When the angels came to visit Lot in Sodom before destroying the city, they posed as human wayfarers who said to Lot that they were prepared to sleep in the street. However, Lot pressed them and insisted that they lodge at his house, so they eventually relented and accepted Lot’s hospitality. The Hebrew word used to denote Lot “pushing/insisting” that the angels sleep over at his house is potzer (Gen. 19:3). In the continuation of that story, when the people of Sodom wanted to “know” Lot’s guests, they “pushed” Lot to cede his guests (Gen. 19:9), which the Bible describes again using the same verb, potzer. This story serves as our entry point into exploring the etymology of potzer, which also leads us to exploring related Hebrew synonyms, such as docheh, dochef, hadof, and dofek — all of which connote various forms of "pushing." By delving into the rich etymology and multifaceted meanings of these words, we can gain a deeper understanding of the subtleties within the Hebrew language and various Hebrew words.
It is important to distinguish between the physical act of “pushing” and the metaphorical sense of “being pushed around” or “coerced.” Some of the words we will discuss encompass both of these notions, and these usages carry intriguing implications throughout the Hebrew Bible.
All in all, cognates of potzer appear seven times in the Bible. Other examples include when Jacob "pushed" his brother Esau to accept his gifts (Gen. 33:11), demonstrating a form of insistence or prodding that goes beyond mere politeness, and in the tragic story of the Concubine of Givah (Judges 19:7). These words are all clearly derived from the triliteral root PEH-TZADI-REISH.
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (to Gen. 19:3) explains potzer as primarily referring to “poking” or “stabbing” someone or something until they acquiesce to the desires of the one doing the pushing. This vivid imagery highlights the persistence and determination embedded in the word potzer. In a similar way, Shadal (to Gen. 33:11) further enriches our understanding by arguing that the three-letter root in question is actually itself an off-shoot of the biliteral root TZADI-REISH (“narrow/strait”), as “pushing” somebody to do so something essentially leaves that person in a situation with narrow choices until he relents (evidently, he saw the PEH as a sort of radical added to the core biliteral root). According to this view, "pushing" an individual into a particular course of action leaves them with limited options, akin to navigating a narrow passageway, until they give in.
When it comes to the story of Lot, Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg (1785-1865) in HaKtav VeHabbalah (to Gen. 19:9) actually interprets the term potzer in this context in the physical sense. In other words, he reads the verse as saying that the people of Sodom physically "pushed" Lot away from the door, preventing him from protecting his angelic guests. This physical interpretation adds a layer of tension and urgency to the story, emphasizing the Sodomites’ hostile intent, and offers a compelling contrast to the more figurative usages of the word.
Let’s shift our focus to the word docheh, whose root DALET-CHET-HEY (dachah) carries the connotation of being “pushed.” An almost identical root is DALET-VAV-CHET, which also refers to being “pushed.” As the Psalmist famously says about himself, “I was surely pushed (dacho dechitani) into falling / And Hashem helped me” (Psalms 118:13). This theme reappears in other psalms, where the Psalmist expresses gratitude for God's intervention in preventing his downfall, particularly for “extracting my soul from death, my foot, from being pushed (dechi)” (Ps. 116:8, see also Ps. 56:14). Altogether, inflections of DALET-CHET-HEY appear eleven times in the Bible (as Even-Shoshan lists them), primarily in the book of Psalms, with a few instances elsewhere (Prov. 14:32, 26:28, Jer. 23:12).
The term docheh is also present in rabbinic literature. For example, in Talmudic jurisprudence, a positive commandment "supersedes" (docheh, literally "pushes away") a negative commandment. In a more colloquial sense, within Yeshivish parlance, when someone dismisses a particular argument or line of thinking, they may be said to be dochech that particular argument or line of thinking, reinforcing the idea of “pushing” aside one viewpoint in favor of another.
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