worm

Distinctions

rimah (רימה)

Seven occurrences in Tanach, five of them in Iyov (7:5, 17:14, 21:26, 24:20, 25:6), plus Shemos 16:24 and Yeshayahu 14:11. Ibn Janach, Radak (each in Sefer HaShorashim) and Rabbi Shlomo Ibn Parchon (Machberes HeAruch) trace it to ר-מ-ם; Menachem Ibn Saruk (Machberes Menachem) to the biliteral ר-מ. Either way the root family (with ר-ו-ם) covers lifting, exalting, separating, removing, producing, and throwing.

On which of those senses yields "maggot," the authorities split. Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim (Yerios Shlomo, Cheshek Shlomo): from "throwing," because these creatures have no legs to jump with and instead gather themselves to fling their bodies in an arc onto the spot they aim at; he further suggests rimon ("pomegranate") is named from rimah, that fruit being so prone to infestation. Rav Hirsch (to Shemos 16:20): from "lifting," since food lying inert looks lifeless, and once worms move over it the thing seems raised into animation; Rav Hirsch is careful to say he is describing what the eye sees, not settling how the creatures come to be. Malbim (Sefer HaCarmel) implies the swarm's "ascending" upon the rotting item. Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh of Carpentras (Aholei Yehudah) offers two: a link to ח-מ-ם, the heat of putrefaction (he does not explain the reish/ches interchange), or that the creature is so slight it barely lifts off the ground. Rabbi David Chaim Chelouch (Michtam L'David, Ohr Chadash): ר-מ carries a thing and its exact opposite, the exalted ram and the lowest of the low rimah, with mirmah and ramai in between, seeming exalted and being the reverse.

toleah (תולעה), tola (תולע), tola'as (תולעת)

Toleah twice (Yeshayahu 14:11, Iyov 25:6), tola twice (Eichah 4:5, Yeshayahu 1:18), tola'as close to forty times. Ibn Saruk, Ibn Janach, Radak, and Ibn Parchon all take the root as ת-ל-ע, which also yields mesalos, "teeth" (Iyov 29:17, Yoel 1:6, Mishlei 30:14). Rabbi Pappenheim treats the tav as extraneous and the core root as ל-ע, "the organ of swallowing": loa, "throat," occurs once (Mishlei 23:2), teeth belong to the same digestive apparatus, and bala ("swallow") he parses as ב-א ("enter") plus ל-ע. The worm earns the name because it bolts its food down without chewing. Rabbi Tedeschi-Ashkenazi ties toleah to loa differently, by the long tubular shape.

Teeth are the point. Midrash Sechel Tov (to Shemos 16:24) states the difference plainly: rimah do not eat or drink, while toleah eat as creatures with teeth do. Tanchuma Beshalach 9 on tola'as Yaakov (Yeshayahu 41:14) says that as a worm fells a cedar with its mouth, so Klal Yisrael fells nations with its mouth, that is, with tefillah; Radak on the same pasuk reads the comparison from weakness instead.

The difference, stated

• Netziv (Birkas HaNetziv to Mechilta on Shemos 16:20; Ha'Emek She'eilah 56:3): rimah are the small ones that appear before the thing has properly rotted, toleah the long crawling ones that come after it has spoiled. Hence Shemos 16:20 uses the verb vayarum first and the noun tola'im after.
• Vilna Gaon, cited by Rabbi Binyamin Rivlin (Giviyay Giviya HaKesef to Shemos 16:20): infestation begins small (rimah) and grows large (toleah); so Shemos 16:24 says there was no rimah in the manna, meaning it did not reach even stage one, and all the more so not stage two. Rabbi Wertheimer (Beiurei Shemos Nirdafim) finds support in Rashbam to Shemos 16:20.
• Rabbi Moshe Tedeschi-Ashkenazi (Otzar Nirdafim 482): rimah is larvae still in the egg, and though it looks singular it names a cluster; toleah is one fully formed worm living on its own. Alternatively, rimah infests fruit and cheese, toleah is found in the innards or in the ground. Rabbi Wertheimer infers from Avos 2:7 that rimah takes to fatty flesh, and the distinction is probably already in Rabbi Eliyahu Bachur's glosses to Radak's Sefer HaShorashim: rimah for maggots in flesh and cheese, toleah for worms.
• Rav Hirsch (to Shemos 16:20): rimah form from within the rotting thing, or appear to; toleah plainly come from outside to consume it.
• Malbim (to Yeshayahu 14:11): rimah have not yet left the place where they were generated, toleah can already move about. Elsewhere (Yair Ohr, on adam versus enosh) he has rimah as worms of rot specifically and toleah as worms as such.
• Rabbi Shaul Goldman: rimah is larvae and maggots, decay working from within; toleah is the eater, destruction working from without.

Rendering guidance

• Fixed phrase רימה ותולעה (Avos 3:1, Berachos 24b, Nedarim 9b, Bava Basra 17a, Bava Metzia 83b, and the midrashim): "maggots and worms." Keep the order; every authority above reads it as a sequence.
• Trap: English "worms" absorbs both, and most translations of Avos 3:1 do exactly that. If the passage turns on the pair (the manna at Shemos 16:20 and 16:24, or the seven whose bodies were untouched), the two English words must stay two.
• Tola'as alone is usually "worm"; tola'as shani is the crimson dye, not a creature, and takes "scarlet."
• Do not render rimah as "rot" or "decay." It names the creatures, even on Rabbi Goldman's reading where they signify internal decomposition.
• מתלעות is "teeth," never "worms," though the root is one; keep the connection to a note.

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Matos-Masei: The Wormy Place," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 1 Av 5785 (2025-07-26): raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/11902-matos-masei-the-wormy-place.md. Primary loci cited: Avos 3:1 and 2:7; Berachos 24b; Nedarim 9b; Bava Basra 17a; Bava Metzia 83b; Shemos Rabbah 20, Vayikra Rabbah 18, Devarim Rabbah 11, Koheles Rabbah 5 and 12; Midrash Sechel Tov to Shemos 16:24 and Bereishis 46:13; Tanchuma Beshalach 9; Shemos 16:20, 16:24; Yeshayahu 1:18, 14:11, 41:14; Iyov 7:5, 17:14, 21:26, 24:20, 25:6, 29:17; Eichah 4:5; Yoel 1:6; Mishlei 23:2, 30:14; Bereishis 46:13; Bamidbar 26:23; Shoftim 10:1; Divrei HaYamim I 7:1-2, 12:33.

Two citation notes: the article prints the tandem verses as "isa. 4:11" and attributes Malbim to "Isa. 4:11"; the locus in both places is Yeshayahu 14:11. The article's closing conjecture from Alfred Jones, The Proper Names of the Old Testament Scriptures (London, 1856), on the name Tola is omitted here under house rule 9.