The Talmud says that each and every day, Hashem “announces” in the Heavens that He is impressed with three categories of people: poor people who exert themselves to help return lost objects to their rightful owners, rich people who take off tithes even when nobody is looking, and unmarried men who live in the city and do not sin. In that context, the word for “unmarried/single man” that the Talmud uses is ravak. Indeed, the temptations of the urban setting are such that it is quite laudable for a single man to live in such a milieu and still remain free from sin. Similarly, the Midrash speaks about the great reward that Hashem grants the ravak who lives in a community and contributes to the communal funds for child education — even though he himself does not have any children. The unmarried man’s temptation to avoid contributing to this cause makes sense from his perspective, but when such a person exerts special effort to pay his dues, he is lauded in the Heavens.
In this article we discuss three Hebrew terms for “unmarried/single man”: ravak, panui and bachur. In doing so we explore the respective etymologies of these different words and try to zone in on the nuances they express.
The word ravak does not appear in the Written Torah, but it does appear thrice in the Mishna. The Mishna cites the opinions of those rabbis who ruled that a ravak may not serve as a teacher for young children, a ravak may not work as a shepherd, and two ravakim may not sleep together under the same blanket. In the context of these restrictions, there is a dispute in the commentaries regarding what exactly the word ravak means. Rashi (to Kiddushin 82a) explains that ravak refers to any male singleton who is unmarried, whether or not he was previously married (and subsequently divorced or widowered). However, Tosafot and Maimonides disagree with this assessment, and write that ravak refers specifically to a bachelor who was never married.
Ravak makes another appearance in some versions of Targum to Psalms 148:12, which translates the Hebrew bachur as ravak — although, in our versions of the Targum to Psalms, an Aramaic variant of elem is used there.
Another term for a single man is panui (and penuiah for an unmarried woman). This word does not appear anywhere in the Bible, nor in the Mishna; but, it does, however, appear multiple times in the Talmud (for example, Yevamot 59b, 61b, 76a, Sanhedrin 51a, Temurah 29b-30a).
HaBachur reveals the etymology of the word panui by tracing it to the Mishnaic Hebrew verb panah. That elastic term variously refers to “removing/clearing,” “cleaning,” “emptying,” “opening up,” “making available,” “bring free/at leisure.” For example, the Mishna (Avot 2:4) states: “Do not say ‘when I will be available (k’she’efneh), I will study,’ for maybe you will never become available (lo tipaneh).” In the same way, an unmarried man is called panui because he is “available” and “open” to forging a matrimonial bond to the lucky woman (and an unmarried woman is likewise called a penuiah for a similar reason). In Modern Hebrew, pinui refers to “cleaning up,” but also to “eviction,” “evacuation,” and other ways of “making room” for something else.
For more about these different words, including a discussion of the word bachur, see the full version of this essay online at: http://ohr.edu/this_week/whats_in_a_word/
