by Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein
The Vertically-Challenged
Imagine the scene of Moses and Aaron pleading before the most powerful sovereign in the entire world — the Pharaoh of Egypt — saying those fateful words, “Let My people go.” Now, after imagining that scene in your head, reimagine the event bearing in mind the assertion found in the Talmud (Moed Katan 18a) that the Pharaoh in the time of Moses was but one amah (“cubit”) tall. It certainly gives a different spin on the dynamic. In this essay we explore four words in Hebrew that denote “shortness” of stature: gamad, namuch, gutz and nanas. Each of these terms can be used to describe a “short person” or “dwarf” (note that the English word midget is no longer socially-acceptable), and this essay explores whether or not they are truly synonyms.
When the shofet Ehud gained an audience before the Moabite king Eglon in order to surreptitiously stab him, the Bible reports that he used a sword that was a gomed long (Judges 3:16). This is one of only two instances of the Hebrew root GIMMEL-MEM-DALET in the Bible. Rashbam and Radak explain that a gomed is the same unit of measurement as an amah, but Sefer HaAruch, Rashi, and Mahari Kara explain that it refers to a truncated amah. In doing so, Rashi uses a cognate of the word gidem (“amputee,” “cut off”) to explain the notion that Ehud’s sword was less than an amah long. Rabbi Yehoshua Steinberg of the Veromemanu Foundation infers from this that Rashi understood the word gomed as a metathesized form of the word gidem, with the consonants DALET and MEM switching positions.
The prophet Yechezkel tells of the international acclaim of the Tyrian kingdom, by noting, inter alia, that their watchtowers were manned by gamadim (Yechezkel 27:11). This is the other instance of the root GIMMEL-MEM-DALET in the Bible. At first, Rashi and Mahari Kara explain that gamadim refers to seamen who were adept at measuring the depths of the sea using ropes. However, subsequently, Rashi and the Radak explain that gamadim refers to short people, who are naught but an amah tall. Interestingly, although Targum Jonathan translates gamadim as Cappadocians, Rabbi Eliyahu Bachur (1469-1549) in Sefer Tishbi merges Targum with Rashi’s second explanation to posit that the Cappadocians were a nation of dwarves.
The Hebrew word namuch (“short in height”) appears several times in the Mishna (Kilayim 4:7, Eruvin 9:1, and Zevachim 1:2), although it never appears in the Bible. Like gamad, it does not refer exclusively to “short” people, but can be used to refer to anything that is short, such as a short fence.
Another word used in rabbinic literature to denote one who is “small of stature” is gutz. This term does not appear in the Bible or the Mishnah, but is used several times in the Talmud. Several examples: The Talmud (Yevamot 106b) discusses Halachic differences concerning the Chalitzah ceremony when either the man or the woman is of especially short stature (gutz in masculine form, gutza in feminine form). The Talmud cites a popular adage that says, “if your wife is short (gutza), crouch down to listen to her.” Similarly, the Talmud rules that a corpse being merely tall or short (gutz) is not enough of a clue to positively confirm the deceased person's identity. Rav Huna is described as a “short (gutza) man.” Finally, when Elkanah’s wife Hannah prayed for Hashem to grant her a son (i.e., Samuel), she asked that her son not be “too tall or too short (gutz), too skinny or too fat, too white or too reddish, too intelligent or too senseless” (Brachot 31b).
Our final word used in reference to “short” people is nanas. When Rashi and Radak wrote that gamadim refers to short people, they actually used the word nanas. Similarly, the Talmud (Bechorot 45b) humorously suggests that an especially tall man should not marry an especially tall woman, lest their offspring be as tall as a ship’s mast; and an especially short man (nanas) should not marry an especially short woman (nanaset), lest their offspring be as short as a finger! Like some of the other terms we encountered above, nanas does not exclusively apply to people, as even short boards/walls are called nanasin.
*For a more complete version of this essay that goes into the etymologies and nuances of these four words, visit us online: http://ohr.edu/this_week/whats_in_a_word/
