What’s in a Word?

speech

song

שיר · שירה · זמר · זמרה · מזמור · זמירות

Bottom line

Shir / shirah is song: the sung, worded song, and the general term for song sacred or secular (Malbim). Zemer / zimrah is music, or melody: instrumental music (Ibn Ezra, Radak, Sforno, the Vilna Gaon, Rav Hirsch, Wertheimer), or the tune as against the words (Mecklenburg), and in Malbim's second view the specifically religious song of Hashem's praise; when the two stand together shirah comes first, zimrah second, because zimrah is the higher (Malbim). Mizmor is psalm as a title, and in the superscriptions mizmor shir / shir mizmor the mizmor is the tune and the shir the words (Pappenheim, Pincus; Ibn Ezra sees no difference). The thing not to get wrong: שירו וזמרו is "sing and play," two acts, not "sing and sing."

Distinctions

shir / shirah (שיר, שירה)

Root ש-י-ר. The majority view: verbal song, the sung words. Malbim: the general term, religious or secular; Rabbi Yehuda Leib Edel: a plain expression of joy without necessarily naming its Source. Mecklenburg: the lyrics of the poem without the tune. Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner: praise of Hashem from rapture and attachment, His immanence. Maharal: shirah is a thing whose beginning is joined to its end, as a sher is a bracelet (Yeshayahu 3:19) or an animal's collar (Shabbos 5:1) or a ring of coins (Bava Metzia 25a); song comes at the completion of a task, when one looks back and thanks. Rabbi Moshe Shapiro: only in hindsight, when end meets beginning, is song fitting, and the whole Torah is a shirah (Devarim 31:19) because Haazinu is history whole; he also joins shirah to yashar through Avodah Zarah 24b on the cows that "sang" (vayisharnah, Shmuel I 6:12). Pappenheim: from yashar, straight, since a song holds one theme without deviating, so its end links to its beginning. Rabbi Shimon Dov Ber Analak: from shur, wall, a structure of lines each load-bearing, as a ring must be whole. Rabbi Immanuel Frances: shir is the singer's power to hold his hearers (sharir, shur, sherarah), and Biblical song speaks of the singer in the third person (Bereishis 49:2; Bamidbar 24:3; Shoftim 5:12) because true song stands outside oneself. The Chasam Sofer (via Rabbi Yaakov Haber): shirah is shirayim, the leftovers of the soul in a material world.

zemer / zimrah (זמר, זמרה)

Root ז-מ-ר, which also means "cut, prune" (zomer, Vayikra 25:3; one of the 39 melachos). The majority: instrumental music, hence klei zemer and Yiddish klezmer. Malbim: the higher, more intense form, always second in a pair; or, the specifically religious song of Hashem's praises. Edel: song that acknowledges Hashem as the source of the joy and thanks Him. Mecklenburg: the tune, sung or played. Rabbi Hutner: praise from awareness of Hashem's transcendence, in which a man "cuts off" his own existence before His infinite greatness. Noam Elimelech (to Bereishis 47:28, Shemos 19:1) and the Chasam Sofer: zimrah cuts away the outer distractions, and Pesukei DeZimrah cut down the klipos before prayer. Pappenheim: zimrah is the choicest segment of a song, the rest pruned away; Analak: one part cut off from the whole edifice; Frances: the artist prunes what is unneeded, as in zimras ha'aretz (Bereishis 43:11), the choicest produce people sing over (Rashi); Rabbeinu Efrayim ben Shimshon reads that zimras as wine, which gladdens and makes one sing; Rabbi Nachman of Breslov reads it as the niggun of Eretz Yisrael.

mizmor (מזמור)

Root ז-מ-ר. Ibn Ezra (to Tehillim 48:1): no difference between mizmor shir and shir mizmor. Pappenheim: side by side, shir is the words and mizmor the melody; shir mizmor opens with words and the tune follows, mizmor shir the reverse. Rabbi Shimshon Pincus (Shabbos Malkesa): shir is the story a song tells, mizmor the wordless tune when elation outruns words; a psalm titled shir mizmor begins in words and rises past them, mizmor shir begins at the peak and settles into words.

Rendering guidance

  • שירו לה' זמרו: "sing to Hashem, play [music]" or "sing and make music." Two verbs in English, in this order.
  • שיר / שירה alone: "song"; שירת הים "the Song of the Sea"; the Torah as שירה, "a song."
  • זמרה alone: "music," "melody," or "song of praise" by context (Malbim's second view); זמירות "hymns," "songs" (Shabbos zemiros stay transliterated in most house styles).
  • מזמור as a superscription: "a psalm"; מזמור שיר "a psalm, a song"; keep the Hebrew order and let the reader see two nouns.
  • פסוקי דזמרה: "the Verses of Song" (or keep the Hebrew); the article's gloss is "Verses of Hymns."
  • Trap: English "song" absorbs all three, and "sing" absorbs both verbs. Where the passage pairs them, or a derashah turns on the order (Malbim's rule), give שיר "song/sing" and זמר "music/play," and never invert.
  • Trap: "psalm" is fine for מזמור as a title but not for מזמור in Pincus's sense, the wordless melody; there write "melody."
  • Where the drush is on ז-מ-ר as pruning (Hutner, Noam Elimelech, Pappenheim), the English cannot carry the pun; gloss it once ("zimrah, which also means to prune") rather than translating the root into the running line.

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "PESACH: Sing and Song," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 10 Nisan 5780 (2020-04-04): raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/8681-pesach-sing-and-song.md. Primary loci the article cites: Ibn Ezra and Sforno to Tehillim 105:2; Radak to Divrei HaYamim I 16:9; Vilna Gaon in Be'er Avraham to Tehillim 27:6; Rav Hirsch to Tehillim 33:2; Ibn Ezra to Tehillim 48:1; Yeshayahu 3:19 (sher); Shabbos 5:1; Bava Metzia 25a; Devarim 31:19; Shmuel I 6:12 with Avodah Zarah 24b; Bereishis 43:11 with Rashi and Rabbeinu Efrayim; Vayikra 25:3; Bereishis 49:2, Bamidbar 24:3, Shoftim 5:12; Noam Elimelech to Bereishis 47:28 and Shemos 19:1; Rabbi Shimshon Pincus, Shabbos Malkesa.