action
washing
At a glance
In short
Kevisah is laundering. Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim says it is used only of objects, never of a body, and, in his second formulation, that the water goes right through the cloth. Rechitzah is washing a body or a part of one, by immersion or by pouring (Pappenheim); Rabbi Shlomo Aharon Wertheimer allows it outside or inside. Shetifah is sluicing, under flowing water for Pappenheim and with much water for Wertheimer; Radak calls it the stronger washing. Hadachah, typically translated rinsing, works the exterior as shetifah does, but with little water (Wertheimer). Sefer HaShem instead distinguishes it from rechitzah by what is washed away, hadachah for blood and rechitzah for filth. Merikah is scouring. For Rabbi Avraham Bedersi it is buffing off rust or tarnish rather than cleaning with water; Rashi and Rambam keep it within the washing of a vessel, Rashi making it the inside as shetifah is the outside, Rambam a matter of thoroughness. Kinuach, Rabbinic only, is wiping. Vayikra 6:21 (merikah, shetifah) and Yeshayahu 4:4 (rechitzah, hadachah) each put two of them in a single verse.
Distinctions
Kevisah (כביסה)
- Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim: kevisah is never used of the body, only of objects, above all clothing. It can be a whole garment immersed (Shemos 19:10, Vayikra 11:25, 13:6) or one part of one cleaned (Vayikra 6:20), and it works either by bringing the garment to standing water or by pouring water on it. In his second formulation the contrast with rechitzah is depth: rechitzah rinses a surface, kevisah drives the water through and through, as it must with cloth.
- Rabbi Aharon Marcus (1843 to 1916) theorizes that כ-ב-ס means both launder and young sheep (keves), alluding to the washing of the sheep's wool. He further relates rachel, ewe, to rechitzah, since Hebrew lamed apparently becomes tzadi in Akkadian, in allusion to the same process, and finds a hint in Shir HaShirim 6:6, which uses both words in one pasuk. Rabbi Klein writes that he has been unable to substantiate the lamed/tzadi interchange, but notes that the Pesikta Rabbasi expounds keves as though related to kevisah, the korban washing away sin.
On Shemos 19:10, v'chibsu: Yevamos 46b first tries to prove from it that Klal Yisrael immersed at Sinai, then rejects the proof, since the washing may have been for cleanliness alone.
- Rabbi Shlomo HaKohen of Vilna (1828 to 1905) finds the same implied in Targum Onkelos, who renders v'chibsu as v'yichavrun, "they shall whiten," not his usual rendering for laundering that purifies.
- The Netziv (Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Yehudah Berlin, 1817 to 1893) makes the same point, adding that the pasuk says simlah, not beged, implying outer clothes only; tumah would not stop at the outer layer, so he infers that this was laundering in honor of the day.
Rechitzah (רחיצה)
- Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim (1740 to 1814), for whom rechitzah and kevisah differ in what is cleaned while shetifah names a method: the body, whole (immersion in a mikveh, Vayikra 15:13, Bamidbar 19:7) or in part (feet, Bereishis 18:4; face, Bereishis 43:31), and by either method, entering existing water (Shemos 2:5, Bamidbar 19:7) or having water poured on one (Bereishis 43:31, Shemos 30:21).
- Rabbi Shlomo Aharon Wertheimer (1866 to 1935) allows it both outside (the kiyor poured over hands and feet, Shemos 30:19) and inside (water put into an animal's innards to cleanse them), where shetifah is exterior only; alternatively, he says, the difference is the quantity of water (see shetifah).
Shetifah (שטיפה)
- Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim: the root ש-ט-ף means flow or stream; shetifah is holding a body or an object under running water and shaking it so the current does the cleaning. Unlike the other two it always brings the item to the water, never the water to the item, and it covers both bodies (Vayikra 15:11) and objects (Vayikra 6:21, 15:12).
- Wertheimer: as an active verb it cleans the exterior only, but in the passive it implies inside and out both, since with so much water both sides are almost inevitably cleansed; and, in his alternative formulation, it means more water than rechitzah, being associated with mayim rabim (Tehillim 32:6).
- Radak (to Melachim I 22:38) likewise takes it as the stronger washing.
- Rabbi Avraham Bedersi: shetifah runs an already clean item under a strong current to make it look cleaner still.
Hadachah (הדחה)
- Menachem Ibn Saruk and Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim, both working from two-letter roots, take it from ד-ח, to push away: hadachah washes off whatever water can carry away.
- Wertheimer: hadachah and shetifah both work the exterior, but hadachah uses a minimum of water. His proof is Yeshayahu 4:4, rechitzah for the filth of the daughters of Tzion and hadachah for the blood of Yerushalayim, blood coming away with little water and filth needing much.
- Bedersi: rechitzah is scrubbing off dirt in earnest, hadachah a plain rinse.
- Sefer HaShem (ascribed to Rabbi Elazar Rokeach of Worms) makes the difference the substance removed, from Divrei HaYamim II 4:6, Mishlei 30:12 and Yeshayahu 4:4: hadachah for blood, rechitzah for filth.
Merikah (מריקה) and tamruk (תמרוק)
Vayikra 6:21 requires a metal vessel used for a chatas to undergo merikah and shetifah in water.
- Rashi (to Zevachim 96b): merikah is the inside of the vessel, shetifah the outside.
- Rambam (commentary to Zevachim 11:7) makes it a matter of degree instead: merikah purges clinging particles, shetifah is filling it with water and scrubbing further.
- Bedersi separates merikah from the whole group as buffing and polishing rather than water-cleaning, softening a surface and taking off rust, which is how tamruk in Esther 2:3 and 2:12 is a cosmetic regimen that smooths the skin. This fits, Rabbi Klein notes, with Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim's derivation of both from ר-ק, emptying a thing of its blemishes and imperfections.
- Menachem Ibn Saruk files merikah and tamruk under מ-ר-ק in separate categories, without implying a link; Rashi (to Vayikra 6:21) does link them.
- Rav Hirsch (to Shemos 21:25 and Vayikra 6:21) compares merikah to morag, a threshing tool, by the interchange of kuf and gimmel, making it a penetrating cleaning that goes below the surface.
- Machberes Menachem seems to understand that merikah even entails scratching off the surface layer.
Kinuach (קינוח)
Rabbinic only: Berachos 8:3, Shabbos 21:2-3, Bava Basra 5:10, Keilim 28:2, Parah 3:9. Cleaning by wiping off what soils. Rashi (to Yeshayahu 47:11) takes it as an expression of finality: what is wiped away is gone for good. It is probably in this sense, Rabbi Klein suggests, that kinuach seudah, the kinuach of the meal, came to mean dessert.
Radak on these roots
Sefer HaShorashim
ד-ו-ח
To be thrust away, read as נדחו; and in another sense, washing, a word Chazal use often.
Thrust away, unable to rise
דֹּחוּ וְלֹא־יָכְלוּ קֽוּם (Tehillim 36:13), they were thrust away and could not rise, which he reads as נדחו, they were thrust away. In the view of the Chacham Rabbi Yehudah, who wrote the word among the roots whose middle letter is weak, it and נדחו are two roots of one sense.
Washing
יָדִיחַ מִקִּרְבָּהּ (Yeshayahu 4:4), He will wash away from within her, and שָׁם יָדִיחוּ אֶת־הָֽעֹלָֽה (Yechezkel 40:38), there they wash the olah.
Washed out, and in Chazal
מִלָּא כְרֵשֹׂו מֵֽעֲדָנָי (Yirmiyahu 51:34), he filled his belly with my delights, and then הֱדִיחָֽנִי, he washed me out. The sense of all three is washing. Chazal use the word often, as מדיח ומולח ומדיח (Chullin 113a), he washes and salts and washes again.
דֹּחוּ וְלֹא־יָכְלוּ קֽוּם (תהלים לו, יג), כמו נדחו. שנים שרשים וענין אחד לדעת החכם רבי יהודה שכתבו עם נחי העי"ן. וענין אחר יָדִיחַ מִקִּרְבָּהּ (ישעיה ד, ד), שָׁם יָדִיחוּ אֶת־הָֽעֹלָֽה (יחזקאל מ, לח), מִלָּא כְרֵשֹׂו מֵֽעֲדָנָי הֱדִיחָֽנִו [הֱדִיחָֽנִי] (ירמיה נא, לד), ענין רחיצה. ורבותינו ז"ל נשתמשו הרבה בלשון הזה כמו שאמרו (חולין קיג, ע"א). מדיח ומולח ומדיח.
כ-ב-ס
To launder: of garments, and also of a heart washed of evil and a man washed of his sin. כוֹבֵֽס is one who launders clothes.
The launderer and his field
אֶל־מְסִלַּת שְׂדֵה כוֹבֵֽס (Yeshayahu 7:3), to the highway of the launderer's field: a noun for one who launders clothes, and Chazal use it too, אשתייר ההוא כובס (Kesubos 103b), that one launderer was left.
Why it is the launderer's field
It is the field where the launderers would spread their clothes out in the sun, and Yonasan renders it חֲקַל מַשְׁטַח קְצִירַיָא, the field where the launderers spread things out.
Washing garments, washing the heart
כִּבֵּס בַּיַּיִן לְבֻשׁוֹ (Bereishis 49:11), he washes his clothing in wine, וְכִבַּסְתֶּם בִּגְדֵיכֶם (Bamidbar 31:24), you shall wash your garments, and of a person כַּבְּסִי מֵֽרָעָה לִבֵּךְ (Yirmiyahu 4:14), wash your heart clean of evil, כַּבְּסֵנִי מֵֽעֲוֹנִי (Tehillim 51:4), wash me of my sin.
The washed garment, the washed mark
וְכֻבַּס שֵׁנִית וְטָהֵֽר (Vayikra 13:58), it shall be washed a second time and be clean, and אַֽחֲרֵי הֻכַּבֵּס אֶת־הַנֶּגַע (Vayikra 13:55), after the mark has been washed. The sense is well known.
אֶל־מְסִלַּת שְׂדֵה כוֹבֵֽס (ישעיה ז, ג), שם התאר למכבס הבגדים. וכן רבותינו ז"ל נשתמשו בתאר הזה בקל אשתייר ההוא כובס (כתובות קג, ע"ב). ופירוש שְׂדֵה כוֹבֵֽס שדה שהיו שוטחין שם הכובסים בגדיהם לשֶׁמֶשׁ. וכן תרגם יונתן חֲקַל מַשְׁטַח קְצִירַיָא. והפעל הכבד [פִּעֵל] כִּבֵּס בַּיַּיִן לְבֻשׁוֹ (בראשית מט, יא), וְכִבַּסְתֶּם בִּגְדֵיכֶם (במדבר לא, כד), כַּבְּסִי מֵֽרָעָה לִבֵּךְ (ירמיה ד, יד), כַּבְּסֵנִי מֵֽעֲוֹנִי (תהלים נא, ד). ושלא נזכר פעלו ממנו [פִּעֵל] וְכֻבַּס שֵׁנִית וְטָהֵֽר (ויקרא יג, נח). ומקור מורכב מהתפעל וממה שלא נזכר פעלו מהנוסף [הָתְפַּעֵל] אַֽחֲרֵי הֻכַּבֵּס אֶת־הַנֶּגַע (ויקרא יג, נה). ידוע.
מ-ר-ק
Scouring, a sense he calls known: spears and a vessel scoured; the women's adornment, which scours the flesh clean; and broth, since the meat is scoured in it.
Scoured metal, scoured vessel
מִרְקוּ הָֽרְמָחִים (Yirmiyahu 46:4), polish the spears; נְחֹשֶׁת מָרֽוּק (Divrei HaYamim II 4:16), burnished copper; וּמֹרַק וְשֻׁטַּף בַּמָּֽיִם (Vayikra 6:21), it shall be scoured and rinsed in water, which he explains as scouring it and rinsing it thoroughly; and the noun, תַּמְרוּק בְּרָע (Mishlei 20:30), a scouring of evil. The sense of scouring, he says, is known.
Hot water and cold in Chazal
Chazal (Zevachim 96a) put the scouring in hot water and the rinsing in cold, and some of them hold the scouring and the rinsing are in cold water and the purging in hot.
Why adornment is called tamruk
From this, what women adorn themselves with is called תמרוק, because it scours the grime off the flesh and cleans it: וְנָתוֹן תַּמְרוּקֵיהֶֽן (Esther 2:3), and let their adornments be given them, and וּבְתַמְרוּקֵי הַנָּשִֽׁים (Esther 2:12), with the adornments of the women.
Why broth is called marak
So too the water the meat was cooked in is called מָרָק, because the scouring of the meat is in it: וְאֶת־הַמָּרַק שְׁפוֹךְ (Shoftim 6:20), and pour out the broth, and וּמְרַק פִּגֻּלִים כְּלֵיהֶם (Yeshayahu 65:4), and broth of abominations is in their vessels.
מִרְקוּ הָֽרְמָחִים (ירמיה מו, ד), נְחֹשֶׁת מָרֽוּק (דברי הימים ב' ד, טז). ושלא נזכר פעלו מהדגוש [פֻּעַל] וּמֹרַק וְשֻׁטַּף בַּמָּֽיִם (ויקרא ו, כא). והשם תַּמְריּק [תַּמְרוּק] בְּרָע (משלי כ, ל), ענין המריקה ידוע. ופירוש וּמֹרַק וְשֻׁטַּף בַּמָּֽיִם שימרקוהו וישטפוהו היטב. ובדברי רבותינו ז"ל (זבחים צו, ע"א) מריקה בחמין ושטיפה בצונן. ומקצתם אמרו מריקוד ושטיפה בצונן והגעלה בחמין. ומזה נקרא לקישוט הנשים תמרוק לפי שהוא ממרק זוהמת הבשר ומנקהו וְנָתוֹן תַּמְרוּקֵיהֶֽן (אסתר ב, ג), וּבְתַמְרוּקֵי הַנָּשִֽׁים (אסתר ב, יב). וכן נקרא למים שנתבשל בהם הבשר מָרָק לפי שיש בו מריקת הבשר. וְאֶת־הַמָּרַק שְׁפוֹךְ (שופטים ו, כ), וּפְרַק [וּמְרַק] פִּגֻּלִים כְּלֵיהֶֽם (ישעיה סה, ד).
ר-ח-ץ
To wash, a sense he calls known; the noun רַחְצָה, the washing, and without the heh, סִיר רַחְצִי, a washing pot.
Washing
אִם רָחַץ י"י (Yeshayahu 4:4), when Hashem has washed; וְרָחֲצוּ אַהֲרֹן וּבָנָיו (Shemos 30:19), and Aharon and his sons shall wash; וְרָחַצְתָּ אֹתָם בַּמָּיִם (Shemos 29:4), and you shall wash them in water; לִרְחֹץ עַל־הַיְאֹר (Shemos 2:5), to wash at the river; וְכַנּוֹ נְחֹשֶׁת לְרָחְצָה (Shemos 30:18), and its base of copper, for washing; רְחַץ וּטְהָר (Melachim II 5:13), wash and be clean; and רַחֲצוּ הִזַּכּוּ (Yeshayahu 1:16), wash, make yourselves clean.
What the pasuk leaves unsaid
וְרָחַצְתְּ וָסַכְתְּ (Rus 3:3), and wash and anoint, means wash your flesh; and יִרְחֲצוּ־מַיִם (Shemos 30:20), they shall wash with water, means they shall wash their hands and their feet in the water.
Transitive, and his father's reading
All of these, Radak says, are transitive verbs, verbs that take an object. His father explained some of them as intransitive.
Other forms, and the noun
Where the doer is not named, וּמִצֹּאָתוֹ לֹא רֻחָץ (Mishlei 30:12), and is not washed of its filth, and לֹא־רֻחַצְתְּ לְמִשְׁעִי (Yechezkel 16:4), you were not washed smooth. Of washing oneself, אִם־הִתְרָחַצְתִּי (Iyov 9:30), if I wash myself. The noun, שֶׁעָלוּ מִן־הָרַחְצָה (Shir HaShirim 4:2), that came up from the washing.
Moav the washing pot
מוֹאָב סִיר רַחְצִי (Tehillim 60:10), Moav is my washing pot, the noun without the heh; its singular would be רַחַץ, on the pattern of נַעַר, a lad, and נַעַל, a shoe. The sense of washing is known.
אִם רָחַץ י"י (ישעיה ד, ד), וְרָֽחֲצוּ אַֽהֲרֹן וּבָנָיו (שמות ל, יט), וְרָֽחַצְתָּ אֹתָם בַּמָּֽיִם (שמות כט, ד), וְרָחַצְתְּ וָסַכְתְּ (רות ג, ג) פירוש ורחצת בשרך. יִרְחֲצוּ־מַיִם (שמות ל, כ), פירוש ירחצו ידיהם ורגליהם במים. לִרְחֹץ עַל־הַיְאֹר (שמות ב, ה), וְכַנּוֹ נְחֹשֶׁת לְרָחְצָה (שמות ל, יח), רְחַץ וּטְהָֽר (מלכים ב' ה, יג), רַֽחֲצוּ הִזַּכּוּ (ישעיה א, טז), כלם פעלים יוצאים. ואדוני אבי ז"ל פירש מקצתם עומדים. ושלא נזכר פועלו מהדגוש [פֻּעַל] וּמִצֹּֽאָתוֹ לֹא רֻחָֽץ (משלי ל, יב), לֹֽא־רֻחַצְתְּ לְמִשְׁעִי (יחזקאל טז, ד). וההתפעל אִם־הִתְרָחַצְתִּי בְמֵו [בְמֵי] ־שָׁלֶג (איוב ט, ל). והשם שֶׁעָלוּ מִן־הָרַחְצָה (שיר השירים ד, ב). ובלא ה"א מוֹאָב סִיר רַחְצִי (תהלים ס, י), יאמר האחד ממנו רַחַץ בפלס נַעַר, נַעַל. ענין הרחיצה ידוע.
ש-ט-ף
Washing with force, and sweeping away: hands rinsed in water, a chariot washed down, rivers that flood a land; a galloping horse is likened to a flooding stream.
Rinsing off in water
וְיָדָיו לֹֽא־שָׁטַף בַּמָּיִם (Vayikra 15:11), he did not rinse his hands in water, וַיִּשְׁטֹף אֶת־הָרֶכֶב (Melachim I 22:38), and he washed down the chariot, and וְכָל־כְּלִי־עֵץ יִשָּׁטֵף בַּמָּֽיִם (Vayikra 15:12), every wooden vessel shall be rinsed in water.
Flooding and sweeping away
וְיִשְׁטְפוּ אֶרֶץ וּמְלוֹאָהּ (Yirmiyahu 47:2), they flood the land and its fullness, וּנְהָרוֹת לֹא יִשְׁטְפוּהָ (Shir HaShirim 8:7), rivers shall not sweep it away, שָׁטַף וְעָבַר (Yeshayahu 8:8), it sweeps through and passes on, and the noun לְשֵׁטֶף מַיִם רַבִּים (Tehillim 32:6), at the flood of many waters. All of them, the rinsing and the flooding alike, are washing with force and sweeping away.
The horse and the scourge
Likewise a horse, for the speed of its running, is likened to a flooding stream, כְּסוּס שׁוֹטֵף בַּמִּלְחָמָֽה (Yirmiyahu 8:6), like a horse flooding on in battle; and likewise trouble as it passes through the world, שׁוֹט שׁוֹטֵף כִּי יַֽעֲבֹר (Yeshayahu 28:18), when the flooding scourge passes through.
וְיָדָיו לֹֽא־שָׁטַף בַּמָּיִם (ויקרא טו, יא), וַיִּשְׁטֹף אֶת־הָרֶכֶב (מלכים א' כב, לח), וְחֵילוֹ יִשְׁטוֹף (דניאל יא, כו), וְיִשְׁטְפוּ אֶרֶץ וּמְלוֹאָהּ (ירמיה מז, ב), וּנְהָרוֹת לֹא יִשְׁטְפוּהָ (שיר השירים ח, ז), תִּשְׁטֹֽף־סְפִיחֶיהָ עֲפַר־אָרֶץ (איוב יד, יט), שָׁטַף וְעָבַר (ישעיה ח, ח), לְנַחַל שׁוֹטֵף (ירמיה מז, ב). והשם רַק לְשֵׁטֶף מַיִם רַבִּים (תהלים לב, ו). והוא בחמש נקדות. והנפעל וְכָל־כְּלִי־עֵץ יִשָּׁטֵף בַּמָּֽיִם (ויקרא טו, יב). וּזְרֹעוֹת הַשֶּׁטֶף יִשָּֽׁטְפוּ מִלְּפָנָיו (דניאל יא, כב). ושלא נזכר פעלו מהדגוש [פֻּעַל] וּמֹרַק וְשֻׁטַּף (ויקרא ו, כא), כלם ענין הרחיצה בכח והגריפה. וכן דמה הסוס מרוב מרוצתו כמו נחל שוטף כְּסוּס שׁוֹטֵף בַּמִּלְחָמָֽה (ירמיה ח, ו), וכן הצרה בעברה בעולם שׁוֹט שׁוֹטֵף כִּי יַֽעֲבֹר (ישעיה כח, יח).
Radak, Sefer HaShorashim, Berlin 1847. Public domain, digitised by Sefaria from the National Library of Israel.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Laundering and Cleaning," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 22 January 2022.
Cited in the essay: Bereishis 18:4, 43:31; Shemos 2:5, 19:10 with Yevamos 46b and Targum Onkelos, 21:25 (Rav Hirsch), 30:19, 30:21; Vayikra 6:20, 6:21 (with Rashi and Rav Hirsch), 11:25, 13:6, 15:11, 15:12, 15:13; Bamidbar 19:7; Melachim I 22:38 with Radak; Yeshayahu 4:4 and 47:11 (Rashi); Tehillim 32:6; Mishlei 30:12; Shir HaShirim 6:6; Esther 2:3 and 2:12; Divrei HaYamim II 4:6; Zevachim 96b with Rashi, and Rambam's commentary to Zevachim 11:7; Berachos 8:3, Shabbos 21:2-3, Bava Basra 5:10, Keilim 28:2, Parah 3:9; Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim, Cheshek Shlomo on Yevamos 46b, and Yerios Shlomo pp. 690-692 and 820; Rabbi Shlomo Aharon Wertheimer, Beiurei Shemos Nirdafim s.v. רחץ, שטף and דוח; Rabbi Avraham Bedersi, Chosam Tochnis, os mem shaar 15, on מריקה, שטיפה, הדחה and רחיצה; Menachem Ibn Saruk, Machberes Menachem; Sefer HaShem; Rabbi Aharon Marcus, Barzilai pp. 48 and 63; Pesikta Rabbasi on keves; Rabbi Shlomo HaKohen of Vilna; the Netziv, Haamek Davar to Shemos 19:10.