Mishpacha

רש"ר הירש במדבר א':ב'

"משפחה" נגזרת משורש "שפח", הקרוב ל"ספח" וכן גם ל"שפע" (עיין פירוש, בראשית ח, יט). "שפע" – כדוגמת "שִׁפְעַת יֵהוּא" (מלכים ב ט, יז), "שִׁפְעַת גְמַלִּים" (ישעיהו ס, ו), "שִׁפְעַת סוּסָיו" (יחזקאל כו, י) – מציין התכנסות של המון רב במקום אחד. בתוספת המ"ם, הרי ה"משפחה" היא היסוד המצרף יחידים לקבוצות טבעיות. מה שיוצר את המשפחה הוא המוצא המשותף, וכן הנישואין המעבירים את האישה לבית בעלה.

The Hebrew text translates to English as follows:

The word **"משפחה"** (mishpachah, family) is derived from the root **"שפח"** (sh-f-ḥ), which is close to **"ספח"** (s-f-ḥ) and also to **"שפע"** (shefa, abundance/overflow). (See the commentary on Genesis 8:19).

**"שפע"** — as in examples such as "שִׁפְעַת יֵהוּא" ("the multitude/company of Jehu", 2 Kings 9:17), "שִׁפְעַת גְמַלִּים" ("multitude of camels", Isaiah 60:6), "שִׁפְעַת סוּסָיו" ("multitude of his horses", Ezekiel 26:10) — denotes the gathering or accumulation of a large multitude in one place.

With the addition of the letter **מ** (mem, forming the prefix מִשְׁ־), the **"משפחה"** becomes the foundational element that joins individuals into natural groups. What creates the family is the shared origin, as well as marriage, which transfers the woman to her husband's household.

הכתב והקבלה בראשית כ"ד:ל"ח

ואל משפחתי – שם משפחה לבעלי לשון הוא לשון התקרבות והתחברות, דומה לשרש ספח כמו ונספחו אל בית יעקב מהסתפח בנחלת ה', כלומר התדבקות (פערבונדען אנגעשלאָססען, צוגעזעללט) (עמ"ש בוישלח ל"ב כ"ג שתי שפחותיו) ולזה אברהם שלא היתה לו קרבת הדעת והתחברות עם בני משפחתו, להפרידו מהם באמונת יחידו של עולם, והם עדיין היו דבוקים באלהי נכר, לכן לא כינה אותם בשם משפחה כ"א בלשון מולדתי, אמנם אליעזר כעבד נאמן לבלי פרסם לעיניהם התרחקות אברהם ממנו קראם בשם משפחה, ולזה שינה ג"כ בלשונו לאמר ה' אשר התהלכתי לפניו, אף שאברהם אמר ה' אשר לקחתני מבית אבי, כי לא רצה לגלות להם בביאור גמור שבכונה ורצון הוא מרוחק מהם.

"And to my family [v'el mishpachti] — The term mishpachah (family) in the language of the Sages [ba'alei lashon] denotes closeness and attachment/connection, similar to the root s-p-ch (to attach/append), as in 'and they shall attach themselves [ve-nispechu] to the house of Jacob' (Isaiah 14:1) or 'from attaching oneself [me-histape'ach] to the inheritance of the Lord' (1 Samuel 26:19), meaning adhesion or clinging (in Yiddish: farbunden, angeshlossen, tsugezelt — connected, enclosed/affixed, attached/added).

(And see what I wrote in my commentary on Vayishlach 32:23 regarding his two maidservants.)

Therefore, Avraham — who did not have intellectual/emotional closeness or attachment with the members of his family, since he separated himself from them through his faith in the One God of the world, while they were still attached to foreign gods — therefore did not refer to them as mishpachah (family), but rather used the term moladti (my kindred/birthplace/nativity).

However, Eliezer, as a faithful servant who did not wish to publicize before them Avraham's distance from him [or: from them], called them mishpachah (family). And for this reason, he also altered his wording to say, 'the Lord before whom I have walked' — even though Avraham himself had said, 'the Lord who took me from my father's house' — because he [Eliezer] did not want to reveal to them in explicit terms that it was with intention and will [that Abraham] was distant from them."

This is a linguistic and conceptual explanation of why Avraham uses "my land and my birthplace" (ארצי ומולדתי) while Eliezer (in retelling) says "my father's house and my family" (בית אבי ומשפחתי), highlighting Abraham's spiritual separation from his idolatrous family versus Eliezer's diplomatic phrasing as a loyal servant.

----------

**Family**

*מִשְׁפָּחָה* (mishpacha) originally means a group of people who share ancestral kinship, and this remains its primary meaning to this day. In the Bible, an entire nation is also called a *מִשְׁפָּחָה*, for example: “the family of Egypt” (Zechariah 14:18), “the families of the earth” (Genesis 12:3, etc.). From the Middle Ages onward, *מִשְׁפָּחָה* refers to a group—not necessarily of people—in which the components have some strong connection: “the family of languages,” “the family of animals.”

The basic meaning of the root שׁ־פ־ח apparently is “to join,” “to attach.” From this same root comes the word *שִׁפְחָה* (shifcha, female servant or maidservant). The *שִׁפְחָה* would join the household for the rest of her life. When a woman was barren, she would give her maidservant to her husband so that the servant could bear children in her place and expand the family: “And Sarai said to Abram: Behold now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children; please go to my maidservant; perhaps I shall obtain children through her” (Genesis 16:2).

Interestingly, a similar linguistic connection exists in Latin: family is *familia*, and this word is close to the terms for slave (*famulus*) and maidservant (*famula*).

Some see a kinship between *מִשְׁפָּחָה* and *שִׁפְחָה* and the word *סִפּוּחַ* (sippuaḥ), since *לְסַפֵּחַ* also means “to attach,” “to join.” Regarding converts, the prophet Isaiah says: “The stranger shall join them and be attached (*וְנִסְפְּחוּ*) to the house of Jacob” (Isaiah 14:1); *נִסְפְּחוּ* — they joined, became part of the great family.

משפחה

מִשְׁפָּחָה היא במקורה קבוצה של בני אדם שיש להם קרבת אבות, וזו משמעותה העיקרית של המילה עד היום. בתנ"ך גם עַם שלם נקרא מִשְׁפָּחָה, למשל: "מִשְׁפַּחַת מִצְרַיִם" (זכריה יד, יח), "מִשְׁפְּחוֹת הָאֲדָמָה" (בראשית יב, ג ועוד). מימי הביניים ואילך מִשְׁפָּחָה היא קבוצה – לאו דווקא של בני אדם – שבין פריטיה יש קשר אמיץ כלשהו: 'משפחת לשונות', 'משפחת בעלי החיים'.

ככל הנראה המשמעות היסודית של השורש שפ"ח היא 'להצטרף', 'להתחבר'. מן השורש הזה נוצרה גם המילה שִׁפְחָה. השפחה הייתה מצטרפת למשפחה לכל ימי חייה. כאשר הייתה האישה עקרה היא נהגה לתת לבעלה את שפחתה כדי שתלד במקומה ותרחיב את המשפחה: "וַתֹּאמֶר שָׂרַי אֶל אַבְרָם הִנֵּה נָא עֲצָרַנִי ה' מִלֶּדֶת, בֹּא נָא אֶל שִׁפְחָתִי אוּלַי אִבָּנֶה מִמֶּנָּה" (בראשית טז, ב).

מעניין שקרבת מילים דומה יש בלטינית: משפחה היא familia, ומילה זו קרובה למילים המציינות עבד (famulus) ושפחה (famula).

יש הרואים קרבת משפחה בין מִשְׁפָּחָה ושִׁפְחָה לבין סִפּוּחַ, שהרי גם לְסַפֵּחַ משמעו 'לצרף', 'לחבר'. על הגֵּרים אומר הנביא ישעיהו: "וְנִלְוָה הַגֵּר עֲלֵיהֶם וְנִסְפְּחוּ עַל בֵּית יַעֲקֹב" (יד, א); נִסְפְּחוּ – הצטרפו, היו לחלק מן המשפחה הגדולה.

---

This is a question that has been troubling me for decades (along with whether there is a connection between “milchama” and “lechem”!) Both “mishpacha” and “shifcha” are based on the root shin-peh-chet, so our initial presumption should be that there is a connection. And yet the Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon, which discusses both in adjacent entries, makes no attempt at a connection. Also, Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament has an entire article on the word “mishpacha” and no mention is made in this article of the word “shifcha.” And their article on “shifcha” (by a different author) explicitly denies a connection, declaring that “the two Hebrew nouns are unrelated etymologically.”

Similar (but not as rejecting) is the Koehler-Baumgartner lexicon. Their “mishpacha” entry makes no mention of “shifcha.” Their “shifcha” entry refers to the connection between the two words but calls it “questionable.”

Radak, in his Sefer HaShorashim, includes both in his one entry for the root shin-peh-chet, but he too denies that they are connected. We see this because after he discusses the “handmaid” meaning, he discusses the “family” meaning, but he prefaces the latter with the phrase “ve-inyan acher” (=a different matter). Those familiar with this work understand that this is his way of denying a connection, even though he has placed the words in the same entry.

(Among the Rishonim, Rashi usually presumes that words with the same three-letter root are connected and tries to determine the connection. But many of the other Rishonim, especially in the Sephardic world, did not think like this. Sephardic Rishonim were influenced by Arabic where words with the same root are often not connected. Professor Richard Steiner of Yeshiva University has written an important article on this topic. See JQR 88, 1998, pp. 213-258.)

Going back to “shifcha” and “mishpacha,” some scholars today do see a connection. They generally take the following approach: There is a biblical root samech-peh-chet and this root sometimes has the meaning of “join, attach.” See, e.g., Isa. 14:1 and I Sam. 2:36. (In modern Hebrew, a “nispach” is an appendix/attachment.) If samech-peh-chet has the “join, attach” meaning, perhaps shin-peh-chet had it too. A “shifcha” is attached to a family, and a “mishpachah” is a group of people who are attached to one another.

Some who take this approach are S. Mandelkern, p. 1221, M. Jastrow, pp. 857 and 1614, and Rav S.R. Hirsch, comm. to Num. 1:2. This approach is also taken by the Academy of the Hebrew Language.

Rav Hirsch, in his commentary on Gen 8:19, makes the following comment: “Note how the “shifcha,” that person who, in the non-Jewish point of view, stands at the very lowest social grade, in the Jewish point of view…is raised to a member of the family.”

A ramification of whether “shifcha” and “mishpacha” are related is how one should translate the former. Those who believe that the words are not related are free to translate it as something like “slave.” Those who believe that the words are related will translate it with a more elevated word.

(I saw one view that theorized that a “shifcha” was the lowest rank of maidservant; this type of maidservant was required to pour water over the hand of her master. This view is based on the unlikely assumption that the shin-peh-chet of “shifcha” derived from an original shin-peh-caf, the verb for “pour.”)

The Academy of the Hebrew language, on their website, suggests that a “shifcha” was attached to the family for her entire life and also points to Genesis 16 where Sarah’s “shifcha” Hagar was given the role of building a family for Abraham. This implies an attachment and elevated status for the “shifcha.”

The above site also points out that in Latin there is a similar phenomenon. “Familia” is the word for family, and “famulus” and “famula” are the words for male and female slaves. “Familia” as “family” was derived from the latter two. (The English word “familiar” is also related to these words.)

My gut feeling tells me that our proposed connection between “shifcha” and “mishpacha,” both coming from an “attached” meaning, is correct. I believe this despite the fact that a connection is largely denied by perhaps most scholars today. Sometimes, in these etymological issues, one has to go with one’s gut feeling!

(In fact, we are lucky that most modern scholars deny a connection. If they believed that there was a connection, they might have theorized that ancient biblical society was so patriarchal that the head of the family viewed all his household members (“mishpacha”) as slaves! I am sure that there is someone out there who theorizes this!)

***

On an unrelated but adjacent topic, let us briefly mention an unusual aspect of the root shin-peh-tet. In Hebrew, the word “mishpat” means “sentence” in the judicial context, and “sentence” in the grammatical context. The English word “sentence” also reflects both these meanings. Why should this be the case? I have no answer yet and await your suggestions. (A first step is to determine when the Hebrew word “mishpat” took on the meaning of “sentence” in a grammatical sense. This is certainly not a Biblical or Talmudic meaning of the word “mishpat.”)

----------