Voeschanan: A Time to Whistle
Reuven Chaim Klein
A Time to Whistle
The prophets have long consoled the Jewish People by stressing that even after the difficult period of exile and destruction, there will be a future in-gathering of the Jewish People returning to the Holy Land and rebuilding its desolated cities. This dynamic is reflected in the Biblical Hebrew word shreikah, which we will see below is used both in reference to the bewilderment and astonishment of one facing utter destruction and also in reference to the means by which the message is spread that scattered individuals should reunite. Both of these meanings can be rendered “whistling” in English. In this fascinating essay, we delve into the meaning of shreikah and its apparent synonym tziftzuf (which likewise refers to the act of “whistling”).
On the one hand, the Biblical Hebrew shreikah is used in reference to one who beholds a destroyed and desolate space, especially one that had previously been thriving. For example, the Scroll of Lamentations (Lam. 2:15–16) reports that after the fall of Jerusalem, when the gentiles would encounter that Holy City, they would “whistle” (sharku). Rashi (there) defines shreikah as a whistle or hiss through teeth sibilate (in an onomatopoeic sense, it can be expressing with the verbs ooing, hooing, or wooing). He further adds that it was the practice in ancient times to whistle when people encountered an important site that had been rendered unbustling and sedentary.
In fact, this negative development was not totally unforeseen, as the Bible records that Hashem already warned King Solomon upon the initial construction of the Temple in Jerusalem that if the Jewish People do not keep to the Law, then the Temple and the Holy Land will be destroyed such that passersby will whistle (sharak) upon seeing its ruins (I Kgs. 9:8). Generations later, Jeremiah constantly warned of doom by saying that if the Jews did not repent, Jerusalem will become a place of shreikah — “whistling” (Jer. 19:8, 25:9, 29:18, 50:13).
On the other hand, there is a more positive association with the act of “whistling” in its functional use as way of calling and beaconing the masses to gather. For example, when Isaiah foretells that Assyria will be overrun by Egyptian, he says, “And on that day, Hashem will whistle [yishrok] to the fly that is at the edge of the rivers of Egypt” (Isa. 7:18). This refers to Him impelling a multitude of Egyptian soldiers to gather together and invade Assyria, with His “whistling” denoting His call for those forces to mobilize. Similar verbiage is used when Isaiah predicts that Hashem will “whistle” (sharak) to the nations of the world to gather against the Jews as retribution for their sins (Isa. 5:26).
And in the most uplifting and inspiring sense, Hashem says that in the End of Days, He will "whistle" at the Jewish People to gather them up when they are redeemed from the exile (Zech. 10:8). Rashi (there) explains that this "whistling" refers to the way of whistlers to whistle as a means of calling those who had gotten lost towards them. In the same way, Hashem’s future “whistling” will invite all the Jews who have strayed from the path to return to Him. As is well-known, the opening words of the poem Tikanta Shabbat (recited in the Shabbat Mussaf Prayer) form an acrostic of the Hebrew Alphabet in reverse. The Tur (Orach Chaim §286) famously explained this bizarre poetic device as alluding to the word tishrak (literally, “he will whistle”) — comprised of the final four letters of the Hebrew Alphabet — which, in turn, alludes to Hashem issuing that Final Whistle that will bring about the Redemption.
Radak (in his Sefer HaShorashim and to Zech. 10:8) quite prosaically writes that shreikah refers broadly to "moving the lips in order to produce a sound.” Rabbi Shlomo Ibn Prachon in his Machberet HeAruch expands on this definition, explaining that it specifically refers to puckering the lips and exhaling air through them in order to produce a sound. Interestingly, he adds that the vowelization mark shuruk (which produces the vowel sound oo) is related to this root because when producing the sound it presents, one puckers one's lips as though about to whistle. [I was thinking that there might be a connection between the Hebrew SHIN-REISH-KUF (which refers to “whistling”) and the Aramaic SHIN-REISH-KUF (which means "smooth/slippery”) because whistling produces a smooth sound. However, my language guru Rabbi Shaul Goldman rejected that supposition.]
The Talmud (Chullin 63a) identifies a type of non-kosher bird known in the Bible as racham (Lev. 11:18, Deut. 14:17) as the sharakrak — a Hebrew ornithonomical term clearly derived from the triliteral root SHIN-REISH-KUF. The Talmud asserts that this bird sitting on the ground and chirping/whistling is a sign of the upcoming arrival of the Messiah, citing Zech. 10:8 to support the connection between whistling and the Final Redemption. Likewise, Perek Shirah (which places Biblical verses in the mouths of various elements of nature) cites Zech. 10:8 as the racham’s song.
Interestingly, when consoling the Jewish People over the impending exile, Isaiah talks about the future redemption and mentions that the "feet of the herald" will in the future usher in peace, good, and salvation (Isa. 52:7). This verbiage is somewhat perplexing because usually one would expect the herald to inform us of the good news with his mouth, not with his “feet.” To answer this question, Maharsha (to Chullin 63a), Rabbi Avraham Palagi (Avraham Anochi to Isiaah §52) and Rabbi Shlomo Tapiero (Mikve HaMayim to Isa. 52:7) explain that the “herald” in question actually refers to the racham/sharakrak bird, as the placement of its feet on the ground when it chirps is the sign that portends the redemption. This, of course, is in line with the Talmudic tradition that the Messiah will come when the racham sits on the ground and chirps.
Rabbi Yissachar Shlomo Teichtal in Eim HaBanim Smeichah (ch. 2:12) was asked how it can be that if the Zionist pioneers are truly heralding the coming of the Messiah and the beginning of the Final Redemption that such positive and fateful developments will come about specifically through sinful Jews, who violate the Sabbath and otherwise fail to keep the Torah. Rabbi Teichtal deflected this question by noting that even in Talmudic thought, it is specifically an impure bird (the racham/sharakrak) that serves as the harbinger of the impeding redemption, not a kosher bird. [For a discussion about exactly what bird is referred to by the terms racham and sharakrak, see Rabbi Amitai Ben-David’s Sichat Chullin (to Chullin 63a).]
It is well-known that the late Lubavitcher Rebbe encouraged his followers to whistle as a means of expressing elated happiness and perhaps even to symbolize (or theurgically cause) the impending geulah. This concept can be traced to his ancestor and predecessor, Rashaz (the first Rebbe of Chabad). He taught in Ohr Torah (to Gen. 49:11) that the vowel mark shuruk (which we have seen is associated with shreikah) is represented by three dots with each one below the other because it reflects the idea that a person ought to humble and lower himself until he reaches as state of self-effacement, whereby he recognizes that he is nothing vis-a-vis Hashem. Reaching this level is said to be possible through loving Hashem through the happiness that comes from performing mitzvot, and the Rashaz even says that this is the entire purpose of the Messianic Era.
However, in other Hasidic and Mussarist circles, it is commonplace for teachers to chide their students not to whistle because it is considered a goyische practice. Rabbi Efrayim Greenblatt (responsa Rivevos Efrayim vol. 8 §604) writes that he does not know of a source that forbids whistling, but says that when he was in cheider, his teacher told him that it is forbidden to whistle. The Chazon Ish (cited in Orchos Shabbos ch. 21 fn. 60) said that nowadays whistling is considered a breach of modesty (however, in Aliba D'Hilchasa vol. 69 p. 83, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky is quoted as saying that he never heard such a thing from the Chazon Ish). That said, my teacher Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Lerner (in Shemirat HaGuf VaHaNefesh Tinyana pg. 454) cites a bevy of Kabbalistic sources that point to the notion that whistling can arouse harsh judgements against a person and that the arch-heretic Jacob Frank (namesake of the infamous Frankist movement) used whistling as a form of evil magic.
The Book of Daniel tells the story of Nebuchadnezzar and the idol he erected. Nebuchadnezzar also issued a royal decree stating that anybody who does not bow to the idol when the music is played, will be thrown into a fiery furnace. Daniel mentions several times that that music was played with several instruments including something called a mashrokita (Dan. 3:5, 3:7, 3:10, 3:15). Now, this story appears in the part of Daniel that is written in Aramaic, and we do not really have a way of knowing which exact musical instrument is meant when the word mashrokita appears. However, Ibn Ezra (to Dan. 3:5) surmises that it is cogent to argue that the root of mashrokita is SHIN-REISH-KUF, which means that this is some sort of wind instrument that produces a whistle-like sound (perhaps a band of pipers or flutists). Indeed, Menachem Ibn Saruk in Machberet Menachem includes the Aramaic word mashrokita in his list of words derived from the triliteral root SHIN-REISH-KUF (a similar point is made by Rashi to Dan. 3:5 in brief). That said, Rabbi Yaakov Berger of Kiryat Sefer (in his unpublished Milon Leshon Mikra) points out that the Biblical Hebrew shreikah seemingly always refers to whistling with just one’s mouth, while in this case, the Aramaic mashrokita refers to whistling through an instrument.
The English words screak and shriek (i.e., “to screech” or otherwise emit a high-pitched tone) are typically traced to the Proto-Indo-European root ker or skr, but I wonder if perhaps the Hebrew term shreikah had some sort of influence on the development of those words. Or maybe, both the Hebrew and the PIE roots are derived through onomatopoeia in an attempt to imitate the sounds heard in nature.
The term tziftzuf as a verb to mean “whistling/chirping/tweeting” appears four times in Biblical Hebrew — all in the Book of Isaiah (Isa. 8:19, 10:14, 29:4, 38:14). A noun variation of the quadriliteral TZADI-PEH-TZADI-PEH uses the same four letters, tzaftzafah, and appears once in the Bible in reference to a type of “willow plant” (Ezek. 17:5). Rabbi Moshe Kimchi (in his commentary to Ezekiel) bridges these two meanings of the quadriliteral TZADI-PEH-TZADI-PEH by explaining that birds would typically gather at this type of willow and chirp there.
Interestingly, while Rabbi Yonah Ibn Janach and Radak in their Sefer HaShorashim do trace tziftzuf to the aforementioned four-letter root TZADI-PEH-TZADI-PEH, Menachem Ibn Saruk in Machberet Menachem actually sees tziftzuf as a declension of the biliteral TZADI-PEH (doubled). Implicitly following Menachem, Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim (Cheshek Shlomo) offers a lengthy essay on the biliteral TZADI-PEH, explaining that its core meaning refers to something that “spreads on top” of something else. In that sense, tozfeh/mitzpah refers to "seeing/scouting/gazing" whereby one's field of vision spreads out over a vast area in front of the seer. From that, came the concept of tzipiyah ("waiting/yearning/anticipating"), whereby one in trouble gazes in all directions in anticipation of the arrival of his savior. As a corollary of that, comes the term tziftzuf in reference to the sound that a bird makes because that sound connotes the bird's anticipation of its mate or its next meal.
Tziftzuf often refers to a low whisper; which sounds almost like whistling as one’s mouth is narrowed and positioned in the same way as when on is whistling. Speaking quickly, constantly, in low whisper. It can also refers to verbal pattering, and such terminology could also refer to the utterances that occur when blabbering about rumors. See Rashi and Nachmanides (to Lev. 14:4) who use the word tziftzuf in reference to the sort of mindless prattling (typified by lashon hara) for which a person might be punished with tzar’at (“leprosy”). When asked how to square this with the “whistling” meaning of tziftzuf, Rabbi Shaul Goldman explained that while the original meaning of tziftzuf refers to bird sounds, it is also used for babbling or any speech that is meant to be audible but is almost always unintelligible. This would be the implication of tziftzuf in a descriptive sense. I would, however, add that it could also refer, in a prescriptive sense, to verbalizations whose semantic meaning renders them unfit (e.g., forbidden speech like rumors, lashon hara, etc…).
The Rema (Orach Chaim §338:1) explicitly rules that a person may be mitzaftzef on Shabbat, meaning that it is permitted whistle. Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstein (Aruch HaShulchan there) clarifies that this ruling is fairly obvious, because if one were just whistling with one’s mouth, such action is clearly permitted on Shabbat, and if one were whistling with an instrument, that would clearly be forbidden. Because he finds it difficult to presume that the Rema’s ruling contains nothing originality, Rabbi Epstein proposes that the novelty of his ruling is that one is even allowed to whistle on Shabbat with one’s fingers.
In Modern Hebrew, the term tziftzuf refers to the sound produced by an alarm, but also has another, colloquially meaning: one who is mitzaftzef is said to be “ignoring” the pleas or complaints of others and instead marches to his own beat. This usage is probably borrowed from the Yiddish term fife (a cognate of the English word pipe), which means “whistle” but also came to refer to one who “ignores” other people (as though he nonchalantly continues to whistle, while other people are telling him to stop). I also feel that it is not insignificant that the Germanic words piper/fifer repeat p/f-sound, just as the Hebrew word tziftzuf repeats the f-sound. I am also convinced that there is a connection between the English word cheep (meaning, “chirp” or “tweet”) and the tifz part of tziftzuf.
Kol Tuv,
Reuven Chaim Klein
Beitar Illit, Israel
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