyov 7:2, 36:20).
Rendering guidance
- Keep "draw out of the water" for moshe; bare "drew" loses the name's point.
- Moshech takes "pull" when a person or object is moved, "draw" when the sense is toward oneself, "prolong" when it is time or sound.
- Where shoev and shoef stand near each other, render "draw" and "inhale"; never let "draw in" cover both.
- Trap: a passage with both moshe and moshech reads as repetition in English unless the water is marked in the one and left out of the other.
- On why the name is Moshe (active) and not Mashui (passive): Rabbi Shlomo Ibn Parchon raises the difficulty; Peirush HaTur in the name of Rabbi Yosef Kimchi answers that Pharaoh's daughter did not command the grammar, with providence besides, since he would draw Yisrael out of Mitzrayim. Peirush HaRokeach: out of the sea. Moshav Zekanim: she foresaw his drawing water from the rock. Midrash HaGadol: his own merits drew him out. Chizkuni and Rav Hirsch: the active form is a charge, that one saved from water grow up to save others. Render "Moshe" and let a note carry the readings.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Shemos: Pulling & Drawing," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 25 Teves 5784 (2024-01-06): https://articles.ohr.edu/articles/shemos-pulling-drawing; raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/11200-shemos-pulling-drawing.md. Primary loci: Shemos 2:10; Shmuel II 22:17; Tehillim 18:17, 119:131; Yeshayahu 63:11, 42:14; Yirmiyahu 2:24, 14:6; Shoftim 5:14; Bereishis 24:11, 24:17, 24:65; Devarim 28:22; Koheles 1:5; Iyov 7:2, 36:20; Radak, Sefer HaShorashim s.v. משה; Midrash Sechel Tov to Bereishis 24:11; Mishnah Shabbos 2:4; Sotah 47a, Sanhedrin 107b, Avodah Zarah 44a. A proposal that Moshe, mishisihu and yamsheini are Egyptian loanwords is omitted under the house rule limiting sources to Torah authorities.