other
smooth
חלק · שוע · שעיע · משעי · שעשוע
Bottom line
Chalak is the adjective: smooth, and where a surface lets things slide, slippery. Shua and its Aramaic form shiiya are not that. They name the act of making smooth by laying or pressing one material onto another, so render them smoothed on, daubed, plastered, or in the shaatnez sugya combed smooth together (Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg). The trap is translating both as "smooth"; the halachah in Kilayim 9:8 turns on the difference.
At a glance
| Hebrew | translit | English | what sets it apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| חלק | chalak | smooth, slippery | a state, no process implied (Mecklenburg) |
| שוע | shua | smoothed on, daubed | smoothing by attaching one thing to another (Tosafos, Rambam) |
| שעיע | shiiya | smooth | Aramaic of the Targumim for chalak, but the root is Hebrew too (Rabbi Avraham Vilner) |
| משעי | mishi | smoothness | the smoothing bathing gives the skin (Radak); or bathing for pleasure (Rashi, Menachem) |
| שעשוע | shaashua | delight | smooth borrowed for pleasant (Mecklenburg) |
Where the authorities disagree
What shua means in the shaatnez Mishnah. Shaatnez (Vayikra 19:19; Devarim 22:11) is read by the Mishnah (Kilayim 9:8) as a contraction of shua (smoothed), tavui (spun) and nuz (woven or twisted); the issur binds only where all three were done to wool and linen together.
- Rashi (to Yevamos 5b): shua is "combed smooth," and it applies to a single material worked on its own. So wool and linen must be combined from the earliest stage, at the combing of the fibers; mixed later, the cloth is not shaatnez.
- Tosafos (opinions cited there): shua is the smoothness produced by attaching separate things, "pressed smooth together." Wool and linen processed apart and joined afterward are still shaatnez.
The practical case is felt, made by pressing fibers together: not shaatnez on Rashi's definition, shaatnez on the Tosafists'.
The proof for the second view. Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg points to the Rambam's commentary on that Mishnah, which defines shua from Targum Onkelos to Vayikra 14:42, where v'tach es habayis, plastering the house after the afflicted stones are replaced, is rendered v'yashua. Plastering is not smoothing a thing in itself; it is attaching plaster to a wall, with smoothness the result. He adds the cognate sha, closing the eyes (Yeshayahu 6:10, 32:3), where the eyelids are as if fastened one to the other.
What mishi means in Yechezkel 16:4. Radak (there and in Sefer HaShorashim): smoothness, since washing smooths the skin. Menachem Ibn Saruk and Rashi: it belongs with shaashua, and the pasuk speaks of bathing for pleasure. The Bottom line follows Radak, since the ש-ע root elsewhere is about surface, but the readings are close and Mecklenburg's own account of shaashua shows how one becomes the other.
Whether shiiya is Hebrew at all. The Targumim render Yaakov's chalak (Bereishis 27:11) with the Aramaic shiiya, which would make them a Hebrew and Aramaic pair for one idea. Rabbi Avraham Vilner (Tirgem Avraham) brings Yechezkel 16:4 to show the ש-ע root is native Hebrew as well, which is what makes a real distinction between chalak and shua possible.
Distinctions
chalak (חלק)
Yaakov: "v'anochi ish chalak," "and I am a smooth man" (Bereishis 27:11); Rivkah covers chelkas tzavarav, the smooth of his neck (Bereishis 27:16). The word extends to slippery footing and to slipping itself. In Rabbinic Hebrew a chaluk is a plain garment with nothing worked onto it. Yiddish renders it glatt, which is why lungs free of adhesions are called glatt.
shua (שוע), shiiya (שעיע), mishi (משעי)
Root ש-ע. On Mecklenburg's reading, the root is about laying one thing onto another so that the join is smooth: plaster onto a wall (Vayikra 14:42 in Onkelos), fibers pressed into one another (Kilayim 9:8 on Tosafos' reading), eyelid onto eyelid (Yeshayahu 6:10, 32:3). Mishi at Yechezkel 16:4, of the abandoned infant not washed l'mishi, is the same root. And shaashua, delight, is the root borrowed: what is smooth to the touch is pleasant.
Rendering guidance
- Chalak of a person or surface: "smooth." Of ground or a path: "slippery."
- In Kilayim 9:8 do not render shua "smooth." Say "combed smooth" if following Rashi, "pressed smooth together" if following Tosafos, and name which; the halachah about felt hangs on it.
- Vayikra 14:42, v'tach: "and he shall plaster the house." Onkelos' v'yashua is the evidence that shua includes application, and a translation that says merely "smooth the house" destroys the proof.
- Trap: English "smooth" covers both words and also the verb "to smooth." Reserve bare "smooth" for chalak; give shua a verb that names the material being applied.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Smooth Sliding and Glad Gliding," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 2 Kislev 5780 (2019-11-30): https://articles.ohr.edu/articles/smooth-sliding-and-glad-gliding; raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/8497-smooth-sliding-and-glad-gliding.md. Primary loci: Bereishis 27:11, 27:16; Vayikra 14:42, 19:19; Devarim 22:11; Yeshayahu 6:10, 32:3; Yechezkel 16:4; Mishnah Kilayim 9:8 with the Rambam's commentary; Rashi and Tosafos to Yevamos 5b; Radak, Sefer HaShorashim s.v. משע; Rabbi Avraham Vilner, Tirgem Avraham; Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg. The article's closing paragraphs on Germanic and English cognates are omitted here.