֙‫ַהּיֵמִם‬

Akiva Jacobs
1/3/17

In Breishit 36:24, in the listings of Esav’s family’s ancestry and progeny, the Torah says,

“‫ׁשר מ ָָצ֤א אֶת־ ַהּיֵמִם֙ ַּבּמִדְ ָּ֔בר ּב ְִרע ֹ֥תֹו אֶת־ ַהחֲמ ִ ֹ֖רים ְל ִצבְע֥ ֹון ָאבִ ֽיו׃‬
ֶ ֨ ‫” ֲע ָ֗נה ֲא‬

Anah is one of the two sons of Tzivon . Tzivon is the grandfather of one of Esav’s wives.

What does “ ֙‫ ” ַהּיֵמִם‬mean? The concordance says it is a hapax legomenon, so there are no

reference points to inform us. The BDB lexicon says “Meaning dubious… perhaps hot springs…

yet no suitable root known.”

Contrary to the BDB, the Targum Yonatan translates ֙‫ ַהּיֵמִם‬as “The mules.” Rashi expands

on this translation quoting Pesachim 54a which says Anah crossbred an ass and a mare to make a

mule, mirroring how he himself was a mamzer. Radak adds to this saying that given the context

provided by the rest of the pasuk, this interpretation makes sense. He writes that the reason why

the pasuk says that Anah discovered ֙‫ ַהּיֵמִם‬while pasturing asses is because while he was tending

the donkeys, it occured to him that it could be a good idea to interbreed between an ass and a

mare. Radak continues to say that in fact, God did not create interbreed animals (or any kilayim

for that matter) in the first six days of creation and that when it says in Breishit 36:24 that Anah

֙‫מ ָָצ֤א אֶת־ ַהּיֵמִם‬, it really means that these were the first ever mules, both male and female. The Da’at

Zekeinim and Rasag both agree that ֙‫ ַהּיֵמִם‬means mules. Likely, all of these commentators are

getting this interpretation from the Midrash Rabbah on this pasuk. The midrash says that this

pasuk says Anah’s name twice to offer two meanings. One is that Anah is a mamzer and the

second is that he made ֙‫ ַהּיֵמִם‬which were mules, an example of kilayim. Nachum Sarna, in his
commentary on Genesis, writes that the translation of ֙‫ ַהּיֵמִם‬to mules could come from the greek

hemionos which has to do with mules. Sarna actually translates ֙‫ ַהּיֵמִם‬, like the BDB and as he

points out like the Vulgate translation, as “hot springs,” but recognizes that this translation has no

philological support. None of the commentators in the Torat Chayim chumash, the Mikraot

Gedolot chumash, or Sefaria.org translate ֙‫ ַהּיֵמִם‬as “hot springs.” Knowing that and reading Sarna,

it makes sense to say that the similarity between ֙‫ ַהּיֵמִם‬and ‫ מים‬that the BDB points out and the

Vulgate translation picks up on, is nothing but a red herring.

Onkeloos translates ֙‫ ַהּיֵמִם‬as ‫ ִּגּב ַָרּי ָא‬which seems as ambiguous a word as ֙‫ ַהּיֵמִם‬. The Radak

states that he doesn’t know what Onkeloos meant by his translation. The Jastrow doesn’t have

the word ‫ ִּגּב ַָרּי ָא‬, but it could be related to the root ‫( גבר‬person or hero), or perhaps, but probably

not, ‫גברית‬, which the Jastrow defines as cock-like. One of Rashbam’s two definitions of ֙‫ַהּיֵמִם‬

would match up with the ‫ גבר‬explanation of Onkeloos’s translation to ‫ ִּגּב ַָרּי ָא‬. Rashbam,

disagreeing with his grandfather Rashi, writes that ֙‫ ַהּיֵמִם‬either means “‫ ”גיבורים‬or ferocious

animals. It makes sense to say that Rashbam, who lived nearly 1000 years later than Onkeloos,

read Onkeloos’s ‫ ִּגּב ַָרּי ָא‬and translated it to ‫גיבורים‬, mighty people. Ibn Ezra also translates

Onkeloos’s ‫ ִּגּב ַָרּי ָא‬as ‫גיבורים‬. To prove that ֙‫ ַהּיֵמִם‬means ‫גיבורים‬, Ibn Ezra says that you can switch

out a yud with an aleph and ֙‫ ַהּיֵמִם‬can have the same definition as ‫האמים‬. In Devarim 2:10, it says

in the context of describing the people who previously lived in Israel, “‫עַם‬--‫ יָׁשְבּו בָּה‬,‫ָה ֵאמִים ְל ָפנִים‬

‫ ָּכ ֲענָקִים‬,‫ּגָדֹול ו ְַרב ו ָָרם‬.” This is a strong proof for defining ֙‫ ַהּיֵמִם‬as ‫גיבורים‬.

Stereotypically, Ramban offers both the mule and the ‫ גיבורים‬translations with no apparent

preference.
 Personally, Ibn Ezra’s ‫ גיבורים‬explanation seems the most convincing because

linguistically, it totally checks out. The mule idea mostly comes from symbolism and the midrash

so I don’t know if that is as strong a literal meaning of the word ֙‫ ַהּיֵמִם‬. However, most

commentators seem to go with the mule idea so maybe that tradition outweighs ‫‘גיבורים‬s logic.