washing

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 ties כ-ב-ס to keves, a young sheep, for the washing of its wool; Pesikta Rabbasi darshens keves from 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 finds the same in Targum Onkelos, who renders v'chibsu as v'yichavrun, "they shall whiten," not his usual rendering for laundering that purifies. The Netziv adds that the pasuk says simlah, not beged; tumah would not stop at the outer layer, so this was laundering in honor of the day.

rechitzah (רחיצה)

Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim: 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) or having water poured on one (Shemos 30:21). Rabbi Shlomo Aharon Wertheimer allows it both outside (the kiyor poured over hands and feet, Shemos 30:19) and inside (water put into the innards of a korban to clean them), where shetifah is exterior only.

shetifah (שטיפה)

Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim: the root ש-ט-פ 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, so much water being involved; and it means more water than rechitzah, being the word of mayim rabim (Tehillim 32:7). 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: it is not water-cleaning but buffing and polishing, 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. Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim derives both from ר-ק, emptying a thing of its blemishes. Menachem Ibn Saruk files merikah and tamruk under מ-ר-ק in separate categories, implying no 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 sledge, making it a deep cleaning that goes below the surface.

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 the root as finality: what is wiped away is gone. Hence kinuach seudah, the wiping of the meal, for dessert.

Rendering guidance

• Vayikra 6:21, ומרק ושטף במים: "it shall be scoured and sluiced with water." Two words for two acts. Rashi has them as inside and outside, Rambam as two grades of thoroughness, so avoid an English pair that picks one reading.
• Yeshayahu 4:4: "when Hashem will have washed away the filth of the daughters of Tzion and rinsed out the blood of Yerushalayim." Keep "washed" for rechitzah and "rinsed" for hadachah; the distribution is Wertheimer's whole argument.
• כביסה: "launder" or "wash [clothes]," never "bathe." רחיצה of a person: "wash" or "bathe." The rule is object against body; an English "wash" for both loses it.
• Trap: "rinse" will take both shetifah and hadachah. Reserve "rinse" for hadachah and use "sluice," "flush" or "wash under running water" for shetifah, which carries mayim rabim with it.
• תמרוק in Esther: "beauty treatment" or "cosmetic regimen," not "purification"; Bedersi and Rashi's tie to merikah make it a smoothing of the skin.
• קינוח: "wipe." Never for water-washing; the root's point is that what is wiped is finished with.

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Laundering and Cleaning," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 20 Shevat 5782 (2022-01-22); raw text at sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/9544-laundering-and-cleaning.md. Primary loci cited: Shemos 19:10 with Yevamos 46b and Targum Onkelos; Vayikra 6:20, 6:21, 11:25, 13:6, 15:11, 15:12, 15:13; Bamidbar 19:7; Bereishis 18:4, 43:31; Shemos 2:5, 21:25, 30:19, 30:21; Yeshayahu 4:4 and 47:11; Tehillim 32:7; Mishlei 30:12; Melachim I 22:38 with Radak; Divrei HaYamim II 4:6; Esther 2:3 and 2:12; 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; Pesikta Rabbasi on keves.

Citation note: for Wertheimer's example of rechitzah inside an animal's innards the article gives Vayikra 17:16; that pasuk is about a man not washing his flesh, and the innards-washing of a korban is Vayikra 1:9 and 1:13.

Omitted under the Orthodox-sources rule: Rabbi Aharon Marcus's proposed lammed/tzadi interchange with Akkadian linking rachel to rechitzah, which the article itself could not substantiate. His keves/kevisah observation is kept, as is the Pesikta Rabbasi derashah beside it.