other
vessel
פך · קנקן · כד · חבית · קנה
Bottom line
Pach is a small pottery flask or jug, used in Tanach only in pach hashemen. Kankan is a Mishnaic jug or jar; kad a jug or pitcher; chavis a barrel. The trap is over-differentiating: Chazal themselves use these words interchangeably, because the vernacular never fixed them (Bava Kamma 27a), which is why Maoz Tzur can sing of kankanim where the Gemara says pachim. Kaneh is not a container but a hollow reed or tube.
At a glance
| Hebrew | translit | English | what sets it apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| פך | pach | flask, small jug | pottery, for oil; smaller than a chavis (Rashi) |
| קנקן | kankan | jug, jar | Mishnaic only, never in Tanach; pottery (Tosafot) |
| כד | kad | jug, pitcher | swapped with chavis in the Mishnah's own wording (Bava Kamma 27a) |
| חבית | chavis | barrel | the large vessel, but not fixed against kad |
| קנה | kaneh | reed, stem, tube | hollow pipe, not a vessel; source of the hollowness in kankan |
Where the authorities disagree
The root of pach, and what it means. The triliteralists take it as פ-כ-ה (Radak, Sefer HaShorashim), the biliteralists as a two-letter פ-כ (Machberet Menachem, Rashi to Yechezkel 47:2), and both connect it to mefakim, the flow of liquid. Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim also takes the root as פ-כ but gives it the sense of reversal, parent of hafuch: a flask so narrow-necked that it must be turned over to empty. He extends it to puch, the kohl stored in such a flask, and thence to puch and nofech as gemstone names, for their kohl-like color.
Why Maoz Tzur says kankanim. Poetic license: kankanim rhymes with shoshanim and pachim does not. Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech Shapiro of Dinov rejects this, since shemanim would have rhymed too; the column answers that shemanim had already ended the previous line. Either way the words are near-synonyms.
Whether the Menorah's branches may be hollow. Rambam (Beis HaBechirah 3:4) rules a Menorah made chalulah is fit. Rabbi Yosef Karo: chalulah means not made from a single hunk of gold, permitted only when the Menorah is fashioned from another metal. The Mabit (Kiryas Sefer): the branches may be made hollow lechatchilah, even out of one hunk. Rabbi Massoud Chai Rokach and Rabbi Avraham Dovber Kahane-Shapiro explain that Rav Karo declined the Mabit's reading for want of a source in Chazal; the Mabit needs none, since kaneh itself carries hollowness, and Rashbam and Ibn Ezra (to Shemos 25:32) say outright that the kanim were hollow within.
Distinctions
pach (פך)
Three occurrences in Tanach, each in pach hashemen: Shmuel's anointing of Shaul (I Shmuel 10:1) and Yonah's anointing of Yehu (II Melachim 9:1, 9:3). Jastrow: "flask," "jug." In the Mishnah (Shabbos 17:5, Beitzah 1:7, Bava Kamma 8:6, Keilim 2:2, Negaim 12:5) it is a pottery jug for oil, and Rashi (to Avodah Zarah 71b) makes it smaller than a chavis. Chullin 91a (cited by Rashi to Bereishis 32:25) has Yaakov recross the Yabok for pachim ketanim; as the Tosafists (Daas Zekeinim, Hadar Zekeinim) and Rabbeinu Bachya cite it, the derashah reads levado as l'kado, "for his kad," on the resemblance of beis and kaf. So Chazal gloss kad with pach.
kankan (קנקן)
Absent from Tanach. In the Mishnah it stores wine (Maaser Sheini 1:3-4, 3:12-13, Avodah Zarah 2:4), oil (Kesubos 13:4, Bava Metzia 3:8, Shevuos 6:3), or water (Mikvaos 2:7, 2:9); Tosafot (Avodah Zarah 32a): typically pottery. Rabbi Ernest Klein traces the form back to Hebrew kaneh, so a kankan is defined by its hollow receptacle.
kad (כד) and chavis (חבית)
The Mishnah opens a ruling with one word and continues it with the other (Terumos 11:7-8, Demai 7:8, Bava Kamma 3:1, 3:5, 10:4); Bava Kamma 27a: in common speech the two were switched about and not fixed. Kankan joins the set, since Maaser Sheini 3:13 interchanges it with chavis, and Maaser Sheini 1:3-4, Kesubos 13:4 and Shevuos 6:3 with kad (Tosafos Yom Tov to Kesubos 13:4).
kaneh (קנה)
Over fifty occurrences in Tanach: "reed," "stem/branch," "tube," all pipe-like and hollow in the middle; in Rabbinic Hebrew it also names the windpipe. The Torah calls the Menorah's branches kanim (Shemos 25:31-36), which is what lets the Mabit rule them hollow.
Rendering guidance
- Trap: English "jug" will absorb pach, kankan and kad, and often that is right. Distinguish only where the passage turns on size: pach small flask, kad jug, chavis barrel.
- Where a sugya shifts from one word to another, do not repair it in English; the shift is the point, and Bava Kamma 27a says so.
- Pach hashemen in a Chanukah context: "flask of oil," not "can" or "cruse."
- Kaneh is never a vessel: "reed," "stem," "branch," or "windpipe."
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Miketz: Cans of Oil," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 23 Kislev 5783 (2022-12-17): raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/10751-miketz-cans-of-oil.md. Primary loci cited: Shabbos 21b; Rambam Hilchos Chanukah 3:2 and Hilchos Beis HaBechirah 3:4; I Shmuel 10:1; II Melachim 9:1, 9:3; Yechezkel 47:2; Shemos 25:31-36; Bereishis 32:25; Chullin 91a; Bava Kamma 27a; Avodah Zarah 32a, 71b; Radak, Sefer HaShorashim; Machberet Menachem; Mabit, Kiryas Sefer. Kohut's Latin loanword derivation of kankan and the English cognates beside it are omitted as non-traditional; Rabbi Klein's tracing of the form to kaneh is kept.