What’s in a Word?

cognition

seeing

ראה · הביט · השקיף · צופה · שור · מציץ

Bottom line

Ra'ah is plain seeing, the eye doing its work, including what a man happens upon without meaning to. Hibit is the deliberate look, and in the Midrash the look of one positioned above what he sees. Mashkif is looking out or down from a height, one who sees without being seen; in the Chumash Rashi takes it as boding ill. Tzofeh is gazing at what is not present to the eye, which is why a navi is a tzofeh and why waiting for what has not yet come is mitzapeh. Shur is seeing from far off, metzitz is peeking through a narrow opening, and mashgiach is watching that acts on what it sees. The trap is English "look," which will absorb hibit, mashkif, and metzitz at once.

Distinctions

ra'ah (ראה)

Malbim: the physiological function of the eye, the sense of sight itself, and in particular a sight one stumbles on without intending to behold it. The Vilna Gaon (to Yeshayahu 5:12): ra'ah is seeing at the surface, what a quick glance takes in.

hibit (הביט)

The Vilna Gaon (there): hibit is seeing what a glance would not have caught, so the verb carries deliberateness, looking in order to investigate or understand. Bereishis Rabbah 44:12: hibit is the looking of one above at what is below him. Malbim accepts both and reconciles them: sometimes hibit is examination, and then the looker need not be above; sometimes it is simply seeing, and then it is specifically from above. Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg rejects the deliberateness altogether: hibit is turning the head to face what one wants to see, a word about the head rather than the eye, and the real word for deliberate looking is mashkif. Midrash to Koheles 5:1 makes the difference between ra'ah and hibit one of near and far, and records a dispute among the Sages over which is which.

mashkif (משקיף), hashkafah (השקפה)

Radak (Sefer HaShorashim): mashkif is one who sees but cannot be seen. Rashi (to Bereishis 18:16): every hashkafah in the Torah is for ill, except Devarim 26:15, where it is for good. Rabbi Shlomo Aharon Wertheimer corrects the common overreading: Rashi meant every instance in the Torah, not in all of Tanach. Rashi (to Berachos 29a): hishkif is staring at something to jog one's memory. Sefer HaChochmah, ascribed to Rabbi Elazar Rokeach of Worms: mashkif looks down from a high place, and tzofeh from a very high place, a mountain.

tzofeh (צופה)

The gazing at what does not physically exist, an abstraction rather than a thing. Malbim: awaiting what has not yet come is mitzapeh on the same logic, since the one who waits also sees what is not there and hopes it will come to be; and nevi'im are called tzofim because their visions, though not physically present, are altogether real. Rabbi Wertheimer adds the sentry: one who stays in place over time to watch developments as they unfold. The Vilna Gaon (to Mishlei 15:3) puts the distance in this word: tzofeh is seeing from afar.

shur (שור)

Malbim: seeing something far away, in time or in space. Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim links it to yashar, straight: sight alone among the senses can be aimed, the man setting his eyes directly opposite one view so that he sees nothing else, where the nose, ears, and palate take in whatever reaches them all at once.

metzitz (מציץ)

Malbim: not primarily a word for seeing at all, but a borrowed term whose hyper-literal sense is stretching; the one who is metzitz cranes his neck for a better view, as in Shir HaShirim 2:9, peering through the lattice. Rabbi Wertheimer: looking where the field of vision is constricted, which in English is peeking.

mashgiach (משגיח)

Rabbi Wertheimer: unlike mashkif, mashgiach always carries a good sense. Rabbi Moshe Shapiro: not one who merely watches but one who watches actively, and when he sees what calls for intervention he steps in and sets it right. So too hashgachah, Hashem's conduct of creation: not a spectator, but One who governs events by His will.

Rendering guidance

  • Ra'ah: "see." Hibit: "look" or "gaze at," and where the Midrash's sense is in play, "look down at."
  • Mashkif: "look out" or "peer down," and in Bereishis 18:16 and its like keep the ominous edge Rashi gives it ("looked down upon"). Devarim 26:15 is "look down from Your holy dwelling" in the good sense, and the exception should be visible if the passage darshens it.
  • Tzofeh: "gaze" for the abstract seeing, "watchman" for the sentry, "seer" for the navi. Mitzapeh: "await" or "look forward to," never plain "see."
  • Metzitz: "peek" or "peer," and keep the constriction; "look" loses the whole word.
  • Mashgiach: "oversee" or "watch over," not "observe," which is passive and cancels Rabbi Moshe Shapiro's point. Hashgachah: "Divine Providence."
  • Trap: a pasuk that pairs two of these (Yeshayahu 5:12 with ra'ah and hibit; Koheles 5:1 in the Midrash) must show the pair in English. Use "see" for one and "look intently" or "look down" for the other, and say in a note which authority you followed, since the Gaon and Rabbi Mecklenburg divide hibit differently.

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Seeing is Believing," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 15 Cheshvan 5778 (2017-11-04): https://articles.ohr.edu/articles/seeing-is-believing; raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/7463-seeing-is-believing.md. Primary loci: Vilna Gaon to Yeshayahu 5:12 and to Mishlei 15:3; Bereishis Rabbah 44:12; Midrash to Koheles 5:1; Rashi to Bereishis 18:16 and to Berachos 29a; Devarim 26:15; Radak, Sefer HaShorashim s.v. שקף; Sefer HaChochmah ascribed to Rabbi Elazar Rokeach of Worms; Shir HaShirim 2:9. Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg writes in HaKesav VeHaKabbalah.