I always wondered about the word נגיד in Tanach. It means “leader,” sometimes referring to a king. (A famous Jewish leader in 11th century Spain was “Shmuel Ha-Nagid.”) The word נגיד is not in the Torah. Its first appearance is at Samuel 1, 9:16. It appears a total of 44 times, including in the book of Daniel, in its Aramaic section. How do we understand the origin of this word?

All agree that there is a word נגד in Tanach which has meanings like “next to,” in front of” and “opposite.” As a verb, נגד is used in the hiphil to mean “to cause a statement to be next to someone.” This is the meaning of הגיד (higid). The initial נ dropped, as is common in Hebrew. The verb is used for presenting someone with an oral communication, not a physical object. The verb in the hiphil is most simply translated as “report, tell.” (See further the concordance of Mandelkern, entry נגד, and Rav S. R. Hirsch to Deuteronomy 17:10.)

One approach to “nagid—leader” is to postulate that the leader is the one who stands in front of/opposite the people. (We do not have to postulate that the leader opposes them on issues.) Rav S.R. Hirsch takes this approach. He writes: “נגיד is one who stands ‘neged ha-am, before and opposite the people,’” (Commentary to Psalms 76:13). Many scholars take this approach as well. See, e.g., Brown-Driver-Briggs, page 617: “One in front.” (Giving the “in front” explanation a slightly different spin is Radak, in his Sefer HaShorashim. He suggests that the נגיד is called this because the people “ponim eilav be-chol inyaneihim.” A loose translation: “The people turn their faces to him, looking to him for help on all matters.”)

Other scholars take a completely different approach to “nagid—leader.” They note that in classical Arabic the cognate to “NGD” has the meaning “high.” Long before this, in South Arabic (a language from the biblical period), the word has the meaning “upland.” These scholars postulate that Hebrew must have had a root “NGD” with the meaning “high” and that this is the origin of our word “nagid—leader.” The meaning is probably “the exalted one.” Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament is one source that adopts this approach (after mentioning many others).

Possible support for the connection with “high” is the word נשיא. This word derives from the root נשא, which means “lift up.” A נשיא is perhaps the one who was lifted up to be the leader. Alternatively, he is the one who is high.

Some scholars find it strange that Hebrew would have had two NGD roots with the different meanings “next to” and “high.” Therefore, they suggest that NGD originally meant “placed a matter high or made it conspicuous before somebody.” One who takes this approach is Ernest Klein, page 403. In this approach too, “nagid” derives from the “high” meaning.

Here are some other approaches to the origin of the word נגיד:

נגיד derives from an Aramaic word that means “lead.” Daat Mikra mentions this possibility in the commentary to Samuel 1, 9:16, note 30.* (Jastrow, page 871, mentions “guide, rule” as one of the meanings of the Aramaic root נגד. See also, page 872: “leaders.”)

נגיד derives from the הכאה (strike) meaning of נגד in Aramaic, since leaders punish people. (This suggestion is mentioned in Mandelkern.) The verb נגד has the meaning “lash, punish” in Aramaic. See Jastrow, page 872.

Possibly נגיד originally meant “shepherd” in Hebrew. This is the view taken at Daat Mikra to Daniel 9:25. (Some scholars also take this view. Daat Mikra mentions this view elsewhere as well). נגיד is parallel to רעה at Samuel 2, 5:2 and elsewhere. There is also evidence for the “shepherd” meaning of NGD in Hittite (not a Semitic language). See Daat Mikra, Samuel 1, page 218, number 21. Finally, it is interesting that the similar sounding word נקד means “shepherd” at Kings 2, 3:4.

נגיד derives from the Hebrew meaning “speak.” A leader is often a “speaker.” Or the “nagid” is the one who has been “proclaimed” to be the next king. (But the problem with both of these suggestions is that NGD does not mean “speak” in Hebrew. It means “next to.”)

I am not ready to draw a conclusion on the origin of “nagid.” But one thing which might support an Aramaic origin of the word is that “nagid” is not found in the Torah. (But even if the word originated in Aramaic, we would still like to understand its origin there. For example, perhaps the “leader” meaning in Aramaic originated with an “in front of/opposite” meaning in Aramaic.)

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Now, let us review the meaning of “vehigadeta levincha” in Exodus 13:8. הגדת should be understood as הנגדת. The root is נגד. The meaning in the hiphil is “cause an idea to be next to someone.” We can loosely translate this as “tell.” Nothing more complicated than that.

But in my “Roots and Rituals” book from 2018, I wrote an essay that collected many other interpretations of “vehigadeta” in this verse. (But I suggested there that many of those offering these other interpretations would probably agree with my analysis of the root and were just trying to suggest an additional layer of meaning.)

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Until recent years, I made the common assumption that the word “Haggadah” in the context of the Seder derived from the above phrase at Exodus 13:8. But this view is not expressed until the 11th century (by the Aruch), and this view is not correct. See the important work by D. Henshke, “Mah Nishtanah?” (2016), page 17, number one.

Moreover, there is much evidence that the text we utilize at the Seder was originally called the אגדה by all Jewry, or at least by some significant part. For example:

Although the standard printed text at Pesachim 115b and 116a refers to the Haggadah, there are some manuscripts (e.g., Munich 95) that have aggadah or ha-aggadah.

There are Rishonim that refer to the text we utilize at the Seder as the aggadah. See, e.g., Rabbi Yosef Tuv Elem (11th century) in The Complete ArtScroll Siddur, page 921a. (I would like to thank Sam Borodach, z”l, for this reference.) See also Tosafot, Avodah Zara 45a, and Rabbi Eliezer ben Nathan (12th century) in Haggadah Shel Pesach, Torat Hayyim, page 12. Thus, אגדה may have been the original term for the text we utilize at the Seder. The etymology of this word is an issue. In one widespread view, it is just a variant of הגדה. But in another view, it is not.

The word הגדה has meanings outside the context of Pesach (see Jastrow, page 230). It did not originate as a Pesach-related term. Henshke cites an example from the Mechilta, a source from Tannaitic times, where the word is used outside the context of any Seder. הגדה is here described as “moshech libo shel adam.” הגדה is often used in Amoraic times with a meaning of “homiletical or non-halachic material.” See, e.g., Haggadah 14a. The precise meaning of the word הגדה when it came to be used in the context of our Seder can be debated. But Henshke believes that it fell within the above broad meaning of הגדה.

For a discussion of the meanings of הגדה and אגדה in their original non-Seder contexts, see the article by Y. Frankel in Netuim 11-12 (2004) (reviewing an important earlier article by Berachyahu Lifshitz, cousin of Moshe Markovitz, husband of Pearl).

Mitchell First used to often stand up in front of an audience and present face-to-face lectures. Now he prefers reclining and writing for the Jewish Link. He thanks Dr. Alden Leifer for asking him about the word נגיד. He also thanks Rabbi Jay Goldmintz for referring him years ago to the important note by Henshke on page 17.