nature
wax
At a glance
In short
Donag is the Biblical word for wax, and it always appears as the substance that melts in fire. Rav Hirsch ties its name to wax's pliability, Rabbi Yehoshua Steinberg to its giving light, and Avraham Even-Shoshan to Akkadian dumqu, "clear" or "shiny"; Rabbi Dr. Ernest Klein concludes that its etymology is uncertain. Shaavah, the Mishnaic and Targumic word for the same substance, is beeswax or candle wax. The Gemara defines it as the refuse of honey. Its name seems to come from SHIN-AYIN, "smooth," for the texture of hardened wax. Kira (and keirosa, kiri) is wax too, but a Greek and Latin loan-word, not Hebrew or Aramaic. Nechot in the Yosef narrative is generally understood as a spice, though the Midrash and some commentators make it wax.
Distinctions
Donag (דונג)
Four times in Tanach: Michah 1:4, Tehillim 22:15, 68:3, 97:5. In every one it is wax as the thing that easily melts in fire, so the word carries an image of dissolving before heat. It is absent from Mishnah and Gemara, except as the name of Rav Nachman's daughter, Donag (Kiddushin 70a). Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein's summary: donag focuses on either wax's malleability, its role in bringing light, or its translucent appearance.
Shaavah (שעוה)
The common word of Mishnaic Hebrew for candle wax (pronounced shayva in more yeshivish circles): six times in the Mishnah, three in Shabbos (2:1, 8:4, 22:3) and three in Keilim (10:2, 17:17, 24:7); never in Tanach. Shabbos 20b defines it as pesulta d'duvsha, the refuse of honey, that is, the honeycomb left over from honey-making, the source of beeswax. Both shaavah and the Targum's sheieita seem to derive from the two-letter root SHIN-AYIN, "smooth" (compare shua), which fits the silky feel of hardened wax; so where donag looks to pliability, light or translucence, shaavah seems to look to texture. Targum renders donag in Tehillim as shaavah all three times; at Michah 1:4 it has sheieita, which Rabbi Eliyahu HaBachur (Meturgeman) suggests is a mistake for shaavita. Rabbi Matisyahu Strashun (1817 to 1885) reads Bereishis Rabbah 85:4, which calls Yehudah's father-in-law Shua (Bereishis 38:2) "the candle of the city," as a pun: שוע has the letters of שעוה, the stuff the best candles are made of. Wax candles remain a popular choice for Chanukah lights, though olive oil is ideal (Rema to Orach Chaim 673:1).
Kira (קירא)
Shabbos 20b glosses the Mishnah's shaavah with the seemingly Aramaic keirosa, and the Gemara uses kira (Bava Metzia 40a, Berachos 56b, Shabbos 110b, 133b, Yevamos 120a) and kiri (Pesachim 8a). These are not Aramaic but loan-words from Latin cera and/or Greek keros.
Nechot (נכאת)
A trade good in the Yishmaeli caravan (Bereishis 37:25) and among the gifts Yaakov sends to the viceroy (43:11). Generally a spice, often identified as ladanum; Ibn Janach: carobs. According to some commentators it may be another Biblical word for wax: the Midrash, Targum Yonasan and Targum Neofiti, and Onkelos as Rashi cites him. Professor Zohar Amar observes that me'at dvash precedes it in 43:11, which may have led to the beeswax reading.
Where the authorities disagree
What nechot is.
- It is generally understood as a spice, often identified as ladanum.
- Ibn Janach makes it carobs.
- Against that, Bereishis Rabbah 91:11 makes it shaavah, wax, and Targum Yonasan and Targum Neofiti (to Bereishis 37:25 and 43:11) render it shaavah.
- Professor Zohar Amar adds that in Yaakov's list the item just before it is me'at dvash, "a little honey," which may have led to the supposition that nechot is something related to honey, that is, beeswax.
What Onkelos says there.
- Rashi (to Bereishis 37:25) cites Targum Onkelos as also rendering nechot as shaavah, which is somewhat difficult, because our editions of Onkelos (Bereishis 37:25, 43:11) read shaaf, which apparently means "smear" (see Chullin 111b).
- Ramban (to Shemos 30:34) takes Onkelos's rendering to mean olive oil.
- The Vilna Gaon's son, Rabbi Avraham Vilner, reads the word as saaf and connects it to seif, "branch" (Yechezkel 31:8).
Despite all this, Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein validates Rashi's citation through Rabbi Yosef Teomim-Frankel (1727 to 1792), who suggests in Iggros Pri Megadim that shaaf is just a variant of shaavah, presumably, Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein adds, because PEH and VAV are phonetically close and can interchange.
Where donag comes from.
- Rav Hirsch (to Shemos 29:20) connects it to tenuch, the ear lobe, ostensibly invoking the interchange of DALET with TAV and GIMMEL with KAF; wax, he explains, is malleable and pliable, as the fatty ear lobe is.
- Rabbi Yehoshua Steinberg (Shorashei Leshon HaKodesh, Warsaw 1897) reads it as a compound of dei and nogah, "enough light," an allusion to wax's use in candles.
- More scholarly-oriented etymologists are at a loss: the prominent linguist Avraham Even-Shoshan (1906 to 1984) suggests in his dictionary that it derives from Akkadian dumqu, "clear" or "shiny," which Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein takes as a reference to wax's translucence; Rabbi Dr. Ernest Klein (1899 to 1983) concludes that it is of uncertain etymology, mentioning Even-Shoshan's theory as just a possibility, and cites Dr. Heinrich Leberecht Fleischer (1801 to 1888), who compares Arabic danj, "the remainder of the honeycombs."
Radak on these roots
Sefer HaShorashim
ד-נ-ג
Wax: כַּדּוֹנַג מִפְּנֵי הָאֵשׁ (Michah 1:4), like wax before the fire; דונג, he says, is השעוה, wax.
כַּדּוֹנַג מִפְּנֵי הָאֵשׁ (מיכה א, ד), הוא השעוה.
נ-כ-אhe files it under נכת
נְכֹאת, a desirable thing (Bereishis 37:25); some explain it as carob fruit, and Bereishis Rabbah as wax.
A desirable thing
נְכֹאת וּצְרִי וָלֹט (Bereishis 37:25), nechos, tzari and lot: the alef stands in for a lengthening vav, and the meaning is a desirable thing. So too אֶת־בֵּית נְכֹתֹה (Yeshayahu 39:2), the house of his desirable things, and so the Targum renders it, יַת כֹּל בֵּית גִנְזוֹהִי, the whole house of his treasuries.
Others: carob fruit, or wax
Some explain נכאת in נכאת וצרי ולט, nechos, tzari and lot, as the fruit of the carob tree. Bereishis Rabbah, at the end of parashah 91, explains נכאת as שעוה, wax, and it is known.
Verbs that may share the root
וַיַּכּוּם וַֽיַּכְּתוּם (Bamidbar 14:45), and they struck them and beat them down, may be of this root; its regular form would be וַיַּכִּיּתוּם, just as וַיַּדְבְּקוּ גַם־הֵמָּה (Shmuel I 14:22), and they too clung on, would regularly be וַיַּדְבּיקוּ. So too וָֽאֶכֹּת אֹתוֹ טָחוֹן (Devarim 9:21), and I beat it, grinding, may be of this root. Their sense he explains under the root כָּתַת.
נְכֹאת וּצְרִי וָלֹט (בראשית לז, כה), האל"ף תמורת ו"ו המשך ופירושו דבר נחמד. וכן וַיַּרְאֵם אֶת־בֵּית נְכֹתֹה [נְכֹתוֹ] (ישעיה לט, ב), בית חמדתו. וכן אמר התרגום יַת כֹּל בֵּית גִנְזוֹהִי. ויש מפרשים נכאת וצרי ולט פרי החרוב. ובבראשית רבה (סוף פרשה צא, דף קג), מפרש נכאת שעוה וידוע הוא. ויתכן להיות מהשרש הזה וַיַּכּוּם וַֽיַּכְּתוּם (במדבר יד, מה), ומשפטו היה וַיַּכִּיּתוּם כמו וַיַּדְבְּקוּ גַם־הֵמָּה (שמואל א' יד, כב), שמשפטו וַיַּדְבּיקוּ. וכן וָֽאֶכֹּת אֹתוֹ טָחוֹן (דברים ט, כא), אפשר להיות מעקר זה. וענינם פירשתי בשרש כָּתַת.
ק-י-ר
A wall: the wall of the mizbeach or of a house, and by borrowing the walls of the heart; the doubled verb from it is tearing a wall down.
The wall itself
קִיר הַמִּזְבֵּֽחַ (Vayikra 1:15), the wall of the mizbeach, and נֹגַעַת בַּקִּיר הַשֵּׁנִי (Melachim I 6:27), touching the second wall; Radak says it is the כותל known from the Mishnah. In the feminine plural, בְּקִירוֹת הַבָּֽיִת (Melachim I 6:6), in the walls of the house, and וְקִֽירֹתָיו עֵץ (Yechezkel 41:22), and its walls of wood.
An upper room built of stone
On נַֽעֲשֶׂה־נָּא עֲלִיַּת־ קִיר (Melachim II 4:10), let us make a walled upper room, Radak says the upper room is joined to קיר to tell that it is to be built with walls, a building of stones, and not with partitions of reeds.
The walls of the heart
By way of borrowing, קִירוֹת לִבִּי הֹֽמֶה־לִּי (Yirmiyahu 4:19), the walls of my heart moan within me; Radak says it is said of the heart because a heart has sides and hollows.
Tearing the wall down
The doubled verb is the pulling down of a wall: וְקַרְקַר כָּל־בְּנֵי־שֵֽׁת (Bamidbar 24:17), and he will break down all the sons of Shes, and מְקַרְקַר קִר (Yeshayahu 22:5), pulling down the wall. As מְשָׁרֵשׁ is taking out the root, so מקרקר is pulling down the wall, and קִר is added for more clearness, since מקרקר alone would have done, as in לִצְבֹא צָבָא (Bamidbar 4:23), to serve the service, and וַיִּקְסְמוּ קְסָמִים (Melachim II 17:17), and they divined divinations.
קִיר הַמִּזְבֵּֽחַ (ויקרא א, טו), נֹגַעַת בַּקִּיר הַשֵּׁנִי (מלכים א' ו, כז). נַֽעֲשֶׂה־נָּא עֲלִיַּת־קִיר (מלכים ב' ד, י), פירוש כותל הידוע במשנה. וסמך עֲלְיָּה אל קיר כלומר שתהיה העליה בנויה בכותלים שהיא בנין אבנים לא במחיצות קנים וחוצים. והקבוץ בלשון נקבות בְּקִירוֹת הַבָּֽיִת (שם א' ו, ו), אֶת־גַּגּוֹ וְאֶת־קִֽירֹתָיו (שמות ל, ג), וְקִֽירֹתָיו עֵץ (יחזקאל מא, כב). ובדרך ההשאלה קִירוֹת לִבִּי הֹֽמֶה־לִּי (ירמיה ד, יט), אמר לבי מפני שהלב יש בו דפנות וחללים. והפעל הכבד ממנו [פִּעֵל] וְקַרְקַר כָּל־בְּנֵי־שֵֽׁת (במדבר כד, יז), ופ"א הפעל פתוחה ומשפטה בחירק. אבל התנועות משתנות בהרבה מקומות. מְקַרְקַר קִר (ישעיה כב, ה), היה משפטו מְקַרְקֵר בצרי אלא שהתנועות משתנות. וענינם הריסת הקיר כמו שהוא מְשָׁרֵשׁ מסיר השרש כן מקרקר הורס הקיר. ואמר קִר לתוספת ביאור כי די היה לו במקרקר כמו לִצְבֹא צָבָא (במדבר ד, כג) וַתַּשְׁרֵשׁ שָׁרָשֶׁיהָ (תהלים פ, י) וַיִּקְסְמוּ קְסָמִים (מלכים ב' יז, יז).
Radak, Sefer HaShorashim, Berlin 1847. Public domain, digitised by Sefaria from the National Library of Israel.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Pick your Wax - Chanukah," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 5 December 2020.
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Pick your Wax," What's in a Word? Synonyms in the Hebrew Language (book manuscript).
Cited in the essay: Bereishis 37:25, 43:11 with Bereishis Rabbah 91:11, Targum Yonasan, Targum Neofiti and Onkelos; Rashi to Bereishis 37:25; Bereishis 38:2 with Bereishis Rabbah 85:4; Rav Hirsch to Shemos 29:20; Ramban to Shemos 30:34; Yechezkel 31:8; Michah 1:4; Tehillim 22:15, 68:3, 97:5; Mishnah Shabbos 2:1, 8:4, 22:3 and Keilim 10:2, 17:17, 24:7; Shabbos 20b, 110b, 133b; Kiddushin 70a; Bava Metzia 40a; Berachos 56b; Pesachim 8a; Yevamos 120a; Chullin 111b; Rema to Orach Chaim 673:1; Rabbi Yehoshua Steinberg, Shorashei Leshon HaKodesh (Warsaw 1897); Avraham Even-Shoshan's dictionary; Rabbi Dr. Ernest Klein, citing Heinrich Leberecht Fleischer; Rabbi Eliyahu HaBachur, Meturgeman; Rabbi Matisyahu Strashun; Ibn Janach; Professor Zohar Amar; Rabbi Avraham Vilner; Rabbi Yosef Teomim-Frankel, Iggros Pri Megadim.