trembling

Distinctions

Chil (חיל), chal (חל), chalchalah (חלחלה)

The most common of the three in Biblical Hebrew, meaning fear and the bodily tremors fear produces. Shiras HaYam: the nations heard and trembled (yirgazun), chil seized the dwellers of Peleshes (Shemos 15:14). Of the nations and Sichon: "they will tremble (v'ragzu) and be in dread (v'chalu) before you" (Devarim 2:25).

Rav Hirsch (to Shemos 15:14) gives chil a specific sense: the fear of the old guard at how a changing paradigm will affect them. That, he says, is why chil is a fear often associated in Tanach with childbirth (Yirmiyahu 6:24, 22:23, 50:43; Michah 4:9; Tehillim 48:7): the mother fears what her place will be in the family after the birth of a new child, or perhaps even whether she will survive childbirth itself. So too the Pelishtim who heard of Krias Yam Suf understood that Eretz Yisrael was to be conquered, and worried what their situation would be in that new reality.

Doubled as chalchal, the ח-ל string denotes a physical reaction to an especially frightening situation, trembling or shaking from sheer fright (Yeshayahu 21:3), as Yechezkel foretells of Cush (Yechezkel 30:4, 30:9). Esther, hearing of Haman's decrees, vatischalchal (Esther 4:4), her body spasming and shaking from fear; Chazal (Megillah 15a; Esther Rabbah 7:14, 8:3) say that on the spot she became a niddah, or miscarried, or needed to relieve herself, because she could not control her body in reaction to the news. In line with this, Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim traces chil to the biliteral ח-ל, "all-around movement," to which he traces over thirty terms, and explains chil as the cramping or spasming of the entire body in reaction to something frightening.

Shadal (to Shemos 15:14) similarly gives chil a specific connotation: quivering or shuddering in fear with an element of physical pain, like a mother's birth pangs.

Dachil (דחיל)

Root ד-ח-ל, absent from Biblical Hebrew but six times in the Aramaic parts of Daniel (2:31, 4:2, 5:19, 6:27, 7:7, 7:19), most famously the fourth beast, dechilah, "scary" (Daniel 7:7). Targum typically uses this root to render Hebrew yirah, nora and pachad (for examples, Rabbi Eliyahu HaBachur, Meturgeman); Onkelos renders chil at Shemos 15:14 and chalu at Devarim 2:25 with dachla.

On chil against dachil Rabbi Klein offers two readings.

• It is quite possible that they differ simply as native Hebrew from Aramaic, technically meaning the same thing.
• That said, it seems that chil is a specific fear, that of one contemplating his place in a new paradigm (Rav Hirsch) or fear accompanied by physical pain (Shadal), and dachil a more general term for all sorts of fear, hence Targum's use of it for a whole slew of fear-words. The second reading is his inference from Rav Hirsch's and Shadal's comments on chil.
• Rabbi Klein adds a speculation of his own, noting that he has seen no source for it: the only consonantal difference between chil and dachil is the initial dalet, so perhaps the two are etymologically related and the latter took on an extra letter.

Two idioms. In many instances Targum uses dachalah for false gods: "gods of silver and gods of gold" (Shemos 20:20), elohei in the Torah, is dachalan in Onkelos. Rabbi Klein reads that as the pagan conception of gods as dreadful, malevolent forces to be appeased, in stark contrast to the Jewish conception of Hashem as a loving, kind Creator. And the kabbalistic formula before various mitzvos, b'dichilu u'rechimu, "through fear and love." In Talmudic Aramaic dachlulei is a scarecrow for warding off ravens (Bava Basra 27b with Toras Chaim), Hebraicized in Modern Hebrew as dachlil.

Zachal (זחל)

Root ז-ח-ל, the source of the piyut's azchil. Menachem Ibn Saruk (Machberes Menachem) says the root carries two discrete senses, fear and crawling, without implying any connection between them. It appears once in Chumash and twice more in Tanach. In Haazinu: "the rage of those who are zochel on the dirt" (Devarim 32:24).

• Crawling: Rashi (there) reads it of poisonous snakes. In Mishnaic Hebrew zochalin is running or flowing water (Eruvin 10:6; Bava Basra 2:5, 3:6; Eduyos 7:3 to 4; Mikvaos 1:8, 5:4, 5:5; Parah 8:8), and on that basis Rashi clarifies that creatures crawling on the ground appear to move in a way that resembles water flowing along it. Compare zachala, a creeper or worm (the one that holed the mountain Og lifted over his head), in Targum Yonasan to Bamidbar 21:35, and zachal in the same sense in Tosefta Chullin 3:25 and in Modern Hebrew, where a zachlil is a caterpillar and also a tank on caterpillar tracks, and a child who crawls is zochel. Rav Hirsch (to Devarim 32:24), on his theory of phonetic substitution (zayin/shin, ches/ayin), ties ז-ח-ל to ש-ע-ל, the sole of the foot or a step, both things related to movement.
• Fear: Ibn Ezra (to Devarim 32:24 and Iyov 32:6) agrees the pasuk is about snakebite but takes zochel itself as fear, all who meet such snakes fearing them. A similar Rashi/Ibn Ezra dispute occurs at the third occurrence, Michah 7:17. Ibn Ezra compares Iyov 32:6, Elihu's "I am young in days and you are aged, therefore zachalti and I feared to express my understanding to you," and there Rashi too reads fear.
• Fear as dachil: it might well be that zochel in the fear sense is the cognate of dachil, since in many cases Aramaic dalet answers to Hebrew zayin, as in dachar/zachar (male), deroa/zeroa (arm), dahav/zahav (gold); it is then quite possible that zochel is simply a Hebraicized dachil, the same meaning and the same etymology. The point is made by Metzudas Tzion (to Iyov 32:6) and repeated by rabbinic philologists such as Rabbi David Golumb and Rabbi Asher Weiser.
• Two more readings of Elihu's zachalti: Rabbi Yosef Kara (there), "I have delayed," Elihu explaining why he waited so long to speak, with a similar understanding in Ibn Janach's Sefer HaShorashim, perhaps, Rabbi Klein suggests, related to crawling as the slower way to arrive; and Sforno (there), "I have humbled myself as though I were an insignificant creature that crawls on its belly," which also harks back to crawling. So three readings of zachalti: fear, delay, self-abasement.
• Saturn: Ibn Janach (Sefer HaShorashim, s.v. ז-ח-ל) notes that in Arabic astrology the planet Saturn is called Zachal. Rabbi Shaul Goldman informed Rabbi Klein that some have argued the name comes from Zuhal, a pre-Islamic Meccan goddess of agriculture. Others note that the Arabic cognate of ז-ח-ל yields a verb meaning moving away, withdrawing, retiring. That makes the name apt for Saturn, the farthest planet from the earth in medieval astronomy (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto being discovered later). Dr. Tzvi Langermann added in private correspondence that the parallel Arabic root can also mean lagging behind or becoming fatigued (not unlike Rabbi Yosef Kara's "I have delayed"). This is likewise apt, since Saturn's motion in longitude is the slowest of the seven planets.
• A further Rabbinic sense: when Rabbi Oshaya's face lit up in excitement, the Yerushalmi (Sanhedrin 11:4) says his face was zachlin, and the Midrash uses zachalin of Bar Pedaya (Koheles Rabbah 8:4). Rabbi Klein suggests that since Saturn appears in the sky as an illuminated body, perhaps its Arabic name is related to this sense of light.

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Nitzavim-Vayelech: Shake & Quake (Pt. 1/3)," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 21 September 2024.

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Shake & Quake," What's in a Word? Synonyms in the Hebrew Language (book manuscript).

Cited in the essay: Shemos 15:14 (with Rav Hirsch and Shadal), 20:20 (Onkelos); Bamidbar 21:35 (Targum Yonasan); Devarim 2:25 (Onkelos), 32:24 (Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Rav Hirsch); Yeshayahu 21:3; Yirmiyahu 6:24, 22:23, 50:43; Yechezkel 30:4, 30:9; Michah 4:9, 7:17; Tehillim 48:7; Iyov 32:6 (Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Metzudas Tzion, Rabbi Yosef Kara, Sforno); Esther 4:4; Daniel 2:31, 4:2, 5:19, 6:27, 7:7, 7:19; Megillah 15a; Bava Basra 27b with Toras Chaim; Yerushalmi Sanhedrin 11:4; Esther Rabbah 7:14 and 8:3; Koheles Rabbah 8:4; Tosefta Chullin 3:25; Eruvin 10:6, Bava Basra 2:5 and 3:6, Eduyos 7:3 to 4, Mikvaos 1:8, 5:4, 5:5, Parah 8:8; Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim; Rabbi Eliyahu HaBachur, Meturgeman; Menachem Ibn Saruk, Machberes Menachem; Ibn Janach, Sefer HaShorashim; Rabbi David Golumb; Rabbi Asher Weiser; Rabbi Yekusiel bar Moshe, Yarasi Befitzchi Si; Rabbi Shaul Goldman and Dr. Tzvi Langermann (communications to the author).