secret
At a glance
In short
In Tanach sod is counsel or council, and never quite a secret. Ibn Janach splits it into two distinct senses, a gathering of people and advice; Radak disagrees and holds they are really one, the circle of advisors and the advice one takes from them. Only in the language of Chazal did it widen to secret, a confidence shared with a few. Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim holds that the Biblical word for a secret proper is dvar seter, a hidden matter. Kamus, found only once (Devarim 32:34), is stored away, sealed up; Rav Hirsch takes it as protected, classified information. Raz, an Aramaic word found in Daniel, is mystery: Rashi glosses it seter and satum, an idea closed off from the many. Tamir is the Aramaic for hidden, the Targum's word for many of the Hebrew words for hiding.
Distinctions
Sod (סוד)
More than twenty times in Tanach, and in none of them quite the "secret" of modern usage. Root ס-ו-ד (Ibn Janach, Radak) or the biliteral SAMECH-DALET (Ibn Saruk, Pappenheim).
- Ibn Janach (Sefer HaShorashim): two distinct senses, a gathering of people (Amos 3:7, Hashem does nothing without revealing His sod to His servants the prophets) and advice (Mishlei 15:22, plans are cancelled without sod).
- Radak (Shorashim) disagrees with that formulation and holds the two are really one: the sod is the council one takes counsel from, an understanding analogous to the English "counsel/council." Hence the piyut rubric misod chachamim u'nevonim means "from the counsel of the earlier sages" who recommended adding the poetic compositions, not from any untold secret. The Rabbinic sense follows: only one's closest advisors are privy to one's innermost plans, so sod expanded to mean any restricted or confidential matter (Eruvin 65a and Sanhedrin 38a, "when the wine enters, the sod comes out"; Pesachim 49b, one of six things said of an ignoramus is that one should not reveal one's sod to him; Chagigah 14a, Hashem will reveal the sod in the World to Come to Torah scholars who deprive themselves of sleep in this one; Yevamos 63b, reveal your sod to one in a thousand), and sod ha'ibbur (Rosh HaShanah 20b, Kesubos 112a) is calendar lore taught in remazim (Rashi to Rosh HaShanah 20b).
- Rav Hirsch (to Bereishis 49:6): SAMECH/ZAYIN/TZADI-VAV-DALET, linked by the interchange of samech, zayin and tzadi, all mean a plan fomenting in the depths of thought: nazid the dish left to cook (Bereishis 25:29, Melachim II 4:38), the longer on the flame the more developed; meizid the premeditated act cooked up in the mind beforehand; tzad the trap carried out; sod the plan shared with others for mutual consultation.
Pappenheim: SAMECH-DALET is "foundation," most obviously yesod and mossad; in the abstract a yesod is an axiomatic given of intellectual discourse, and the less-apparent conclusions drawn from those yesodos are sodos. He adds that sod may also name whatever tools one uses to draw those conclusions, whether wise advisors or one's own reasoning, and since such conclusions are usually confined to one's own mind or at most to a small group of counselors they come to be thought of as secretive. Under the same root he puts the Mishnaic sadan, the trunk of a tree, the main branch from which it grows (Kilayim 1:8, 6:4; Shabbos 12:1; Bava Basra 4:9; Sanhedrin 7:3); sadin, bedding or linen, four times in Tanach (Shoftim 14:12-13, Yeshayahu 3:23, Mishlei 31:24), the sheet spread on a bed as the foundation for body, pillow and blanket; sadeh, a field, the most fundamental unit of topographical and agricultural space, as against anomalous mountains and hills and outlying barren land; and from sadeh the word sid, plaster, made by burning stones found in the field.
The Biblical sad is literally the ropes and chains that tie down a prisoner (Iyov 13:27, 33:11).
- Pappenheim, following Rashi to Iyov 13:27, takes it as the tree trunks prisoners were tied to, and relates sadan to it.
- Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg goes the other way and makes the tying sense the core of SAMECH-DALET: a sod as a secret is information tied down so it cannot escape its purview, and a sod as a council is a body of men tied together in a common advisory role.
Dvar seter (דבר סתר) and kamus (כמוס)
Pappenheim claims that although Biblical sod does not quite mean secret, the true Biblical word for a secret is dvar seter, Ehud's "hidden matter" for Eglon (Shoftim 3:19), where Ehud implied he had a secret to reveal and in fact had a dagger ready; the second word goes to SAMECH-TAV-REISH, hiding. Kamus, KAF-MEM-SAMECH, is a hapax: "For is it not kamus with Me, sealed in My storehouses" (Devarim 32:34), said of the deeds for which Israel will be punished while the nations fail to see why, so that Hashem alone is privy to what they will really have done and really deserve. A possible cognate appears in the Mishnah (Peah 5:8), where sheaves bundled into kumsaos, stack bases, are exempted from the rule that bundles forgotten in the field are left for the poor.
- Rav Hirsch (to Shemos 35:22, Vayikra 2:2, Devarim 32:34), implicitly invoking the interchange of kaf and kuf and of samech and tzadi, joins kamus to kamatz, gathered and minimized, both of them something stored away and protected: in the case of kamus, protected classified information kept from those who do not need to know.
- Rabbi Avi Kobernick similarly reads it against its metathesis SAMECH-MEM-KAF, next to or adjacent, arguing that closely guarded secrets are kept close and not revealed indiscriminately.
- Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein once theorized, as his own view, that the mem of KAF-MEM-SAMECH is not integral and the core etymon is the biliteral KAF-SAMECH, cover, since what is covered becomes hidden.
The compound sod kamus, a secretive secret, was coined by Rabbi Yitzchak Ibn Ghiyyat in one of his poems, according to the Academy of the Hebrew Language, and has only grown in popularity since.
Raz (רז, רזא)
Aramaic (raz, Daniel 4:6; raza, Daniel 2:18-47), possibly once in Hebrew (Yeshayahu 24:16). Rashi (to Daniel 2:19, 2:47; Sanhedrin 94a) glosses seter; to Daniel 4:6, satum: either way an idea hidden and closed up so as to be inaccessible to the masses. Raz is a very common word in the Dead Sea Scrolls, used there for various mystical and esoteric allusions, and linguists derive the Aramaic word from the Old Persian raza, itself related to the Sanskrit rahasya, both said to go back to Proto-Indo-Iranian rajh.
- Pappenheim and Malbim (to Iyov 15:12) trace the Biblical rezem, hinting, to the biliteral REISH-ZAYIN, "hidden." As Pappenheim explains it, a wink of the eyes or a gesture tells those in the know that one is privy to a secret others are not. Pappenheim says this only of rezem, which is Biblical; Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein finds it not much of a stretch to extend it to the Mishnaic remez (Gittin 5:7) as well.
- Pappenheim and Malbim also derive roznim, noblemen and ministers (Shoftim 5:3; Yeshayahu 40:23; Tehillim 2:2; Mishlei 8:15, 14:28, 31:4), from the same root, since such aristocrats were often privy to information the common people were not (see also Malbim to Mishlei 14:28 and Shoresh Yesha).
- Rav Hirsch (to Tehillim 2:2) instead connects roznim to resen, the mouthpiece put into a horse's or donkey's mouth to control it, through the interchange of samech and zayin: the roznim lead the government just as the resen leads an animal.
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein suggests, as his own proposal, reading raz as a metathesis of zar, strange or foreign, since the information is withheld from others and so estranged from them. Rabbi Dov Kook of Tiberias mentions that the gematria of raz/zar equals that of rahav, the angelic representative of Egypt, and of bahar, "at the mountain," the term for the mitzvos given at Har Sinai; Rabbi Klein says plainly that he has not merited to understand the secret behind those connections.
Rabbi Eliyahu HaBachur (Sefer HaTishbi) writes that the angel Raziel (named in many Kabbalistic sources; Raziel HaMalach, a book ascribed to Adam HaRishon, discusses secrets Adam learned from him) takes his name from the Aramaic raz, alluding to his role as Hashem's secretary of sorts. (The English "secretary" itself derives from "secret.") The Chassidei Ashkenaz read zer, a diadem, and the second syllable of mashzar, interwoven, in the account of the Mishkan as allusions to the Kabbalistic razin contained there (Tosafos HaShalem to Shemos 25:10 §9, 25:11 §6 and §16, 25:25 §6, 39:2 §1).
Tamir (טמיר)
Aramaic. Targum uses it for tamun (Bereishis 35:4; Shemos 2:12; Yirmiyahu 13:5), kisui (Iyov 36:32), seter (Tehillim 10:11, 27:5, 32:7, 139:15), and mischabeh (Shmuel I 10:22); Targum Yonasan (to Devarim 32:34) renders kamus as tumrah.
- Rabbi Ernest Klein proposes that the Hebrew root ט-מ-ן, hidden or buried, actually derives from the Aramaic ט-מ-ר, with nun and reish interchanging as they often do.
- Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein adds that it is equally possible the opposite is true and the Aramaic derives from the Hebrew.
- Rabbi Ernest Klein also relates the English mattamore, a subterranean dwelling or storehouse, to this Hebrew and Aramaic term, by way of French and Arabic.
The Maggid who spoke to Rabbi Yosef Karo consistently called the Provençal posek Rabbeinu Yerucham "Yerucham Tamiri," Yerucham the Hidden One (Maggid Meisharim to Vayakhel and Tzav). The Chida writes that Rabbeinu Yerucham's published works are riddled with typographical errors and other mistakes, and relates that he heard from the elder sages of Yerushalayim that Kabbalistically those works belong to "the secret of the Hidden World," such that whoever writes a commentary to elucidate them will have it destroyed before publication or will die in his prime. Rabbi Elazar Lipa Gartenhaus points out that both came true for Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein's own great-great-great-grandfather and namesake, Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein of Davidkoff, who published Shenos Chaim, a commentary on the first part of Rabbeinu Yerucham's Toldos Adam v'Chava: he lost the rest of what he had written before he could publish it, and he died at forty-seven.
Also discussed in
- Hiddenסתר (ס-ת-ר)
- Muzzleרוזנים / roznim
- Names of Estherסתר / seter, Esther (ס-ת-ר)
Radak on these roots
Sefer HaShorashim
כ-מ-ס
Stored away: he glosses כָּמֻס עִמָּדִי (Devarim 32:34), laid up with Me, as גנוז, put away in store.
הֲלֹא־הוּא כָּמֻס עִמָּדִי (דברים לב, לד), פירוש גנוז.
ס-ו-ד
Counsel and a hidden matter, and from this sense the counsel of those who join together. Rabbi Yonah made two senses of it; Radak holds it is all one sense.
Counsel and a hidden thing
Their sense is counsel and a hidden thing, ענין עצה ודבר סתר: כִּי אִם־גָּלָה סוֹדוֹ (Amos 3:7), unless He has revealed His secret, and וְסוֹד אַחֵר אַל־תְּגָֽל (Mishlei 25:9), do not reveal another man's secret.
Counsel among those who gather
From this sense, לֹֽא־יָשַׁבְתִּי בְסוֹד־מְשַֽׂחֲקִים (Yirmiyahu 15:17), I have not sat in the counsel of merrymakers, which he explains בעצתם, in their counsel, when they join together for play and for the vanities of the world; and so וְעַל סוֹד בַּחוּרִים יַחְדָּו (Yirmiyahu 6:11), upon the counsel of young men together, and בְּסוֹד יְשָׁרִים וְעֵדָֽה (Tehillim 111:1), in the counsel of the upright and the congregation.
One sense, not two
Rabbi Yonah divided these into two senses. Radak holds the correct view is that the whole of it is one sense.
Taking counsel to build
הוּסַד שְׁלֹמֹה לִבְנוֹת אֶת־בֵּית הָֽאֱלֹהִים (Divrei HaYamim II 3:3), Shlomo took counsel to build the house of God, is from this root and this sense: נתיעץ ועמד בסוד בנין עם דוד אביו, he took counsel and stood in the counsel of the building with Dovid his father, as it says, ויתן דוד לשלמה את תבנית האולם, and Dovid gave Shlomo the pattern of the porch.
The stocks, as some explain
וְתָשֵׂם בַּסַּד רַגְלַי (Iyov 13:27), and You put my feet in the סַּד: some explain it as the wood in which the feet of prisoners are set, the stocks.
סוֹד י"י לִירֵאָיו (תהלים כה, יד), כִּי אִם־גָּלָה סוֹדוֹ (עמוס ג, ז), וְסוֹד אַחֵר אַל־תְּגָֽל (משלי כה, ט), ענין עצה ודבר סתר. ומזה הענין לֹֽא־יָשַׁבְתִּי בְסוֹד־מְשַֽׂחֲקִים (ירמיה טו, יז), רוצה לומר בעצתם כשמתחברים יחד לשחוק ולהבלי העולם. וכן וְעַל סוֹד בַּחוּרִים יַחְדָּו (ירמיה ו, יא), בְּסוֹד יְשָׁרִים וְעֵדָֽה (תהלים קיא, א). ורבי יונה חלקם לשני ענינים. והנכון שהכל ענין אחד. ומן השרש הזה והענין הזה [הָפְעַל] הוּסַד שְׁלֹמֹה לִבְנוֹת אֶת־בֵּית הָֽאֱלֹהִים (דברי הימים ב' ג, ג), כלומר נתיעץ ועמד בסוד בנין עם דוד אביו כמו שנאמר ויתן דוד לשלמה את תבנית האולם. וְתָשֵׂם בַּסַּד רַגְלַי (איוב יג, כז), יש מפרשים אותו כי הוא העץ שמשימין בו רגלי האסורים ציפ"י בלע"ז. ועוד נכתבנו באות השֹי"ן.
ס-ת-ר
To be hidden, and to hide; the noun סֵתֶר, a hiding place or secrecy.
Being hidden
נִסְתְּרָה דַרְכִּי (Yeshayahu 40:27), my way is hidden, and אִם יִסָּתֵר אִישׁ בַּמִּסְתָּרִים (Yirmiyahu 23:24), if a man hide himself in secret places.
Hiding
אַסְתִּירָה פָנַי מֵהֶם (Devarim 32:20), I will hide My face from them, and בְּאַשְׁפָּתוֹ הִסְתִּירָנִי (Yeshayahu 49:2), in His quiver He hid me. On וְחַטֹּאותֵיכֶם הִסְתִּירוּ פָנִים מִכֶּם מִשְּׁמוֹעַ (Yeshayahu 59:2), and your sins have hidden the face from you, from hearing, he notes that the verb there carries two objects.
The hiding place
אַתָּה סֵתֶר לִי מִצַּר (Tehillim 32:7), You are a hiding place for me from trouble; אֶעֶנְךָ בְּסֵתֶר רַעַם (Tehillim 81:8), I answered you in the hiding place of thunder, is in sense like Hashem's answering Iyov out of the storm (Iyov 38:1); and בַּמִּסְתָּרִים יַהֲרֹג נָקִי (Tehillim 10:8), in the hiding places he kills the innocent.
A word written with a sin
וַיִּשָּׂתְרוּ לָהֶם (Shmuel I 5:9), and they were hidden on them: though it is written with a sin, he says it is all one sense, and explains that the tumours were covered over within them.
A reading he leaves open
וְסֵתֶר מַיִם יִשְׁטֹפוּ (Yeshayahu 28:17) stands among the nouns: waters will sweep away the hiding place. Or סתר may stand in construct with the water, and be taken in the sense Chazal use often, of pulling down, as הסותר את כותלו (Bava Kamma 30a, 6b), one who pulls down his wall, and many other words of theirs in this sense.
נִסְתְּרָה דַרְכִּי מֵֽי"י (ישעיה מ, כז), וּמִפָּנֶיךָ אֶסָּתֵר (בראשית ד, יד), הַנִּשְׁאָרִים וְהַנִּסְתָּרִים מִפָּנֶֽיךָ (דברים ז, כ), הַנִּסְתָּרֹת לַֽי"י אֱלֹהֵינוּ (דברים כט, כח), אִם־יִסָּתֵר אִישׁ בַּמִּסְתָּרִים (ירמיה כג, כד), וְאֵין נִסְתָּר מֵֽחַמָּתֽוֹ (תהלים יט, ז). ומענין זה וַיִּשָּֽׂתְרוּ לָהֶם עֲפֹלִֽים [טְחֹרִֽים] (שמואל א' ה, ט), ואף על פי שהוא בשֹי"ן הכל ענין אחד פירושו כי היו הטחורים מכוסים להם מבפנים. והכבד [הִפְעִיל] יַסְתִּרֵֽנִי בְּסֵתֶר אָהֳלוֹ (תהלים כז, ה), וְיַסְתֵּר פָּנִים וּמִי יְשׁוּרֶנּוּ (איוב לד, כט), אַסְתִּירָה פָנַי מֵהֶם (דברים לב, כ), וַיַּסְתִּרֵם י"י (ירמיה לו, כו), בְּאַשְׁפָּתוֹ הִסְתִּירָֽנִי (ישעיה מט, ב). לַסְתִּר עֵצָה (ישעיה כט, טו), כמו לְהַסְתִּיר. וְחַטֹּֽאותֵיכֶם הִסְתִּירוּ פָנִים מִכֶּם מִשְּׁמֽוֹעַ (ישעיה נט, ב), הוא יוצא לשנים פעולים. והכבד הדגוש [פִּעֵל] סַתְּרִי נִדָּחִים (ישעיה טז, ד), מֵֽאַֽהֲבָה מְסֻתָּֽרֶת (משלי כז, ה). ופירשנו הפסוק בשרש יָכַח. וההתפעל הֲלוֹא דָוִד מִסְתַּתֵּר עִמָּנוּ (שמואל א' כג, יט), וּבִינַת נְבֹנָיו תִּסְתַּתָּֽר (ישעיה כט, יד). והשם אַתָּה סֵתֶר לִי מִצַּר (תהלים לב, ז), הֱוִי־סֵתֶר לָמוֹ מִפְּנֵי שׁוֹדֵד (ישעיה טז, ד), בחמש נקודות. בְּסֵתֶר הַמַּדְרֵגָה (שיר השירים ב, יד), אֶעֶנְךָ בְּסֵתֶר רַעַם (תהלים פא, ח), ענין פירושו כענין וַיַּֽעַן־י"י אֶת־אִיּוֹב מִנ [מִן] ׀ הַסְּעָרָה (איוב לח, א), בְּסֵתֶר אָהֳלוֹ (תהלים כז, ה). ובה"א הנקבה יְהִי עֲלֵיכֶם סִתְרָֽה (דברים לב, לח). ובתוספת מ"ם יֶאֱרֹב בַּמִּסְתָּר (תהלים י, ט), בַּמִּסְתָּרִים יַֽהֲרֹג נָקִי (תהלים י, ח). ומשקל אחר וּכְמַסְתֵּר פָּנִים מִמֶּנּוּ (ישעיה נג, ג). ומשקל אחר וּלְמַחְסֶה וּלְמִסְתּוֹר (ישעיה ד, ו). וְסֵתֶר מַיִם יִשְׁטֹֽפוּ (ישעיה כח, יז). או יהיה סתר סמוך למים ויהיה פירושו מענין שנשתמשו בו רבותינו ז"ל הרבה באמרם (בבא קמא ל, ע"א. ו ,ע"ב) הסותר את כותלו ואחרים רבים בדבריהם בזה הענין.ואשר הם בני ארבע אותיות
ר-ז-ם
To hint with the eyes; he takes it as רמז turned about, the word Chazal use for hinting.
Hinting with the eyes
וּמַה־יִּרְזְמוּן עֵינֶיךָ (Iyov 15:12), and what do your eyes hint, is רמז with its letters turned about, as Chazal use it: חרש רומז ונרמז (Gittin 5:7, 59b), a deaf man hints and is hinted to, and מרמוזי רמוזי להדדי (Bava Kamma 24b), they hint one to another.
The Targum's word for it
קֹרֵֽץ עַיִן (Mishlei 10:10), he who winks the eye, the Targum renders דְרָמֵז בְּעַיְנוֹהִי, who hints with his eyes, and שְׁלַח אֶצְבַּע (Yeshayahu 58:9), the pointing of the finger, it renders מִרְמַז בְּאֶצְבַּע, hinting with the finger.
וּֽמַה־יִּרְזְמוּן עֵינֶֽיךָ (איוב טו, יב), כמו הפוך בדברי רבותינו ז"ל (גיטין פרק חמישי משנה ז. דף נט, ע"ב) חרש רומז ונרמז. מרמוזי רמוזי להדדי (בבא קמא כד, ע"ב). קֹרֵֽץ עַיִן (משלי י, י) תרגומו דְרָמֵז בְּעַיְנוֹהִי, שְׁלַח אֶצְבַּע (ישעיה נח, ט) תרגומו מִרְמַז בְּאֶצְבַּע.
Radak, Sefer HaShorashim, Berlin 1847. Public domain, digitised by Sefaria from the National Library of Israel.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Sukkos - Bereishis - Revealing the Secret," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 8 October 2022.
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Balak: Muzzled Up," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 1 July 2023.
Cited in the essay: Bereishis 25:29, 35:4 with Targum, and 49:6 with Rav Hirsch; Shemos 2:12 with Targum, 25:10, 25:11, 25:25 and 39:2 with Tosafos HaShalem, and 35:22 with Rav Hirsch; Vayikra 2:2 with Rav Hirsch; Devarim 32:34 with Rav Hirsch and Targum Yonasan; Shoftim 3:19, 5:3, 14:12-13; Shmuel I 10:22 with Targum; Melachim II 4:38; Yeshayahu 3:23, 24:16, 40:23; Yirmiyahu 13:5 with Targum; Amos 3:7; Tehillim 2:2 with Rav Hirsch, and 10:11, 27:5, 32:7, 139:15 with Targum; Mishlei 8:15, 14:28 with Malbim, 15:22, 31:4, 31:24; Iyov 13:27 with Rashi, 15:12 with Malbim, 33:11, and 36:32 with Targum; Daniel 2:18-47 with Rashi to 2:19 and 2:47, and 4:6 with Rashi; Mishnah Peah 5:8, Kilayim 1:8, 6:4, Shabbos 12:1, Gittin 5:7, Bava Basra 4:9, Sanhedrin 7:3; Eruvin 65a; Pesachim 49b; Rosh HaShanah 20b with Rashi; Chagigah 14a; Yevamos 63b; Kesubos 112a; Sanhedrin 38a, and 94a with Rashi; Ibn Janach and Radak, Sefer HaShorashim; Menachem Ibn Saruk; Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim, Cheshek Shlomo; Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg, HaKsav VeHaKabbalah; Shoresh Yesha; Rabbi Avi Kobernick; Rabbi Yitzchak Ibn Ghiyyat, with the Academy of the Hebrew Language; Rabbi Dov Kook of Tiberias; Rabbi Eliyahu HaBachur, Sefer HaTishbi; the Chassidei Ashkenaz; Maggid Meisharim to Vayakhel and Tzav; the Chida; Rabbi Elazar Lipa Gartenhaus; Rabbi Ernest Klein; the Dead Sea Scrolls.