What’s in a Word?

cognition

thought

מחשבה · הרהור · רעיון

Bottom line

Machshavah is the deliberate, worked-out thought, kin to cheshbon: thought. Raayon is the spark that surfaces unbidden and may or may not be developed: idea, notion (Rabbi Shlomo Aharon Wertheimer; Rashi and Ramban, though, treat it as a plain synonym of machshavah). Hirhur is a thought already shaped toward words, or a thought of the heart rather than the brain (Vilna Gaon): musing, or in a mussar setting stirring (of the heart). The one thing not to get wrong: hirhur is not a vaguer, lesser "thought"; on the Gaon's first reading it is the last stage, thought at the threshold of speech, and on his second it is the heart's thought, which is why it is the word for the stirrings a person is answerable for.

Distinctions

machshavah (מחשבה)

Root ח-ש-ב. Vilna Gaon (commentary to Sefer Yetzirah): a pure, abstract thought, as against hirhur, which has already been put into possible words; alternatively, machshavah takes place in the brain, the seat of intellect, while hirhur takes place in the heart, the seat of emotion. Wertheimer: machshavah is the fruit of deliberate, focused thinking, related to cheshbon, calculation; it is intended, purposeful pondering. On the track of thought it is the middle station: a raayon followed, contemplated, and developed to its conclusion (hogeh, higayon) matures into a machshavah.

hirhur (הרהור)

Root ה-ר-ר (Rabbinic). Vilna Gaon: a thought that has been transferred into possible words, so it is nearer to speech than machshavah is. Rabbi Pinchas HaLevi Horowitz: hirhur is related to herayon, pregnancy; it is the conception of a thought that will in time be born as speech. The Gaon's second account puts it in the heart, not the brain. Taken together, hirhurim are the unspoken words a person forms as he completes his train of thought and readies himself to speak. Rashi (to Daniel 2:29-30) defines raayon as hirhur, against his own equation of raayon with machshavah elsewhere.

raayon (רעיון)

The surface pull toward ratzon (will) is real: Hebrew tzadi regularly becomes Aramaic ayin, so ratzon is Aramaic raavon, one letter from raayon. Rashi (to Berachos 55b) rejects that etymology outright: raayon is not ratzon but machshavah. Ramban (cited to Bamidbar 2:14) likewise makes raayon synonymous with machshavah. Rabbi Meir HaLevi Abulafia (Yad Ramah to Sanhedrin 38b): raayon is simply the Aramaic for machshavah, so the two are one word in two languages. Wertheimer separates them: a raayon is the beginning of a thought, the idea that materialises as one clears the mind to rest, spontaneous and sometimes fleeting, which further deliberation may develop into a formulated concept; the machshavah is that developed result.

Rendering guidance

  • Machshavah alone: "thought"; where the calculation sense is felt (cheshbon), "design" or "intention" can serve, but "thought" is the default.
  • Raayon alone in Tanach or Aramaic: "thought," with Rashi and the Yad Ramah. In a later text that contrasts it with machshavah: "idea" or "notion," with Wertheimer, and keep "thought" free for machshavah.
  • Hirhur alone: "musing" when the sense is silent inner speech; "stirring" when the heart sense governs (the Gaon's second reading). Do not render it "reflection," which suggests the deliberate machshavah.
  • The three together, or a passage that ranks them: follow the track of thought, raayon (spark), machshavah (developed thought), hirhur (thought shaped into unspoken words), and give each its own English.
  • Trap: "thought" absorbs all three, and "idea" absorbs raayon and machshavah. If the passage does not turn on the difference, "thought" for each is acceptable; if it does, one English word per Hebrew word.
  • The pair hogeh/higayon names the process of following a thought to its conclusion: "contemplation," "reasoning it through," not a fourth noun for "thought."

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "A Word for a Thought," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 9 Teves 5777 (2017-01-07): raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/7082-a-word-for-a-thought.md. Primary loci the article cites: Vilna Gaon, commentary to Sefer Yetzirah; Rabbi Pinchas HaLevi Horowitz on hirhur and herayon; Rashi to Berachos 55b and to Daniel 2:29-30; Ramban (cited to Bamidbar 2:14); Yad Ramah to Sanhedrin 38b; Rabbi Shlomo Aharon Wertheimer on raayon against machshavah.