remember

Distinctions

zachor (זכור / זכר)

Root ז-כ-ר. Rabbi Moshe Ibn Ezra: zachor is to bring back to mind something one knew and forgot, as against shamor, to keep in mind what one already holds. Malbim: zachor is purely mental recall, the fact or idea called up and nothing further; and in his second approach, zachor is sustained remembering over a long span. Rabbi Naftali Hertz Treves (Sefer HaGur) takes zachor itself to imply remembering as an act of mercy, which is how he settles Rashi's comment that Hashem's remembering Noach (Bereishis 8:1) was a turn from judgment to mercy even though the pasuk uses the name Elokim.

The noun zecher is not always "memory." Rabbi Shlomo of Urbino (Ohel Moed): zecher sometimes means the scent of a thing (Vayikra 6:8, Hoshea 14:8, Tehillim 20:4), a memory being a whiff of the thing and not the thing.

pakad (פקד)

Root פ-ק-ד. Its range in Tanach is unusually wide: to count (Bamidbar 1:21, 2:32, Shmuel I 15:4), to be missing (Bamidbar 31:49, Yeshayahu 38:10), to command (Tehillim 19:9, 119:56, Ezra 1:2), to appoint (Bamidbar 1:50, 31:14, Esther 2:3, Tehillim 109:6), to punish (Shemos 20:5, Hoshea 2:15), to bring about death (Bamidbar 16:29, Yirmiyahu 46:21), to visit (Rashi to Nedarim 39b; Kli Yakar to Bamidbar 16:29), and to deposit (Vayikra 5:23). Malbim ties the whole spread to one core: to remember something in order to deal with it. Counting is the plainest form of attending to a thing, instructing and appointing is another, giving a man his deserts (punishment, or death, or a visit) another, and handing an object to someone to mind is another still. Rabbi Shlomo Aharon Wertheimer sums it up: zechirah is in thought, pekidah is in action. In Malbim's second approach pakad is a single passing act of recall, enough to do what must be done and then let go. Rabbi Asher Weiser connects kapdanus, being particular, to פ-ק-ד by metathesis: the makpid attends to every detail.

Rabbi Saadia ben David Al-Dhamari reads the pair by elapsed time instead: pakad is remembering after a long stretch, zachor after a short one. Hence pakad for the redemption from Mitzrayim (Shemos 3:16) after centuries and for Sarah (Bereishis 21:1) after decades, but zachor for Noach after a year in the teivah (Bereishis 8:1) and for Rachel after a few years (Bereishis 30:22). Note that Chazal treat the two as close enough to be interchangeable for one purpose: Rosh Hashanah 32b rules that pikdonos count as zichronos for the Mussaf berachah.

zachar (זכר, "male")

Spelled identically to zecher, and the Gemara plays on it: Bava Basra 21b has Yoav sparing the Amalekite women because his teacher had read zecher Amalek (Devarim 25:19) as zachar. Rashbatz (to Avos 5:12) reads the shared spelling as substantive, and Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg reads it as legacy, sons carrying the father's name and so his memory. Rabbi Moshe de Leon (Sefer HaRimmon) makes the pair giver and receiver, and on that basis explains Yaaleh V'Yavo: tovah is direct bestowal, so we say zachreinu bo l'tovah; berachah is the growth of what one already holds, so we say ufakdeinu bo livrachah. Kedushas Levi (to Bereishis 21:1) reads pakad as revealing a gift that already existed from Hashem's timeless vantage and was only hidden from the recipient.

Rendering guidance

• Zachor in the six mitzvos of remembrance: remember, plain.
• Pakad of Hashem toward a person: took note of, or remembered with the consequence named, since the pasuk always supplies one (Sarah conceives, the redemption begins). "Visited" is the old rendering and reads archaic.
• Pakad in a census or a list: counted, mustered; nifkad: missing, not "unremembered."
• Trap: English "remember" will absorb both words. In a passage that contrasts them, or in Yaaleh V'Yavo where both appear in one breath, hold the distinction: zachreinu "remember us," ufakdeinu "and take account of us."
• Zecher is not automatically "memory." Check whether the pasuk wants trace or scent (Hoshea 14:8) before defaulting.
• The article gives Shemos 20:7 for zachor es yom haShabbos; the locus in the standard Masoretic division is Shemos 20:8. It also gives Devarim 4:9 for remembering Sinai and Devarim 9:7 for the wilderness provocations, both of which use hishamer/al tishkach forms alongside the remembrance theme.

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Ki Tisa: Remember Forever," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 22 Adar 5781 (2021-03-06): https://articles.ohr.edu/articles/ki-tisa-remember-forever, raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/9110-ki-tisa-remember-forever.md. Primary loci cited: Rosh Hashanah 32b; Bava Basra 21b; Malbim on the ז-כ-ר / פ-ק-ד pair; Rabbi Shlomo Aharon Wertheimer; Rabbi Shlomo of Urbino, Ohel Moed; Rashbatz to Avos 5:12; Rabbi Moshe de Leon, Sefer HaRimmon; Rabbi Naftali Hertz Treves, Sefer HaGur; Kedushas Levi to Bereishis 21:1; Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg; Rashi to Bereishis 8:1 and to Nedarim 39b; Kli Yakar to Bamidbar 16:29.