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Comments on Why is "chinam" translated as "baseless"?

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Why is "chinam" translated as "baseless"?

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Everywhere that the term חנם appears, as far as I can tell, it always means "without personal benefit": a שומר חנם (Bava Metzia 7:8) watches an object without receiving anything in return; a Jewish slave leaves at the end of his or her term חנם, without having to pay anything more (Shemos 21:2 and Shemos 21:11); Lavan said to Yaakov that he refused to allow him to work חנם, without receiving wages (Bereishis 29:15); Yonasan plead to his father Sha'ul that he not kill David חנם, for no benefit (Shmuel I:19:5); David says to Aronah that he will not take the future Har HaBayis חנם, without paying for it (Shmuel II:24:24); Yeshaya promises that just as we were sold חנם, we will be redeemed without paying (Yeshayahu 52:3); etc.

Yet when the term חנם is used in relation to Tisha B'av, the term tends to be translated as "baseless." The second Churban was caused by שנאת חנם (Yoma 9b.8); the term seemingly should mean "hatred without benefit," not "hatred without cause." The Jews in the desert cried upon the Spies' report a בכיה של חנם (Taanit 29a.7); the term seemingly should mean "crying without benefit," not "crying without cause."

Yet "without cause" is exactly how these phrases tend to be translated (ex. Aish, Chabad). Where does this translation of חנם come from?

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General comments (8 comments)
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The Hebrew Academy often discusses the origins of various words in its articles. The article on parashat Dvarim says the following:

כמו המילה לַיְלָה, גם המילה יוֹמָם נגזרה בהוספת סיומת לשם עצם: יוֹם + ־ָם. יש גם מילים מקראיות אחרות בעלות משמעות תיאורית שנוצרו באופן זה: רֵיקָם ('בידיים ריקות'), דּוּמָם ('בדממה', 'בשקט'), חִנָּם ('בעבור חן', כלומר 'שלא בעבור תשלום'), אָמְנָם ('בדרך אֹמֶן', כלומר בדרך אמת). ויש שמתווספת לשם עצם הסיומת ־וֹם לאותה תכלית בדיוק, כגון פִּתְאוֹם ('בדרך פתע' – בשינוי מעי"ן לאל"ף). כל אלה תוארי פועל, ותפקידם התחבירי המובהק תיאור אופן.

Hence, it seems that the meaning of the word can be translated as "for the beauty of it", which can be understood as "without anything in return". A comparison can be drawn to the modern Hebrew slangish phrase "בשביל היופי" (lit: for beauty's sake) which means "pointless".

According to the Hebrew Wiktionary entry for חנם, the use of חנם as "for no purpose/reason" can be seen in Psalms (Tehilim) 35:7:

כִּי-חִנָּם טָמְנוּ-לִי, שַׁחַת רִשְׁתָּם; חִנָּם, חָפְרוּ לְנַפְשִׁי.

Perhaps there is more to be said here, but even based on the above it should come as no surprise that חנם is translated to some form of "for no particular reason", like baseless.

See also: the article on חן.

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General comments (4 comments)
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robev‭ wrote over 4 years ago

Is חן normally translated as beauty?

Dev-iL‭ wrote over 4 years ago

@robev I suppose a better translation would be "grace", but in modern Hebrew it's most often understood as "beauty" (even if that's not the correct meaning). Morfix says "grace, charm, attractiveness".

robev‭ wrote over 4 years ago

Why use modern Hebrew to understand a talmudic phrase? Isn't that backwards?

Dev-iL‭ wrote over 4 years ago · edited over 4 years ago

Not really. According to this study on the origins of words in a corpus of modern Hebrew, it was found that only 1 in about 11 words of talmudic origin found in modern Hebrew had its meaning changed. So the modern meaning is typically indicative of the original meaning. Unfortunately, I am only familiar with modern Hebrew (been speaking it for the past 30y) so the info might be inaccurate...