Emor: A Window into Widows (Part 1/2)
In Parashat Emor, the noun almanah (“widow”) appears twice: Once when stating that a Kohen Gadol is forbidden from marrying an alamanh (Lev. 21:14), and once when stating that a Kohen’s daughter who married a non-Kohen and then her husband died may return to her father's family to eat terumah (Lev. 22:13). In this two-part essay, we will closely examine the word almanah and its possible etymologies. Along the way, we will encounter words that are seemingly synonymous with almanah and show that they are actually just different forms of that word.
Looking at just the Bible, the word almanah appears 56 times — many of those cases in the context of warning a person not to abuse or otherwise afflict the widow (for example, Ex. 22:21, Deut. 24:17, Isa. 1:17, 1:23, Jer. 7:6, 22:3, Zech. 7:10), or in describing Hashem as the One who takes care of the widow (Ps. 68:6, 146:9). There are also legal rules that apply specifically to widows, like the rule of a widow’s vow (Num. 30:10) and the requirements to leave special tithes for widows and other paupers to take (Deut. 24:19-21, 26:12-13). In an additional four places, the word almenut (“widowhood”) also appears in the Bible (Gen. 38:14, 38:19, II Sam. 20:3, Isa. 54:1). Likewise, in Biblical Hebrew, a widower (that is, a married man whose wife had died) is called an alman (Jer. 51:5), and the state of being a widower is almon (Isa. 47:9). Each of those last two words only appear a single time in the Bible.
On the surface, the word almanah seems to derive from the quadriliteral root ALEPH-LAMMED-MEM-NUN, with the additional HEY at the end to denote the feminine. However, it is quite rare for Hebrew words to derive from four-letters roots. As we have mentioned in the past, many Hebrew grammarians argue that Hebrew words whose roots are ostensibly four- or five- letters are often times loan words from other languages.
In the case of almanah, Rabbi Yonah Ibn Janach in his Sefer HaShorashim actually traces this word to the triliteral root ALEPH-LAMMED-MEM, whose core meaning refers to “muteness” (as in the word ilem, which refers to a “mute” person). The way he explains it, a woman whose husband has died is left in a "muted" state because she has nobody to argue on her behalf if anybody should fight with her. According to this explanation, the letter NUN is a grammatic suffix to denote the noun agent, just like rachamim (“mercy”) can have a NUN appended to it to become rachaman (“the merciful one”). This explanation is cited approvingly by Radak in his Sefer HaShorashim, Rabbi Shlomo Ibn Parchon in his Machberet He-Aruch, and Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (in his comments to Ex. 22:21). [Interestingly, Menachem Ibn Saruk in Machberet Menachem totally omits the words almanah/alman, so we have no way of knowing how he understood their root.]
The Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT) mentions the possibility that the Hebrew almanah derives from the root LAMMED-MEM-NUN, a root otherwise attested to in the Akkadian word lemnu as meaning “poor.”
When we turn to Rabbinic Hebrew, there is an interesting phenomenon: the term almanah becomeswhat linguists call a synecdoche — that is, a term that refers to a general category and also a specific thing within that general category. This is because almanah can refer in general terms to any woman was once married and has become unmarried, whether by becoming divorced or widowed, and also to a woman who was once married and has become widowed. In this way, the Mishnah states that while the ketubah of a betulah (“virgin/maiden”) is 200 zuz, the ketubah of an almanah is only 100 zuz (Ketubot 1:2). In that case, the term almanah refers to any woman who had previously been married — whether that marriage was terminated by way of divorce or by way of her husband’s death. But even in Rabbinic Hebrew, the word almanah usually refers to a “widow,” just like it does in Biblical Hebrew.
When discussing the aforementioned Mishnah, the Talmud (Ketubot 10a) felt the need to expound on the word almanah (see Ben Yehoyada there), and cites Rabbi Chana of Baghdad’s explanation. He says that the Biblical Hebrew word almanah serves as an allusion to the future rabbinic enactment that a widow’s ketubah entitles her to only a manah (the equivalent of 100 zuz) of compensation should her new husband divorce her or predecease her. It seems that the rabbis parse the word almanah as comprised of two elements al and manah, with the second word alluding to the sum entitled to a widow who remarries by her ketubah.
But what does the al element here represent? Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh of Modena (in HaBoneh to Ein Yaakov Ketubot 10b) explains that al manah means “not a manah” in reference to the fact that there is an additional manah written into the ketubah of a betulah that an almanah does not get. A similar explanation is cited by Rabbi Betzalel Ashkenazi (in Shittah Mekubetzet to Ketubot 10b) in the name of the Geonim. Rabbi Ashkenazi also explains Rashi (to Ketubot 10b) as understanding that al manah means elah (spelled with an extra ALEPH) manah, meaning “rather/only one manah” (as opposed to a betulah who gets two). Rabbi Shmuel Strashun (Hagahot Rashash there) explains the word al in this context as referring to the definite article (“the”), just as it does in Arabic.
Interestingly, Ritva (to Ketubot 10b) stresses that this Talmudic passage is saying that even though the word almanah etymologically derives from the root ALEPH-LAMMED-MEM (per the grammarians cited above), the rabbis were explaining that the additional NUN serves to coin a word that alludes to the value of the almanah’s ketubah. In the same spirit as this Talmudic passage, Peirush Rokeach (to Lev. 21:14) writes that the gematria of the word almanah equals that of the Aramaic phrase meah zuzin (“100 zuz”).
Rabbi Moshe Sofer (responsa Chatam Sofer, Even HaEzer vol. 2 §170) also discusses the word almanah. He cites the aforementioned Talmudic exegesis on the word as alluding to the future enactment of granting a widow 100 zuz in ketubah, but adds that this must obviously refer to something that occurred in post-Biblical times because the manah currency was only introduced after the Biblical period. In addition, he raises several salient points that require further elucidation concerning the rabbis’ etymology of almanah: Firstly, he points out that is illogical that a widow should be called almanah on account of the amount of money that is written in her ketubah if she should get remarried. It would have made more sense if the rabbis said that almanah refers to a woman who was widowed and then remarried, but not for them to say it refers to the widow herself (even without remarrying). Moreover, he explains that while the rabbis explained why a widow is called an almanah, they have failed to explain why a male widower is likewise called an alman.
In light of these and other difficulties that he raises, Rabbi Sofer offers an alternate, novel explanation of the word almanah: He parses the word as comprised of ALEPH-LAMMED (“no/not”) and MEM-NUN (“portion/substance,” as in mahn, “manna”). By doing so, he explains that when a couple gets married, a biliteral relationship is forged wherein the man is supposed to serve as the provider of sustenance to his wife and, conversely, the wife is supposed to serve as the provider of sustenance to her man. Accordingly, when either spouse dies, the other spouse is left bereft of their source of “sustenance,” hence they are called an almanah or alman respectively.
A similar explanation is proffered by Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg (HaKtav VeHaKabbalah to Ex. 22:21), who explains almanah as referring to the fact that when a man and woman are married, they fuse together as one person, so when one spouse dies, the remaining spouse lives as if a "part" (manah) of them is "not" (al) existent.
All that said, Rabbi Sofer makes it clear that this understanding lies within the realm of the homiletic, but in plane of the literal, there is no basis for expounding on noun words in Biblical Hebrew in such a way. To illustrate this point, he ironically states that one cannot expound on the word lechem (“bread”) as though it was derived from the verb form of milchamah (“war”) to say that one may not eat bread until he has fought it over (that said, there were some exegetes who have offered comparable explanations of the word lechem).
Speaking of widows, I was asked to mention a unique book for widows in the Jewish community and their orphaned children. It's called Invisible Tribe, by Sara Miriam Gross. This wonderful compilation contains stories of strength and encouragement to serve as a much-needed community resource for widows and orphans coping with the loss of a father.
To be continued…
