nature
tree
עץ · אילן · אילנא
Bottom line
Eitz is the Hebrew word and ilan the Aramaic one, but in lashon Chazal they divide the field: ilan is the living tree, eitz is the wood. In Tanach eitz does both jobs, so a Chumash rendering picks "tree" or "wood" by context alone. The one thing not to get wrong: the berachah says borei pri ha'eitz over the fruit of an ilan, and that is not a slip.
At a glance
| Hebrew | translit | English | what sets it apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| עץ | eitz | tree, wood | Hebrew; in Tanach both senses at once; root sense is hardness, with atzum and etzem (Pappenheim) |
| אילן | ilan | living tree | Aramaic, only in Daniel 4 in Tanach; adopted by Chazal for the standing tree (Hirschensohn) |
Distinctions
eitz (עץ)
Everywhere in Tanach: eitz hadaas, eitz hachaim, atzei shittim, atzei levanah. Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim connects it to atzum, strong, and etzem, bone: what marks a tree off from grass and the other flimsy growing things is that it is hard and lasting. The word therefore names the substance as readily as the plant, which is why it serves for timber as well.
ilan (אילן) and ilana (אילנא)
Ilan appears once in Tanach, at Daniel 4:7, and ilana several times in the same perek (4:8, 4:11, 4:17, 4:20, 4:23), all of it in Aramaic. It is then everywhere in the Mishnah and the rest of rabbinic literature. Rabbi Chaim Hirschensohn accounts for the switch: Biblical Hebrew used eitz for both the living tree and cut wood, and Chazal wanted the two apart. They took the Aramaic ilana from Daniel, Hebraized it to ilan for the living tree, and narrowed eitz to wood. One word changed, and the ambiguity was gone.
The berachah
Rabbi Betzalel Stern (Be'tzel HaChochmah) was asked whether the fixed wording of berachos and tefillos follows Biblical or Rabbinic Hebrew. His proof is the Mishnah in Berachos 6:1: over the fruits of an ilan one says borei pri ha'eitz. Though the living word in their own speech was ilan, Chazal put eitz into the berachah, which shows that they preferred Biblical Hebrew when fixing a nusach.
Rendering guidance
- In Tanach, eitz takes "tree" when it is growing and "wood" when it is cut; the Hebrew gives no help, only the context does. Atzei shittim is "shittim wood", eitz hachaim is "the Tree of Life".
- In a Mishnaic or halachic passage, keep the pair distinct: ilan is "tree", eitz is "wood". Trap: English "tree" will happily cover both words, and then a halachah that turns on standing timber against cut timber reads as a tautology.
- Borei pri ha'eitz stays transliterated in a frum text; if it must be rendered, "Who creates the fruit of the tree", with a note that the Mishnah says ilan in the same line.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Tree Words," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 15 Shevat 5777 (2017-02-11): raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/7133-tree-words.md. Primary loci cited: Rosh Hashanah 1:1; Daniel 4:7 with 4:8, 4:11, 4:17, 4:20, 4:23; Berachos 6:1; Be'tzel HaChochmah on the language of berachos.