sign
At a glance
In short
Oht is a sign or token, the general word, and Abarbanel's examples suggest it can be entirely natural: the luminaries are an oht for the seasons, tefillin are an oht, the tribal flags were an oht, a letter of the aleph-beis is an oht. Mofet is the narrower word, a wonder or portent. Ramban and Malbim take it as a sign that bends nature, while Abarbanel holds that neither word refers to a supernatural wonder. For Malbim, every mofet is an oht, but not every oht a mofet; the Sifrei (Naso 23) instead counts them as two terms the Torah uses for one thing. The makkos are called both (Shemos 10:1-2 and 11:9-10).
Three signs in Parshas Bo
Parshas Bo carries three signs: the makkos in Mitzrayim are called a sign (Shemos 10:1-2), the blood the Jews were to put on the doorpost is called a sign (Shemos 12:13), and the tefillin they are to wear are called a sign (Shemos 13:9, 13:16). The word in each case is oht. But the ten makkos are also called mofet (Shemos 11:9-10). So what is the difference between an oht and a mofet?
Distinctions
Oht (אות)
- Ramban derives it from א-ת-ה, "come," in Aramaic with an aleph in place of the hei, since it signals what is to come.
- Malbim: any sign or symbol used to remind a person of what it symbolizes.
- Abarbanel's examples point to the natural range: the sun and moon serve as an oht for different periods of time (Bereishis 1:14), tefillin is an oht symbolizing the Exodus (Shemos 13:9, 13:16), the flags of each tribe bore images serving as an oht symbolizing the tribe (Bamidbar 2:2), and each letter of the aleph-beis is called an oht because it is a sign representing a certain sound; all of these suggest that an oht can be a sign within the confines of nature.
- Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim (1740-1814) contrasts oht with eid: an oht is simply a reminder, while an eid serves to remind and to spur one into action. He also traces asah (אתה), "come" (Devarim 33:2), to the single letter ת, which stands for bordering because it closes the aleph-beis: a border links two bodies and also distinguishes between them. Words from this root relate to bordering and connecting, and so an oht forms a connection between the sign and the signified.
- Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim (Yerios Shlomo p. 394): the root of os is the tav alone.
- Noam Elimelech (to Shemos 10:1): os is the supernatural punishments and calamities that come upon the wicked (see Yirmiyahu 10:2), and pele the good Hashem provides for Yisrael.
Mofet (מופת)
- Ramban: from pele, a wonder.
- Radak: the root is י-פ-ת.
- Rabbi Shlomo Aharon Wertheimer reports that some claim the root is י-פ-ע, the ayin always dropped and the yud sometimes morphing into a mem, making mofet a relative of mofia, "presents itself," since a sign is how one presents an idea to others; his alternative is that mofet means the presentation of a new, hitherto unseen phenomenon.
- Sifrei (Naso 23) counts os and mofes as two terms for one thing.
Where the authorities disagree
Whether they differ at all.
- The Sifrei (Naso 23): oht and mofes are two terms the Torah uses for one thing.
- Malbim: mofet is the narrower word; every mofet is an oht, but not every oht a mofet. Ramban and Abarbanel below also set them apart.
Whether mofet is supernatural at all.
- Yes. Ramban (to Devarim 13:2): an oht is a sign meant to portend the fulfillment of a prophecy, as when a navi predicts that if such-and-such happens it will be a sign that something else is true; and he relates oht, aleph-vav-tav, to the word for coming, aleph-tav-hei, more commonly in its Aramaic form with a second aleph for the hei, because it is a sign of things to come. A mofet he takes as a sign that comes about miraculously, bending the apparent rules of nature, the word being shorthand for muflat/niflah/pele, wondrous, with the lamed dropped for brevity. Malbim: a mofet is a supernatural sign used to remind one of Hashem, the ultimate mover behind all natural and supernatural phenomena.
- No. Abarbanel (1437-1508) writes that some commentators claim oht and mofet to be synonyms referring to supernatural phenomena, and disagrees: neither word refers to a supernatural wonder, both referring to natural signs. An oht is a sign or symbol that can lie within nature; a mofet is a non-physical sign, a more abstract, logical argument, and he relates mofet to yofi, beauty, because the veracity of a logical argument lies in the beauty of its honesty. Radak in Sefer HaShorashim gives the root of mofet as י-פ-ת. The earliest person to use mofet in this way was Rabbi Shmuel Ibn Tibbon (1150-1230), best known for translating the works of the Rambam and others from Judeo-Arabic into Hebrew, who writes that a mofet is a proof that conclusively establishes an idea while an oht is evidence pointing in the direction of an idea without conclusively proving it.
Which word points to the sender and which to the message.
- Sforno (to Shemos 7:9): when Hashem sends someone to perform a miraculous feat, the word used depends on the purpose of the miracle. If the purpose is to relate a message about Hashem, the term is mofet; if it is to relate something about the messenger or medium, the term is oht.
- Malbim explains the staff-and-snake: before Klal Yisrael it is an oht, a sign to them that Moshe was really sent by Hashem; before Pharaoh it is a mofet, since to Pharaoh, who denied Hashem, it was simply a supernatural parlor trick with no deeper meaning.
Mofet and belief.
- Radak (1160-1235) in Sefer HaShorashim: an oht is any type of sign, while a mofet is specifically the sort of sign whose purpose is to cause one to believe in something set for the future.
- Rabbi Avraham Menachem HaKohen Rappaport (1520-1594) in Minchah Belulah gives two differences: an oht directly brings a person to a certain belief, while a mofet only pushes him in the direction of a belief without bringing him to any conclusion, and he relates mofet to mefateh, to seduce or convince (see Devarim Rabbah §7:9); alternatively, an oht is a sign of the Heavenly realm and a mofet a sign in the Earthly realm. He then concludes that oht and mofet are simply synonyms meaning exactly the same thing.
Whether they are synonyms.
- Ramban cites the Sifrei (to Bamidbar 6:3), which explicitly notes that oht and mofet are the same thing, and explains that this does not literally mean the two are true synonyms bearing exactly the same meaning, only that both refer to the same sort of phenomenon.
- Midrash Lekach Tov, also known as Pesikta Zutrasa, cites the Sifrei and adds that an oht is a sign about something in the future and a mofet a sign of something imminent.
Rabbi Shlomo Aharon Wertheimer (1866-1935) explains that this is no contradiction: Midrash Lekach Tov understood the Sifrei to mean that there is no difference between the words in that both mean "a sign," while they can still differ in the detail of when what is signified is to manifest itself.
Also discussed in
- Comingאתה / אות (א-ת-ה, and Pappenheim's ת)
- Synonyms: the methodאתה / atah (Aramaic 'come', א-ת-ה)
- Witnessעד / eid
Radak on these roots
Sefer HaShorashim
א-ו-ת
A sign, which he explains as a mark, סימן; he writes of it further at the root יפת.
A mark
וְנָתַן אֵלֶיךָ אוֹת אוֹ מוֹפֵֽת (Devarim 13:2), and he gives you a sign or a wonder; וּבָא הָאוֹת וְהַמּוֹפֵת (Devarim 13:3), and the sign and the wonder come about; זֹאת אוֹת ־הַבְּרִית (Bereishis 9:12), this is the sign of the covenant; וְהָיָה הַדָּם לָכֶם לְאֹת (Shemos 12:13), the blood shall be a sign for you; אִישׁ עַל־דִּגְלוֹ בְאֹתֹת (Bamidbar 2:2), each man by his banner with signs. Its explanation is a mark, and Radak writes further on it under the root יפת.
וְנָתַן אֵלֶיךָ אוֹת אוֹ מוֹפֵֽת (דברים יג, ב), וּבָא הָאוֹת וְהַמּוֹפֵת (דברים יג, ג), זֹאת אוֹת־הַבְּרִית (בראשית ט, יב), וְהָיָה כִּי תָבֹאינָה [תָבֹאנָה] הָֽאֹתוֹת הָאֵלֶּה (שמואל א' י, י), וְהָיָה הַדָּם לָכֶם לְאֹת (שמות יב, יג), אִישׁ עַל־דִּגְלוֹ בְאֹתֹת (במדבר ב, ב), פירוש סימן ועוד נכתבנו בשרש יפת.
י-פ-ת
מוֹפֵת, whose sense is like אוֹת, a sign; but a מוֹפֵת is shown so that one believe in something like it yet to come, where an אוֹת can be a bare mark.
Like a sign, and how it differs
תְּנוּ לָכֶם מוֹפֵת (Shemos 7:9), give a sign for yourselves; אֲנִי מוֹפֶתְכֶם (Yechezkel 12:11), I am your sign; אֶת־כָּל־הַמֹּפְתִים הָאֵלֶּה (Shemos 11:10), all these signs. Its sense is like אוֹת, a sign, except that אוֹת falls in places where מוֹפֵת does not: אִישׁ עַל־דִּגְלוֹ בְאֹתֹת (Bamidbar 2:2), each man by his banner, with the signs, and וְהָיְתָה לְאוֹת בְּרִית (Bereishis 9:13), and it shall be for a sign of a covenant. In those places and their like מוֹפֵת does not fall, for a מוֹפֵת is a thing shown so that one may believe through it in something of its kind that is yet to be shown; אוֹת comes in that sense too, except that at times it comes for a mark alone, and מוֹפֵת does not.
תְּנוּ לָכֶם מוֹפֵת (שמות ז, ט), אֲנִי מֽוֹפֶתְכֶם (יחזקאל יב, יא), אֶת־כָּל־הַמֹּֽפְתִים הָאֵלֶּה (שמות יא, י), ענינו כמו אוֹת אלא שמלת אוֹת נופלת במקומות שלא תפול מלת מוֹפֵת כמו אִישׁ עַל־דִּגְלוֹ בְאֹתֹת (במדבר ב, ב), וְהָֽיְתָה לְאוֹת בְּרִית (בראשית ט, יג), ולא תפול באותם המקומות ובדומיהם מוֹפֵת, כי המּוֹפֵת הוא דבר נראה להאמין בו דבר כיוצא בו שעתיד להראות ומלת אוֹת תבוא גם כן בזה הענין אלא שפעמים תבא לסימן לבד ולא כן מלת מוֹפֵת.
פ-ל-א
To be wondrous, or too wondrous for someone, with פֶּלֶא, a wonder. Another sense, close to it, is setting apart, as with a vow; in that sense the root is פָּלָה.
Too wondrous
כִּי יִפָּלֵא מִמְּךָ דָבָר (Devarim 17:8), if a matter is too wondrous for you; לֹֽא־ נִפְלֵאת הִוא מִמְּךָ (Devarim 30:11), it is not too wondrous for you; נִפְלְאַתָה אַֽהֲבָֽתְךָ לִי (Shmuel II 1:26), your love to me was wondrous, carrying two feminine endings, like כִּי הֶחְבְּאַתָה (Yehoshua 6:17), for she hid; נִפְלָאִים מַֽעֲשֶׂיךָ (Tehillim 139:14), Your works are wondrous; בִּגְדֹלוֹת וּבְנִפְלָאוֹת מִמֶּֽנִּי (Tehillim 131:1), in great things and in things too wondrous for me; שִׂיחוּ בְּכָל־ נִפְלְאוֹתָֽיו (Tehillim 105:2), speak of all His wonders. It is also written like the roots that end in heh: נוֹרָאוֹת נִפְלֵיתִי (Tehillim 139:14), I am made fearfully wondrous.
The nouns and the adjective
עֹשֵׂה פֶֽלֶא (Shemos 15:11), doer of wonder, pointed with segols; וַתֵּרֶד פְּלָאִים (Eichah 1:9), she came down wondrously. The feminine plural is פְּלָאוֹת עֵדְוֹתֶיךָ (Tehillim 119:129), Your testimonies are wonders, and קֵץ הַפְּלָאֽוֹת (Daniel 12:6), the end of the wonders; with an added mem, מִפְלְאוֹת תְּמִים דֵּעִֽים (Iyov 37:16), the wonders of Him who is perfect in knowledge. The adjective is פְּלִאָֽיה (Tehillim 139:6), wondrous, said of דַעַת מִמֶּנִּי, knowledge too wondrous for me, formed as שְֹרִידָה is from שָֹרִיד and פְּלִיטָה from פָּלִיט. The adjective also takes the form פֶּלֶא, with segols: פֶּלֶא יוֹעֵץ (Yeshayahu 9:5), a wondrous counsellor.
Doing wondrously
הִפְלִיא עֵצָה (Yeshayahu 28:29), He made counsel wondrous; כִּֽי־ הִפְלִיא חַסְדּוֹ לִי (Tehillim 31:22), for He made His kindness wondrous to me; אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂה עִמָּכֶם לְהַפְלִיא (Yoel 2:26), who dealt wondrously with you; הַפְלֵא וָפֶלֶא (Yeshayahu 29:14), wonder upon wonder; and וְתָשֹׁב תִּתְפַּלָּא ־בִֽי (Iyov 10:16), and again You show Yourself wondrous against me. The sense of wonder is well known.
A name kept hidden
From this sense, וְהוּא־ פֶֽלִאי (Shoftim 13:18), and it is wondrous, is an adjective for the wondrous name, as though to say: my name is wondrous and too lofty to be made known to you. So too with Yaakov Avinu, where the angel would not make his own name known to him and said לָמָּה זֶּה תִּשְׁאַל לִשְׁמִי (Bereishis 32:30), why is it that you ask my name. This was because the angels appeared to them in the likeness of men and did not reveal that they were angels, and so did not mention their names. So too פְּלֹנִי אַלְמֹנִי (Melachim II 6:8), so-and-so: a man whose name is hidden from the one who mentions him is called פלוני, and even where he is known to the one who mentions him, if he does not wish to call him by name he says פלוני of him. Chazal use it often in their language.
Setting apart
Another sense, close to this one: כִּי יַפְלִא לִנְדֹּר נֶדֶר נָזִיר (Bamidbar 6:2), when a man sets himself apart to vow a nazir's vow, and לְפַלֵּא ־נֶדֶר (Bamidbar 15:3), to set apart a vow. Their sense is separating, and in this sense the root is פָּלָה, with a heh.
כִּי יִפָּלֵא מִמְּךָ דָבָר (דברים יז, ח), לֹֽא־נִפְלֵאת הִוא מִמְּךָ (דברים ל, יא), נִפְלְאַתָה אַֽהֲבָֽתְךָ לִי (שמואל ב' א, כו), בשני סימני הנקבה כמו כִּי הֶחְבְּאַתָה (יהושע ו, יז). נִפְלָאִים מַֽעֲשֶׂיךָ (תהלים קלט, יד), בִּגְדֹלוֹת וּבְנִפְלָאוֹת מִמֶּֽנִּי (תהלים קלא, א), שִׂיחוּ בְּכָל־נִפְלְאוֹתָֽיו (תהלים קה, ב). ונכתב כבעלי הה"א אֽוֹדְךָ עַל כִּי נוֹרָאוֹת נִפְלֵיתִי (תהלים קלט, יד). והשם עֹשֵׂה פֶֽלֶא (שמות טו, יא), בשש נקודות. וַתֵּרֶד פְּלָאִים (איכה א, ט). והקבוץ בלשון נקבות פְּלָאוֹת עֵדְוֹתֶיךָ (תהלים קיט, קכט), קֵץ הַפְּלָאֽוֹת (דניאל יב, ו). ובתוספת מ"ם מִפְלְאוֹת תְּמִים דֵּעִֽים (איוב לז, טז). והתאר פְּלִאָֽיה [פְּלִיאָֽה] דַעַת מִמֶּנִּי (תהלים קלט, ו), כמו שיאמר מן שָֹרִיד שְֹרִידָה ומן פָּלִיט פְּלִיטָה. ומשקל התאר פֶּלֶא יוֹעֵץ (ישעיה ט, ה), והוא בשש נקודות. והפעל הכבד [הִפְעִיל] הִפְלִיא עֵצָה (ישעיה כח, כט), כִּֽי־הִפְלִיא חַסְדּוֹ לִי (תהלים לא, כב), אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂה עִמָּכֶם לְהַפְלִיא (יואל ב, כו), הַפְלֵא וָפֶלֶא (ישעיה כט, יד). וההתפעל וְתָשֹׁב תִּתְפַּלָּא־בִֽי (איוב י, טז), ענין פלא ידוע. ומזה הענין וְהוּא־פֶֽלִאי (שופטים יג, יח), והוא שם תאר לשם הנפלא כלומר שמי נפלא ונשגב מלהודיע לך. וכן ליעקב אבינו שלא רצה המלאך להודיע לו שמו ואמר לו לָמָּה זֶּה תִּשְׁאַל לִשְׁמִי (בראשית לב, ל) והיה זה בעבור כי היו המלאכים נראים להם בדמות אנשים ולא היו מגלים שהם מלאכים לפיכך לא היו מזכירים שמם. וכן פְּלֹנִי אַלְמֹנִי (מלכים ב' ו, ח), האיש המכוסה שמו אצל הזוכר אותו יאמרו עליו פלוני ואף על פי שהוא ידוע אצל הזוכר אותו ואינו רוצה לקרותו בשמו יאמר עליו פלוני. וכן רבותינו ז"ל הרגילו בלשונם בזה. וענין אחר קרוב לזה כִּי יַפְלִא לִנְדֹּר נֶדֶר נָזִיר (במדבר ו, ב). וכבד אחר [פִּעֵל] לְפַלֵּא־נֶדֶר (במדבר טו, ג), ענינם ענין הפרשה. ובענין הזה שרשו פָּלָה בה"א.
Radak, Sefer HaShorashim, Berlin 1847. Public domain, digitised by Sefaria from the National Library of Israel.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "The Sign is Coming," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 12 January 2019.
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Bo: Come To Pharaoh," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 23 January 2021.
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "The Sign is Coming…," What's in a Word? Synonyms in the Hebrew Language (book manuscript).
Cited in the essay: Bereishis 1:14; Shemos 7:9 with Sforno, 10:1-2, 11:9-10, 12:13, 13:9, 13:16; Bamidbar 2:2; Devarim 13:2 with Ramban, 33:2; the Sifrei to Bamidbar 6:3; Midrash Lekach Tov (Pesikta Zutrasa); Devarim Rabbah §7:9; Radak, Sefer HaShorashim; Malbim, Yair Ohr (מערכת א' אות יב), and Sefer HaCarmel s.v. אות\מופת and מופת; Abarbanel; Rabbi Shmuel Ibn Tibbon; Rabbi Avraham Menachem HaKohen Rappaport, Minchah Belulah; Rabbi Shlomo Aharon Wertheimer, Beiurei Shemos Nirdafim s.v. אות\מופת; Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim, Cheshek Shlomo s.v. עד; Pappenheim, Yerios Shlomo p. 394; Noam Elimelech to Shemos 10:1; Yirmiyahu 10:2; Sifrei, Naso 23.