salvation

Distinctions

yeshuah (ישועה) and teshuah (תשועה)

Both are tied to crying out: they name the aspect of salvation that is Hashem's answer to our prayers and efforts. Rav Hirsch (to Shemos 14:13) suggests that shav'ah, crying out, is the act of yearning for a teshuah; unlike other words for crying out, which may be no more than a verbalizing of one's suffering, shav'ah is an unmistakable cry for salvation, a prayer rather than a complaint. Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim: the biliteral ש-ע underlies yeshuah, teshuah, and shav'ah, and its core is enjoyment and pleasure (so too sha'ashua, playful or delightful; mishan, leaning and relying, the satisfaction of being supported by another; and sha'ah, an hour, a unit of time a person gives to a task he wants to do). The column offers an alternative of its own, that the core of ש-ע is "smoothness," here the uninterrupted passage from prayer to salvation.

Rav Hirsch proposes an etymological difference between the two. Yeshuah, root י-ש-ע, is kin to י-ש-ה and to the biliteral י-ש, "exists": it is the first-order existence Hashem grants, the salvation from a danger that threatened one's very being. Teshuah, root ש-ו-ע, is kin to ש-ב-ע (seven) and ש-פ-ע (influx): it concerns what is peripheral to existence, one's property and economic freedom, so it often names salvation through military victory over outside conquerors.

Rabbi Yechiel Michel Heilpern and Rabbi Chanoch Zundel of Bialystok: yeshuah and teshuah are salvation from a grave threat, murder or a crime of a sexual nature (Devarim 22:27), which is why the Midrash (Shemos Rabbah 1:32) infers from vayoshi'an (Shemos 2:17) that the shepherds meant harm to Yisro's daughters. Peirush HaRokeach: yeshuah/teshuah is total and utter salvation from a state of oppression and subjugation. Malbim argues further that yeshuah is mere salvation from the dire situation itself, without the further protection hatzalah implies.

Bava Kamma 80a mentions a ceremony called Yeshua HaBen without saying what it is. Sefer HaAruch and Rashi explain it as the festive meal of a pidyon haben (see also Tosafos there), on the grounds that the Targumim render cognates of both yeshuah and pidyon with words of purkan.

hatzalah (הצלה)

Peirush HaRokeach: only a partial or temporary respite from oppression, not a total release. Malbim (to Yirmiyahu 15:20) adds that hatzalah focuses on the element of salvation that releases a person from mortal danger; the column suggests that this may be why Hatzolah is the name the volunteer paramedic organizations took. Elsewhere Malbim argues that hatzalah, against yeshuah, implies being saved from the situation plus being protected from future troubles. Heilpern and Rabbi Chanoch Zundel: hatzalah is saving from any threat, not only the gravest. Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim: from the biliteral צ-ל, "separation for a constructive purpose," so extricating a person from peril; under the same root he puts tzel, a shadow, which appears to separate itself from a person, tzli, roasting, which uses heat to draw the moisture out of raw food, and atzal, bestowal, as when one blesses another. Rav Hirsch (to Shemos 3:22, Devarim 32:2): root נ-צ-ל, kin to נ-ש-ל (remove) and נ-ז-ל (flow away), so saving someone by removing him from the hazard and separating him from what endangers him. Radak connects the "saving" and "removing" senses of נ-צ-ל; Ibn Janach fails to see a thematic connection between them and takes them for two different meanings carried by one root.

purkan (פורקן)

The Targum's standard Aramaic for pidyon: redemption, Hashem buying us back from the Greeks after having, as it were, sold us to them by letting them rule over us. Chazal ordinarily keep the phrasing of the tefillos to Biblical Hebrew, and used purkan here because the root פ-ר-ק already appears in Tanach in the sense of salvation (Eichah 5:8, Tehillim 136:24); in Biblical Hebrew it also means to slip something off (porek), an apt description of how the Jews of the Chanukah story shook off the yoke of Syrian-Greek domination and asserted their own political independence. Given the word's association with financial transactions, Rabbi Yitzchak Eliyahu Landau of Dubno explains that in Al HaNissim it is deliverance from financial ruin.

Rendering guidance

• ישועה: "salvation"; in a pasuk, "deliverance" also serves. תשועה: "salvation" or "deliverance"; where Rav Hirsch's reading fits (a war, a freedom regained), "victory" is defensible with a gloss.
• הצלה: "rescue," "saving," "being saved"; מציל: "rescuer," "one who saves." Not "salvation."
• פורקן in a tefillah: "redemption"; leave it beside teshuah as two words, not one.
• Trap: English "salvation" (and "save") absorbs yeshuah, teshuah, and hatzalah alike. In Al HaNissim (פורקן ... תשועה) or a derashah on why a pasuk says vayoshi'a rather than vayatzel, keep each Hebrew word its own English: purkan "redemption," teshuah "salvation," hatzalah "rescue."
• When the three appear together, keep them apart by aspect, which is how the column itself sums up: purkan is the redeeming aspect, as though Hashem bought us back after proverbially selling us; teshuah is salvation as a response to our prayers for help; hatzalah is salvation as the separating of us from a dangerous position.

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Seeking Salvation," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 23 Kislev 5782 (2021-11-27): raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/9464-seeking-salvation.md. Primary loci the article cites: Al HaNissim; Eichah 5:8 and Tehillim 136:24 (פ-ר-ק); Rav Hirsch to Shemos 14:13, 3:22 and Devarim 32:2; Bava Kamma 80a with Rashi, Tosafos, and Sefer HaAruch (Yeshua HaBen); Malbim to Yirmiyahu 15:20; Shemos Rabbah 1:32 on Shemos 2:17; Devarim 22:27; Radak and Ibn Janach s.v. נצל. The article also points the reader to two of its own earlier pieces, "For Crying Out Loud" (February 2016) on the other words for crying out, and "Smooth Sliding & Glad Gliding" (November 2019) on the "smoothness" sense of ש-ע.

One line of our own has been cut, a ranking of the three words by weight with hatzalah least and yeshuah whole. The column gives no such ranking; it distinguishes them by aspect, and Malbim in fact has hatzalah carrying more than yeshuah, not less. The rendering guidance now follows the article's own closing summary.