tying

Distinctions

keshirah (קשירה)

Root ק-ש-ר, some sixty appearances in Tanach. Concrete: tying tefillin to the arm (Devarim 6:8, 11:18), the scarlet thread on Yehudah's grandson's hand (Bereishis 38:28), the rope in Rachav's window (Yehoshua 2:18, 2:21). Figurative: Yaakov's soul "bound up" with Binyamin's (Bereishis 44:30), and Mishlei's charge to tie chessed, emes and wisdom to oneself (Mishlei 3:3, 6:21, 7:3). The commonest use in Tanach is kesher, a conspiracy: people who bind themselves together to overthrow a government, as Asalyahu cried out kesher, kesher (II Melachim 11:14). Malbim: this is exactly why the root is keshirah and not asirah, since the conspirators enter the bond willingly; see also Radak to II Melachim 9:14. Rabbinic Hebrew keeps the sense: katir is a conspiracy at Yevamos 61a, on the appointment of Yehoshua ben Gamla as Kohen Gadol.

asirah (אסירה)

Root א-ס-ר, close to ninety appearances. Its two settings are harnessing a wagon to the animal that draws it (Bereishis 46:29, Shemos 14:6, II Melachim 9:21) and tying down a captive or detainee (Tehillim 146:7, II Melachim 17:4, Shoftim 16:21). Hence beis ha'asurim, the jail, literally the house of those tied down (Shoftim 16:21, 16:25; Bereishis 39:20, 40:5). Malbim: the whole difference from keshirah is that asirah is done without the consent of what is tied; he links it to yissurin, suffering, which likewise comes upon a man against his will, and to issur, a prohibition, which is an action closed off to a person whether he likes it or not. Issur in that sense is already Chumash Hebrew, in the parashah of nedarim (Bamidbar 30:3-15). Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim traces the root to the biliteral samech-reish, "removal," since one who is tied down has his freedom of movement removed; Rabbi Yehuda Ibn Chayyuj had already shown the aleph to be extraneous to the root, from beis hasurim at Koheles 4:14 standing for beis ha'asurim. Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg extends the root to mussar, which gives a man the means of tying down his yetzer hara.

ketirah (קטירה)

Root ק-ט-ר. In Hebrew this root is smoke and incense; in Aramaic it is tying. Three appearances in the Aramaic of Daniel: literally tied (Daniel 5:6), and twice of a riddle or enigma, something knotted shut that must be untied (Daniel 5:12, 5:16). Rabbi Eliyahu HaBachur (Meturgaman): this is Targum's standard rendering of keshirah. Rabbi Yaakov Berger (Milon Leshon HaMikra): Hebrew shin regularly becomes Aramaic tav (shor / tor), and tav and tes interchange, so ק-ש-ר yields ק-ט-ר. On the lone Hebrew cognate (Yechezkel 46:22) the commentators split between "smoke" and "tied." The name Keturah belongs here: Hagar tied herself off from marrying anyone else so as to be able to return to Avraham (Bereishis Rabbah 61:4; Hadar Zekeinim to Bereishis 25:1). Rav Hirsch (to Bereishis 25:1) reads the name as keshirah, and reads Hagar itself with agur (gathered in) and chagurah (a belt).

kafut (כפות)

Four appearances in the Aramaic of Daniel (3:20-24), then common in Mishnaic Hebrew: the hands of one being flogged are kafus to the pillar (Makkos 3:12), the Parah Adumah was kafus before shechitah (Parah 3:9), and the Mishnah contrasts it with akeidah for the Korban Tamid (Tamid 4:1); also Bava Kamma 6:5, Taharos 7:5. Rashi glosses it sometimes with asirah (Daniel 3:20; Sukkah 31a) and sometimes with keshirah (Daniel 3:23; Chullin 16a, Sanhedrin 77b, Kiddushin 70a), so it does not sit cleanly on either side of Malbim's line. The etymology that fits its usage ties it to kefiyah, compulsion, both being acts of subjugation. Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim reads the biliteral kaf-peh as "receptacle" and gathers under it kaf (palm), kofeif (bending, what turns a palm into a receptacle), akifah (enforcement, bending others to an authority), kippah (dome), kofeh (overturning a vessel), and kafan (famine, which bends a man's stature); kefiyah is then the suppressing of dissent so that another bends.

tzror (צרור)

Root צ-ר-ר. Maaser sheini money is to be tied up in the hand (Devarim 14:25); marrying two sisters "binds" them to each other (Vayikra 18:18), whence the Mishnaic tzaros, co-wives tied together by one husband. Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim: from the biliteral tzadi-reish, the union of tightly attached parts, which is what a tight knot is.

the narrower roots

Malbim: ע-נ-ד (Iyov 31:36, Mishlei 6:21) is tying on something worn as an ornament; ח-ת-ל (chitul, Yechezkel 16:4, 30:21, Iyov 38:9) is wrapping in soft cloth rather than tying tight. ע-ק-ד is tying down an animal for slaughter, hence Akeidas Yitzchak (Bereishis 22:9) and the spotted animals marked where they were tied (Bereishis 30:35-40, 31:8-12); Radak's father reads beis eiked (II Melachim 10:12, 10:14) as the place shepherds tied sheep for shearing. ח-ב-ש is saddling a donkey (Bereishis 22:3, Bamidbar 22:21), fastening a headdress (Shemos 29:9, Vayikra 8:13), and binding a wound, whence tachboshes, a bandage (Yeshayahu 1:6, 30:26; Hoshea 6:1; Tehillim 147:3); Chizkuni (to Shemos 28:7) reads cheishev, a belt, as its metathesis. ר-ת-ם is harnessing a wagon to an animal (Michah 1:13).

Rendering guidance

• Default: קשירה "tie" or "bind"; אסירה "tie down," "bind," "detain."
• קשר as a political noun: "conspiracy," and the tying metaphor is live; a derashah on the root can be carried with "bound together in a plot."
• Trap: English "bind" absorbs keshirah, asirah and kafus alike. Where a passage turns on Malbim's consent test, force the difference: keshirah "tie himself to," asirah "is tied down."
• Second trap: issur is normally just "prohibition," and the tie is dead metaphor in ordinary halachic prose. Revive it only where the source is actually darshening the root, as Malbim and Rabbi Mecklenburg do.
• Where kafus and akeidah stand together (Tamid 4:1), keep both: "not tied down but bound as for an akeidah," since the Mishnah's whole point is that they are two different acts.
• עקידה of Yitzchak stays Akeidah, not "the tying."

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "All Tied Up," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 14 Sivan 5783 (2023-06-03), https://articles.ohr.edu/articles/all-tied-up; raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/10970-all-tied-up.md. Primary loci cited: Devarim 6:8 and 11:18; Bereishis 38:28, 44:30, 46:29, 25:1, 22:9; Yehoshua 2:18, 2:21; Mishlei 3:3, 6:21, 7:3; II Melachim 11:14, 9:14, 9:21, 17:4, 10:12; Shoftim 16:21, 16:25; Tehillim 146:7; Koheles 4:14; Bamidbar 30:3-15; Daniel 5:6, 5:12, 5:16, 3:20-24; Yechezkel 46:22, 16:4; Devarim 14:25; Vayikra 18:18; Yevamos 61a; Makkos 3:12; Tamid 4:1; Parah 3:9; Bereishis Rabbah 61:4; Hadar Zekeinim to Bereishis 25:1; Rabbi Eliyahu HaBachur, Meturgaman; Rabbi Yaakov Berger, Milon Leshon HaMikra. The article's citation of Dr. Michael Sokoloff's Jewish Babylonian Aramaic dictionary, and its comparative derivation of European words for "cat," are omitted here.