Nursing from the Good
The Torah commands us to write the passages of the Shema on parchment and place them on the doorposts of our homes (Deut. 6:9, 11:20). These encased passages are often referred to as a mezuzah, although in Biblical Hebrew, mezuzah literally refers to the doorpost itself. A longstanding custom in preparing a mezuzah is to write Shaddai (one of Hashem’s names) on the exterior of the miniature parchment scroll. That name is sometimes associated with the Hebrew word shadayim (“breasts”), indicating Hashem’s role in nurturing and sustaining Creation. This essay explores various synonyms for shadayim in Biblical and Rabbinic Hebrew, delving into their meanings and connotations within different textual contexts.
A plurality of shadayim’s appearances in the Bible occur in Song of Songs, which presents an erotic narrative between two lovers as an analogy for the loving but complicated relationship between Hashem and the Jewish People.
Of the twenty-four times that the word shadayim (shad or shod in singular) appears in the Bible, there is only one instance in the Pentateuch: When the dying Jacob blessed Joseph with much fecundity on his deathbed, he referred to "blessings of shadayim and rechem" (Gen. 49:25). A simple reading of that verse suggests that Jacob invoked the “breasts and womb” as symbols of fertility and fruitfulness. Indeed, archeologists know that many idols meant to represent fertility goddesses in the ancient world purposely exaggerated those overtly womanly features of the idol’s anatomy as symbols of fertility. Others, including Rashi, explain shadayim in that verse as related to the Aramaic word shadi (“throw/shoot”), and actually refers to the male contribution to child proliferation, not the motherly aspect.
All the classical Hebrew lexicographers trace the word shadayim to the biliteral root SHIN-DALET (this includes Menachem Ibn Saruk, Yonah Ibn Janach, Shlomo Ibn Parchon, and Radak). Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim offers a fascinating discussion on that two-letter root, whose core meaning he defines as “abnormality.” In that discussion, he traces the word shadayim to this root, taking note of the bizarre nature of the mammary glands in secreting nourishing milk as a departure from the normal function of other body parts. Other words that he sees as derived from this same root include shoded (“pirating” or “commandeering”), which entails accumulating property in an unusual way and/or using something for a purpose other than its normal intended use; sheid (“demon”), which is an evil spirit that is said to disrupt the natural order; and shidah/shidot (Ecc. 2:8), “expert dancers,” who could move as nimbly as sheidim.
A cryptic passage in the Pentateuch describes the taste of the manna as "like the taste of l’shad of the oil" (Num. 11:8). The word l’shad only appears once in the entire Bible, making it a hapax legomenon. Moreover, the triliteral root LAMMED-SHIN-DALET from which the word l’shad seemingly derives does not occur anywhere else in Biblical Hebrew. The Talmud (Yoma 75a) offers two exegetical explanations of the word l’shad, both of which see the initial LAMMED as radical to the core root: the first explanation connects l’shad with the word shadayim, explaining that just as a baby who nurses from his mother experiences many different tastes, so did the Jews who ate the manna in the desert find that it had various different tastes. Alternatively, the Talmud states that l'shad relates to the word sheid ("shape-shifting demon"), as just a sheid can transform into various shapes and colors, so did the manna transform into various tastes. After citing the first of these explanations, Rashi (to Num. 11:8) wonders what it has to do with “oil,” and instead seems to endorse Donash’s definition of l’shad as “loaf.”
Alternate exegeses are presented in Sifrei (Behaalotcha §89) and Tosefta (Sotah 4:1), which expand on the comparison of the manna to shadayim: just as shadayim serve as a nursing infant's main source of sustenance, so did the manna do the same for the Jews in the desert. Or, just as if a baby would nurse from mother's milk all day long it could never "hurt" the child, so too if the Jews would have eaten manna the entire day, it would never hurt them (unlike conventional foods, about which it could easily be said that eating too much is bad for one's health). Or, just like a toddler suffers when first weaned from mother’s milk, so were the Jewish People pained over the cessation of manna when they entered the Holy Land.
Interestingly, the Bible reports that Daniel’s colleague Chananya was renamed Shadrach by the Babylonian king in whose court he served (Dan. 1:7). Pseudo-Rasag (there) explains the name Shadrach as a portmanteau of the words shad (“breast”) and rach (“soft”), as this appellation declared that Chananya was a refined and delicate person. Another possible name derived from the word shad/shadayim is borne by the father of the prince of the Tribe of Reuben — Shdeiohr (Num. 1:5, 2:10, 7:30, 7:35, 10:18), whose name can be read as “breasts of light” (or “my breasts [are] light” or “Shaddai is light”).
The prophet Ezekiel tells of the Jews’ engagement with idolatry when they were still a young nation enslaved in Egypt by comparing idolatry to harlotry. In that passage, he says: “there, their breasts [shadayim] were pressed, and there, their maiden dadim were kneaded" (Ezek. 23:3). In this verse, dadim is presented as a couplet alongside shadayim, but the meaning of the word dadim is not readily apparent. That term appears again when Proverbs compares the Torah to a doe, saying "her dadim will quench at all times" (Prov. 5:19). All in all, the word dadim (or dad in singular form) appears total four times in the Bible (Ezek. 23:3, 23:8, 23:21, and Prov. 5:19).
Menachem Ibn Saruk in Machberet Menachem and Radak in Sefer HaShorashim write that dadim means the same thing as shadayim — “breasts.” They both trace the term dadim to the biliteral root DALET-DALET. Nevertheless, Rabbi Pappenheim traces this word to the monoliteral root represented by the single letter DALET, which he explains means "separation" or "protrusion."
According to Rabbi Pappenheim, dadim relates to this monoliteral root because the breasts protrude from the bosom, and are thereby separated from the rest of one’s body. Rabbi Pappenheim also sees dud ("pot") and dudaim (a type of flower, often translated as "mandrake") as derived from this root because both are in the shape of dadim. Likewise, a dod (“uncle”) or dodah (“aunt”) protrudes from the linear stem of one’s family tree as a separate branch. Other common words he sees as related to this are dod (“lover,” or “friend” in an avuncular way), yedid ("beloved person," as the object of the dod's affection), niddah (“menstruating woman,” because she is separated from her husband and others), nadan/nedunya ("dowry," because it is separated from the rest of one's property for the purposes of marriage), and nadan (“sheath,” from which one separates a sword when needed). He also explains that yad (“hand”) derives from this root, because a hand separates out from the sides of a person's body.
Eldad and Meidad (Num. 11:26-27) were the names of two prophets who foretold of Moses’ death and Joshua’s future ascension to leadership. Those names seem to be comprised of the elements El and mei (“water/who”) respectively, plus the word dad (“breast”). Similarly, Elidad was the personal name borne by the prince of the Tribe of Benjamin when the Jews first entered the Promised Land (Num. 34:21). His name too is comprised of theophoric El in the first-person possessive, plus dad. In the Bible, there were foreign kings name Hadad (Edom) and Ben-Hadad (Aram), with Hadad literally meaning “the breast.” [In my book God versus Gods: Judaism in the Age of Idolatry(Mosaica Press, 2018), I talk about the Aramean/Babylonian storm god Hadad and how it relates to the Aramean god Rimmon.]
That said, not everybody agrees that dadim in Biblical Hebrew refers to “breasts.” Malbim in Sefer HaCarmel explains that in Biblical Hebrew, the terms shadayim and dadim actually refer to two different body parts: shadayim refer to the upper “breasts” from whence a woman nurses her young, while dadim refer to the nether-parts of the body, i.e. the place of “maidenhood.” A similar explanation of dadim is provided by Rabbi Menachem ben Shimon of Posquières (in his commentary to Ezek. 23:3) in the name of Rabbeinu Chananel (this appears in Mikraot Gedolot HaKeter published by Bar Ilan University).
Either way, in Rabbinic Hebrew, the term dadim certainly refers to “breasts”: For example, the Talmud (Eruvin 54b) follows up on Proverbs' aforementioned analogy by explaining that just as every time a nursing baby nuzzles against the breasts (dadim), he finds milk in them, so too every time a Torah Scholar toils in Torah Study, he will find tasty insights. Similarly, the Talmud (Shabbat 53b) famously tells the story of a man whose wife died and left a young boy who was nursing, but the father could not afford to hire a wet-nurse. Instead, a miracle occurred and his two dadim opened up like those of a woman and he nursed the baby. In all of these cases, the word dadim clearly means “breasts.”
The same can be said of the Mishnah (Yoma 3:10), which uses dadim in a slightly differently way, relating that a fellow named Ben Katin contributed to the Holy Temple by installing twelve dadim (in this case, breast-like “spigots”) on the Kiyor. Indeed, dadim appears multiple times in the Mishnah in contexts where it clearly refers to “breasts” (see Negaim 6:7-8 regarding tzara’at, Niddah 5:8 regarding the development of a pubescent girl, Bechorot 7:5 regarding blemishes, Sotah 1:6 regarding the Sotah ceremony, and Keilim 8:11).
In light of all this, it should not come as a surprise that Rabbi Shlomo of Urbino writes in Ohel Moed (his lexicon of Hebrew synonyms) that there are three synonyms in Biblical Hebrew that all mean “breasts” – shadayim, dadim, and atinim.
What, if anything, could be the difference between the terms shadayim and dadim?
Even if in practice these two words are synonymous, it could be that they are etymological disparate: Rabbi Moshe Tedeschi Ashkenazi in his work Otzar Nirdafim on Hebrew synonyms writes that shadayim relates to the verb “pouring/spilling,” while dadim is actually an onomatopoeic representation of the natural sound that a baby uses to refer to his mother’s breasts.
Alternatively, Rabbi Shaul Goldman argues that perhaps they are two forms of the same etymon: He thus suggests that the words shadayim and dadim are actually one and the same by noting that the initial SHIN of shadayim can be interchanged with a TAV (as often happens when switching from Hebrew to Aramaic), and that initial TAV can, in turn, be interchanged with a DALET. In both cases, the second DALET would stay in place, which would give us two words that have the exact same meaning.
Our next word, atinim, appears only once in the entire Bible: Job highlights the unfairness of the world by noting that the wicked have everything they want and die peacefully, while the righteous suffer throughout their lives: "this [wicked person] will die with his power intact, totally tranquil and quiet; his atinim filled with milk, and his bones fattened with marrow. While this [the righteous person] dies with a bitter soul, and he did not eat the good [of This World]" (Job 21:23-25).
The word atinim is understood by Gersonides and other commentators to refer to “breasts,” as though the wicked person has “full breasts” in that his storehouse is full of provisions and he does not need to scavenge. In Modern Hebrew, atinim (atin in singular) refers to the udders of a milk-producing animal or to a human nipple. Other explanations of atinim in Biblical scholarship include "pail," "vessel," "trough," "watering place," "side/thigh," or even "body" (see David J. A. Clines' dictionary of classical Hebrew).
Rashi (to Job there) points out that cognates of atinim are used in Mishnaic Hebrew, for example in the word maatan (AYIN-TET-NUN) which is a receptacle used for gathering olives in a way that they will give off oil (see Mishnah Maasrot 4:3, Bava Metzia 5:7, Taharot 9:1, 9:9) and the act of placing olives in such vessel (Menachot 8:4). In this way, the olive is made to function like a “breast” in that it gives off liquids.
Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim traces the word atinim to the biliteral root AYIN-TET, whose core meaning he sees as "insatiability" and "stinginess." This foundational concept manifests itself in various declensions and usages of the root in words like vaya'at ("scrounging for booty" in I Sam. 14:33, 15:19), which denotes the actions of someone seeking to get more; ayat (a type of predatory bird, "eagle" in Modern Hebrew), a creature always searching for more food; eit (writing instrument, "pen" in Modern Hebrew), a implement which seems to never be satisfied with what has already been written but wants to keep writing more; me’at (“a little bit”), the quantitative label for that which justifies reaching for more; and atah ("wrapping"), a lazy way of putting on clothes which connotes stinginess in effort. The word atinim fits in with all of this because an animal's utters are constantly producing and storing milk, indicating a continuous need for more. Thus, the udders are always in a state of filling and being emptied, never reaching a final state of contentment.
Isaiah foretells of the happiness of a repopulated Jerusalem in Messianic Times and the Jews’ rekindled closeness with Hashem, “so that you will nurse and be satisfied from the breast [shod] of her consolations, so that you will suckle and enjoy from the ziz of her honor (Isa. 66:11). Although this verse clearly uses shod which is a form of the word shadayim (discussed above) to mean “breast,” the commentators grapple over the meaning of the word ziz in this passage.
Radak (there) explains ziz as a form of the word ziv (“glow,” “countenance”). Indeed, a popular poem sung on Shabbat called Shimru Shabtotai opens by paraphrasing Isaiah: “Observe My Sabbaths / so that you will suckle and be satisfied / from the ziz of My blessings,” and some versions of the song read ziv instead of ziz. [For more about the word ziv, see “The Beauty of Adar” (Feb. 2018), “Brilliant Prohibitions” (May 2021), “Turning the Corner” (March 2023), “The Shiny Month” (May 2024).]
However, Shadal and Gesenius explain that ziz means “breast” (see also Daat Mikra to Isa. 66:11). In doing so, they associate the Biblical Hebrew ziz with the Italian zizza and the German zitze, both of which likewise refer to what is known in formal English as a teat and in vulgar slang as a tit (that is, the nipple of the mammary gland of a female mammal, from which the milk is sucked by the young). Those Italian, German, and English words for “breast” are said by linguists to derive from the theoretical Proto-Germanic root titt, which is further traced to the Proto-Indo-European root tata (meaning, “father,” “parent,” or “nipple”). Dr. Hayim Tawil in his An Akkadian Lexical Companion for Biblical Hebrew notes that there is an Akkadian word zizu which also means “breast.” It is therefore quite possible that these Indo-European words are actually cognate with their Semitic (Hebrew and Akkadian) counterparts.
Interestingly, Mitchell First argues that ziz refers to any protrusion (see Malbim to Isa. 66:11), leading him to speculate about how this word for “breast” (which protrudes from a woman’s bosom) and mezuzah (which protrudes from the side of the doorpost) might be related.
Finally, we reach our last word for this essay. The Bible reports that after Adam sinned by eating from the Tree of Knowledge, not only were man and woman cursed, but even the “ground” was cursed (Gen. 3:17). The rabbis explain why the ground was cursed by invoking a popular expression that people would say about the mothers of evildoers, “woe on to the breasts [bizaya] that nursed this [wicked person]” (Jerusalemic Talmud Kilayim 1:7, Bereishit Rabbah §5:9). Since Adam was created from the ground, the ground is also implicated in his sins and deserves punishment. Rabbi Natan of Rome in Sefer Ha’Aruch explains the word bizaya used by the rabbisas a Greek term that means “breasts.” He notes that Targum (to Job 21:24) similarly uses bizoi to translate atinim. Technically-speaking, that Greek word βυζίου (pronounced byziou) used by the rabbis is a cousin of the English word bosom (derived from the Proto-Germanic word bosmaz), as both are said to ultimately derive from Proto-Indo-European root bhew- (“swelling,” “bending,” “curving”).
