Balak: An Asinine Essay (Part 1/2) « What's in a Word? « Ohr Somayach

What's in a Word?

For the week ending 12 July 2025 / 16 Tamuz 5785

Balak: An Asinine Essay (Part 1/2)

by Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein
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The famous scene of Balaam and his talking donkey serves as our springboard for a discussion about various Hebrew words for “donkey” in the Bible and beyond. In antiquity, donkeys were common beasts of burden, often prized for their endurance. Although the common word for “donkey” in Biblical Hebrew is chamor, technically-speaking, Balaam’s donkey is actually called an aton (Num. 22:21–23, 22:25, 22:27–30, 22:32–33). Besides for chamor and aton, this essay also discusses the words pere, ayir, yeimim, and sayach that are likewise associated with the so-called Equus asinus family to which donkeys belong. As this essay makes clear, these different Hebrew words are not simply synonyms, but rather refer to different members of the broader donkey family.

Before we turn to the Hebrew words at the core of this essay, we begin by surveying English words for this animal that will help us later on in defining our terms. In English, we have many overlapping names for what is often just called the domestic donkey. Modern science identifies the donkey as a subspecies of the African wild ass (Equus africanus), and it should be noted that historically the more common word for that animal was ass (from the Latin asinus). Indeed, ass has cognates across the Indo-European family, like the Greek onos (and possibly even the Sumerian anse). Other cognates that appear in English include onager (a Middle English word for a “wild donkey”), easel (a wooden structure that looks like a donkey), and asinine (literally, “like a donkey” but colloquially refers to somebody or something “stupid”).

By contrast, the English word donkey is actually comparatively late (first attested to in the 1780s) and is of uncertain etymology, with no clear cognates in other languages. Because the word ass in English developed a pejorative, and even offensive, meaning, it became less popular over the 18th and 19th centuries until the word donkey gradually became the more popular word. Rabbi Ernest Klein in his etymological dictionary of English proposes that donkey is derived from the Old English word dun/dunn (or dwn in Welsh) which means "brown," with the k and y elements serving as double diminutives. He further notes that the form of the Modern English word donkey was influenced by the spelling of the English word monkey (which ends in -onkey, just like donkey does). By the way, the Old English dunn is the first element in the originally-Gaelic personal name Duncan (which literally means "brown head").

For our purposes, it is important to note that English also has distinct words for donkeys based on their gender and age. An adult male donkey is called a jack or jackass, and an adult female donkey is called a jenny or jennet. A young donkey of either sex is simply called a foal (which is a general term also used for young animals other than donkeys). There are also two terms used in reference to hybrid animals that descend from donkey parentage, but are not of full donkey lineage: a mule is the offspring of a male donkey mated with a female horse, while a hinny (from the Latin hinnus) results from a male horse bred to a female donkey.

The first time that the Hebrew word chamor appears in the Bible is when Pharaoh gifted Abraham various livestock and slaves as reparations for the ordeal of him kidnapping Sarah (Gen. 13:16). Subsequently, the word chamor appears close to one-hundred time throughout the Bible. Although grammatically the word chamor is male-gendered, Radak in his Michlol (Shaar Dikduk Ha'Paalim, as well as in his comments to II Sam. 19:27) writes that the word chamor can refer to a donkey of either sex.

Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg (HaKtav VeHaKabbalah to Lev. 22:28) adds that when talking about the commandment of redeeming the firstborn donkey, the Torah uses the term peter chamor (Ex. 13:13, 34:20), implying that the foal exited the womb of a chamor. Since the mother is always a female chamor, this usage supports Radak's assertion that in Biblical Hebrew, chamor is a unisexual term.

Outside of the Bible, the word chamor also appears many times in the Mishnah, but for our purposes it is apposite to note that Mishnaic Hebrew once uses a feminine form of the word chamor chamorah — in reference to a female donkey (jenny) that gives birth (Bechorot 1:2). This word is clearly derived from chamor, with the appendage of the feminine HEY suffix. It is noteworthy that this word never appears in the Bible, and it only appears once in the Mishnah. In the Talmud, the word chamorah appears several more times (Talmud Yerushalmi Brachot 8:5, Kilayim 8:3, Maaser Sheini 3:6, Pesachim 4:8, Talmud Bavli Moed Katan 12a, Avodah Zarah 20b, Bechorot 20a). Thus, while in Biblical Hebrew chamor that can refer to either a male or female donkey, Rabbinic Hebrew coined the term chamorah in order to more clearly differentiate between the two.

The Hebrew chamor is such a basic word that it has cognates in all the major Semitic languages, such as the Aramaic/Syriac chamara, Ugaritic hmr, Arabic himar, Akkadian imeru. That said, the Hebrew lexicographers all agree that chamor derives from the Hebrew triliteral root CHET-MEM-REISH, which yields words that mean "donkey," "wine," "brown," "clay/mortar/cement/material/asphalt/bitumen," "pile," and a unit of measuring area (chomer). In an earlier essay (“Words for Wine Part 2”, March 2022), I cited Rabbi Aharon Marcus’ contention that the core meaning of this three-letter root is “brown,” so the word chamor actually invokes the reddish-brownish hue of many donkeys. I also discussed in that essay how chamor as a pack animal represents the utterly materialistic aspects of creation, hence the connection to the "clay/mortar/cement/material" meaning of this root. Others explain the word chamor as related to the “wine” meaning of this root, as the dumb donkey’s intellectual capacity parallels that of a drunkard fumbling in his own drunken stupor. [For more about the connection between donkeys and the color red, see “Seeing Red Part 3” (Apr. 2025).]

Before we move on to the next word in our study, I thought it would be penitent to point out that the personal name Chamor (Hamor) appears thirteen times in the Bible in reference to the father of Shechem (Gen. 33–34, Josh. 24:32, Jud. 9:28).

The word pere appears ten times in the Bible (sometimes spelled with a final ALEPH and sometimes, with a final HEY). It refers to a “wild ass,” which is a non-domesticated type of donkey. The term is also used in reference to a human being whose wild, uncurtailed behavior resembles that of a wild ass. For example, Hashem famously told Abraham that his son Ishmael “will be an ass of a man [pere adam]” (Gen. 16:12). As we discussed in an earlier essay (see “Don’t be a Behemah or a Chayah,” Nov. 2016), there is a rabbinic taxonomy of animals that differentiates between a behemah (domestic animal) andachayah (wild animal). Radak explicitly refers to this taxonomy when he writes that a chamor is a behemah, while a pere is a chayah.

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (to Gen. 16:11) compares the root of pere (PEH-REISH-ALEPH) to other phonetically-similar words, like PEH-REISH-AYIN (“revealed”), PEH-REISH-CHET (“growing/sprouting”), PEH-REISH-HEY(“cow/fruitful”), BET-REISH-ALEPH (“created”), BET-REISH-CHET (“fled”), and BET-REISH-HEY (“clear/outside”). He sees the common denominator among all these words as relating to the concept of freedom and the unhindered ability to move/grow without restriction. Hence, the wild ass is an animal whose movements are likewise unrestrained, and a human compared to such an animal is one who lacks the proper inhibitions and boundaries.

The Biblical Aramaic word for the “wild ass” is aradaya which appears once in the Bible (Dan. 5:21). In Targumic Aramaic, the word pere is always rendered as arud (or perhaps vocalized arod). The word arud also occurs in Mishnaic Hebrew (while pere does not), with the Mishnah stating that crossbreeding a chamor and an arud is forbidden, even though the animals are very similar to each other (Kilayim 1:6). Indeed, Rabbi Akiva (Brachot 9b) draws on this similarity between the two species in stating that the proper time to recite Shema in the morning is when there is enough to light that one can tell the difference between an arud and a chamor.

The Mishnah also clearly states that an arud is a type of chayah (Kilayim 8:6), which echoes Radak's way of explaining the difference between a chamor and a pere. The word arud also appear in the Talmud Bavli in reference to a wild ass (Brachot 9b, Rosh HaShanah 3a, Bava Kamma 37a, Chullin 59a, Menachot 103b). But we should also clarify that there is another word arud in the Talmud which refers to a type of poisonous lizard that is seen as a cross between a snake and turtle (Brachot 33a, Chullin 127a), rather than to an equid beast.

The term aton first occurs in Biblical Hebrew alongside the word chamor when Pharaoh gave presents to Abraham after having taken Sarah (Gen. 12:16). Just as the word chamorim (plural for chamor) appears in that list of presents, so does the word atonot (plural for aton). When celebrating the Jews’ victory against the Canaanite general Sisera, Deborahs’ Song praises those Jewish judges who “rode white atonot” (Jud. 5:10). All in all, the word aton appears thirty-four times in the Bible. The most populated cluster of occurrences of this word in the Bible is in Parashat Balak, when the Torah relates the story of Balaam and his talking ass that was the tie-in that we mentioned at the beginning of this essay.

The word aton is typically understood to mean “jenny” (also known as a “she-ass”). Indeed, while Radak explained chamor as referring to either a male or female donkey, he clarifies that aton refers specifically to a female one. Rabbi Ernest Klein's etymological dictionary of Hebrew makes clear that the Hebrew aton is a quintessentially Semitic word that has parallels in Aramaic/Syriac (atana), Ugaritic (atnt), Arabic (atan), and Akkadian (atanu) — all of which mean "jenny." It remains an open question as to why there are two different root-words in Semitic languages for the male and female donkey, while the male and female versions of other animals are often derived from the same root, like the Hebrew words par (“bull”) and parah (“cow”); egel and eglah; and keves and kivsah.

Rabbi David Chaim Chelouche (Ohr Chadah to Gen. 13:16) proposes that the word aton derives from the Hebrew word et, which generally has no semantic meaning but rather serves a grammatical role and is typically attached to another word. The way he explains it, male donkeys are known for their elevated libido (see Ezek. 23:20), so the aton’s role is to be “attached” to the male donkey just like the word et is attached to other words.

Rabbi Samson Raphel Hirsch (to Gen. 13:16, Ex. 14:27) connects ALEPH-TAV-NUN (from whence aton derives) to ALEPH-DALET-NUN (via the interchangeability of TAV and DALET). In doing so, he explains that the very name aton refers to the jenny's capacity for carrying loads, as its phonetic counterpart aden ("based" as in the adanim which were silver bases that supported the wooden beams that comprised the Tabernacle's walls) refers to something which holds up and carries something else atop it.

Nonetheless, not all exegetes agree that the aton is the female counterpart to the chamor. Rabbi Shmuel David Luzzatto (Shadal to Gen. 12:16) argues that aton is not simply the feminine equivalent to chamor because — as noted above — the word chamor itself can also refer to female donkeys. Rather, he explains that aton actually refers to a different species than chamor, with the chamor referring to the standard domesticated donkey, while aton is the female version of the pere (i.e., the undomesticated “wild ass”). Based on this, he explains an interesting textual oddity in Gen. 12:16: when listing the gifts that Pharaoh gave to Abraham, that verse places “slaves and maids” in between chamor and aton, implying thatchamor and aton are not just the male and female versions of the same species that ought to be grouped together, but are two unrelated types of animals. Despite this argument, Shadal notes that elsewhere the Bible states that the Shunamite woman rode an aton when attempting to reach the prophet Elisha (II Kgs. 4:24), and he finds it highly unlikely that a lady would ride such a wild asininity. Therefore, Shadal concludes that even though aton originally referred specifically to a female wild donkey (pere), at some later time the word evolved to also include the female version of a domesticated donkey (chamor). He adds that the young version of this type of animal is called an ayir (see Gen. 49:11).

Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim in Cheshek Shlomo offers an original philological analysis of the word aton, defining it a donkey at certain stage of growth (rather than a donkey of a distinct species or gender). Rabbi Pappenheim presents the monoliteral root TAV as referring to a "sign/symbol/border," and from that explains that words derived from the biliteral root ALEPH-TAV refer to the "connection/linkage" of individual units. For example, the word et means "with" (a conjunction that denotes connection), while the word at/atah means "you" (the second-person noun that connotes an interaction or connection with the speaker). [[For more about the monoliteral TAV, the biliteral ALEPH-TAV, and the word et, see “The Power to Hold back” (Sep. 2020), “Come to Pharaoh” (Jan. 2021), and “Are You Really ‘With Me’?” (July 2019).]

Along these lines, the word eitan ("strong/hard") refers to a specific form of strength that derives from multiple constituent parts being very strongly connected to each other. Finally, Rabbi Pappenheim views aton as an etymological relative of eitan, explaining that aton refers to a donkey when it has reached its peak strength. In offering this explanation, Rabbi Pappenheim explicitly rejects the conventional view that aton is the feminine counterpart to chamor squarely because the word chamor itself can also refer to a female donkey (as we have already seen). [It should be noted that Aton is a also non-standard way of spelling the Hebrew name Eitan in English. Moreover, as far as this author knows, there is no connection between the Hebrew aton and the Egyptian sun-god Aten/Aton; any similarity between those words seems purely coincidental.]

To be continued…

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