Bereishit: Sleepy Words (Part 1/2)
In the story of the creation of Eve, the Bible relates that Hashem put Adam into a deep slumber, so he would not feel his Creator surgically removing one of his ribs to create Eve. The way the Bible (Gen. 2:21) phrases it, Hashem placed a tardeimah upon Adam, and Adam slept (yashein). In Part I of this essay, we introduce three Hebrew words for “sleeping”: tardeimah, sheinah (the noun form ofyashein), and tenumah, plus we offer some basic explanations as to the difference between them. In Part II of this essay, we continue with more explanations as to how these three words differ from one another, as well as a discussion of the Hebrew word linah and the Zoharic word durmita. In exploring these different words for the same concept, we consider the etymological basis for each expression, and whether or not they are all truly synonymous.
The triliteral lexicographers — like Ibn Chayyuj (945–1000), Ibn Janach (990–1055), and Radak (1160–1235) — all write the root of sheinah is the three-letter root YOD-SHIN-NUN. In line with this, Rabbi Yitzchak Zeldin (18th century Germany) writes in Shoresh Yesha notesthat the root YOD-SHIN-NUN bears two meanings "sleep" and "old," before commenting that both of these meanings are one and the same. Although the meaning of this comment is a bit unclear, it seems that he meant to explain like Rabbi Hirsch (to Gen. 24:1) that the older a person gets, the more his energy has been sapped and drained, which leaves him more tired and needy of “sleep.”
The biliteralist Menachem Ibn Saruk (920–970), in his Machberet Menachem, traces sheinah to the biliteral root SHIN-NUN. In adopting a similar approach, Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim (1714–1814) defines the core meaning of that root as “doubling.” As a result, he lists the words shnayim/shnei (“two”) as derived from this root, as well as shanah (“repeat”), shinun (“sharpening,” a repetitive action done by rubbing a blunt metal against a stone), and shinui/shoneh (“change,” because when something is repeated, it inevitably changes, as it is impossible to exactly replicate what was before). Following this rubric, Rabbi Pappenheim writes that sheinah isanother derivative of this root, because when one is sleeping, one rehashes all of one’s thoughts from throughout the day, as though thinking about them a second time. Other words Rabbi Pappenheim sees as related to this root include shein (“tooth,” because most people grow two sets of teeth: one as a baby and one as a child), shanah (“year,” a unit of time determined by the sun reaching the same spot in the sky annually), and yashan (“old,” because such a person or item has experienced many a shanah).
Interestingly, Rabbi Aharon Marcus (1843–1916) writes that the core element of the word sheinah is the letter SHIN, which he claims is universally associated in all languages with “quiet” and “silence.” For example, the universal way of quieting a person is by shushing them, an onomatopoetic term derived from the "sh..." sound. Seemingly, Rabbi Marcus intends to say that when a person is asleep, he effectively remains silent, so the very word for “sleeping” is associated with “quietness.” [For more about other Hebrew words for “quiet/silence,” see “To Remain Silent” (March 2020).]
Moving on to the term tardeimah, all the early Hebrew lexicographers (including Ibn Saruk this time) trace the word to the three-letter root REISH-DALET-MEM. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (to Gen. 2:21) writes that the root REISH-DALET-MEM is related to the root REISH-TAV-MEM (“tying/binding”), via the interchangeability of DALET and TAV. He explains that when a person experiences tardeimah, all of his bodily senses are metaphorically “tied down,” as he loses his ability to independently/consciously move around, just as if he were physically fettered and tied up. Rabbi Hirsch speculates that when Elijah the prophet asked Hashem to kill him, he sat under a rotem tree (I Kgs. 19:4), because that particular tree has some sort of narcotic effect that is conducive to falling asleep.
On the other hand, Rabbi Hirsch argues that when one enters a state of sheinah, this refers to ordinary sleep, whereby a person's senses may be weakened and languid, but he is not totally detached from them. He finds support to this notion from the fact that yashein is related to yashan, ishon layla (Prov. 7:9, "the black of night") and ishon bas ayin (Ps. 17:8, "the black of the eyeball, i.e., the pupil). All of those terms refer to the “lack/deficiency” of something else: "black/darkness" refers to a lack of light, yashan ("old") refers to the lack of youngness/freshness, and yashein/sheinah implies a sleeping person’s lack of sentience and animation (albeit not a totally blackout).
Rabbi Pappenheim sees tardeimah as a tributary of the two-letter root REISH-DALET. He explains that root as primarily referring to “descending/downward movement” (yeridah). Accordingly, he explains the verb rodeh (Gen. 1:28, Lev. 25:43) in the Machiavellian sense of “governing/lording over others” by keeping one’s subordinates or constituents “down” in a way that they cannot assert their own independence, while the ruler remains on top of the hierarchy. Rabbi Pappenheim even sees meridah (“rebellion”) as related to this root, because it denotes the plebs breaking free from said yoke of the elite. Based on this, Rabbi Pappenheim argues that tardeimah refers to a type of sleep which “overpowers” a person by unwittingly making him fall asleep against his will. In other words, when a person did not purposely lay down to go to sleep, but instead dozes off and is overcome with sleep in middle of whatever else he was doing, this sleep “lords” over him and is therefore called tardeimah.
In Modern Hebrew, radum (a cognate of tardeimah) refers to a person who has been “sedated” or “tranquilized” (e.g., through local anesthesia), but may still technically be awake and lucid.
The word tenumah is pretty straightforward, with the triliteralists (like Ibn Chayyuj, Ibn Janach, and Radak) seeing its root as NUN-VAV-MEM, and the biliteralists (like Ibn Saruk and Rabbi Pappenheim) seeing its root as NUN-MEM. The Mishnah (Yoma 1:7, Pesachim 10:8, Megillah 2:2) uses the term mitnamnem ("dozing off/nodding off"), a diminutive of tenumah formed by doubling its two core consonants. The Talmud (Megillah 18b) explains that this particular term refers to the state of being “half-asleep”: nim (an Aramaic form of tenumah) but not totally nim, tir (“awake”) but not totally tir. This state of sleep is characterized by the feature that if one calls the sleeping person by name, he would respond; but although the sleeping person cannot provide a logical answer to question, he can recognize a correct answer.
The piyyut Melech Elyon (customarily recited on Rosh Hashanah) contrasts human kings, who are susceptible to such things as tenumah and tardeimah, with the King of Kings, whose potency lasts forever without respite. Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky (1927–2021) finds an allusion to this in the Midrash (Bereishit Rabbah §8:10) which relates that when Hashem first created man, all the ministering angels thought he was God, so Hashem made man fall asleep, so that they will all realize that Adam is a mere mortal.
But what is the difference between tenumah and tardeimah? And how do they differ from sheinah?
Ibn Ezra to (Gen. 2:21, Ecc. 12:2) ranks these three words in terms of the intensity of “sleep.” The way he puts it, tardeimah is a more intense sleep than sheinah, while sheinah is more intense than tenumah. Radak (to Gen. 2:21, Ps. 121:4, and Sefer HaShorashim) also cites this, and adds that Hashem imposed on Adam a deep sleep, which would allow him to not feel the pain of the surgery required to create Eve from his person. After the Bible says that Hashem imposed a tardeimah on Adam, it says vayishan (“and he slept”) — using another word for “sleeping” (Gen. 2:21). The way Radak explicates this passage, this second term refers to a later stage in the story. At first, Hashem put Adam in a state of tardeimah so that he will not feel the pain of having part of his body surgically removed. But afterwards, Adam was in a state of sheinah (where he could feel pain), while he recovered from his operation.
Peirush HaRokeach (to Gen. 2:21) also explains that tardeimah refers to an especially “strong sheinah,” under which Adam would not feel the removal of a rib. In that spirit, he also explains (to Gen. 15:12) that Hashem brought a tardeimah upon Abraham before the revelation at the Covenant Between the Pieces, so that Abraham will not end up waking up before receiving the full prophecy that He intended to relay.
Maimonides famously writes (Laws of Teshuvah 3:4) that although the commandment of blowing Shofar on Rosh HaShanah is simply the King's order, there is another element to it, and that is to serve as a wake-up call for sinners to repent. In his words: "Awake O sleeping ones from your sleep (sheinah), and those who slumber should wake up from your deep slumber (tardeimah), seek out your deeds and return in repentance."
Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch (Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem) infers from Maimonides’ wording that this passage refers to two different types of sinners. Following Ibn Ezra’s model for understanding the difference between sheinah and tardeimah, he explains that one sinner serves Hashem properly in general, but has only recently fallen out of line, such that he is likened to a person engaged in sheinah, a less intense form of sleep, from which one can be more easily roused. The other type of sinner is suffering from a more long-term condition, by which he has strayed from Hashem in a more intense way. That sinner is similar toone engaged in tardeimah, as he is stuck in a more intense slumber and it takes more effort to waken him and stir him to repent.
Rabbi Wertheimer cites a similar explanation, and ties this to the two different sounds blown by the Shofar on Rosh HaShanah, with the tekiah (a more basic sound) intended to send a message to those sinners are in a sheinah, and the teruah (a more complex and broken-up sound) to arouse even those sinners who in a deeper tardeimah and require more effort to be pulled out of their stupor. [For more about the words for “waking up,” see my earlier essay “Wake-up Time” (Dec. 2021).]
Also following Ibn Ezra’s basic approach, Rabbi Yosef Nechemias (to Prov. 6:11) writes that there are five terms for "sleep" in Hebrew: tenumah is the least intense, sheinah is more intense, and tardeimah is the most intense, while linah refers to the time for sleeping (see Part II), and shechivah refers to the act of laying down to go to sleep.
