Mask and Masekhah: Are the English and Hebrew Terms Related?

Partzufim, “faces,” is the original term for Purim masks. Modern Hebrew uses the biblical term masekhah instead, which sounds suspiciously like the English term “mask,” whose etymology is itself a riddle. Thus the mask succeeds in staying anonymous.

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Prof. René Bloch
Mask and Masekhah: Are the English and Hebrew Terms Related?

Mosaic with two masks leaning on a socle projecting out from two walls that meet at an angle, 2nd century C.E. Capitoline Museums, Wikimedia

Published: March 18, 2024

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Last Updated: September 7, 2026

  1. Translation follows NJPS but with adjustments. See also:

    ויקרא יט:ד אַל תִּפְנוּ אֶל הָאֱלִילִים וֵאלֹהֵי מַסֵּכָה לֹא תַעֲשׂוּ לָכֶם אֲנִי יְ־הוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם.
    Lev 19:4 Do not turn to idols or make cast gods for yourselves: I YHWH am your God.
    דברים כז:טו אָרוּר הָאִישׁ אֲשֶׁר יַעֲשֶׂה פֶסֶל וּמַסֵּכָה תּוֹעֲבַת יְ־הוָה מַעֲשֵׂה יְדֵי חָרָשׁ וְשָׂם בַּסָּתֶר...
    Deut 27:15 Cursed be anyone who makes a sculptured or molten image, abhorred by YHWH, a craftsman’s handiwork, and sets it up in secret…

    See also Judg 17:3–4, 18:14,17,18; 2 Kgs 17:16; Isa 42:17; Hos 13:2; Nah 1:14; Hab 2:18; Ps 106:19; Neh 9:18.

  2. See s.v. “II מַסֵּכָה”: HALOT [Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament], “covering”; Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (Clines), “covering, perh. specif. veil, pall (Is 257), sheet, blanket, counterpane.”

  3. Translation from Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary (New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 2019), 2.699

  4. Alter, The Hebrew Bible, 2.710.

  5. See s.v. “מָסָךְ”: HALOT [Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament]: Judah’s covering (Is 22:8); curtain at the door of the tent of meeting, at the gate of the court of the tabernacle, and at the Holy of Holies.

  6. πρόσωπον

  7. προσωπεῖον. Françoise Létoublon, “La personne et ses masques: remarques sur le développement de la notion de personne et sur son étymologie dans l’histoire de la langue grecque,” Faits de langue 3 (1994) 7-14.

  8. On Josephus’ attitude toward the theater and the ambivalent views on theater in ancient Judaism more generally see René Bloch, “Part of the Scene: Jewish Theater in Antiquity,” in idem, Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism (Leiden: Brill, 2022), 173-199.

  9. Herman Pollack, “An Historical Inquiry Concerning Purim Masquerade-Inquiry,” in Proceedings of the Seventh World Congress of Jewish Studies. History of the Jews in Europe 1977 (Jerusalem: World Union of Jewish Studies, 1981), 217-235.

  10. The verse states:

    דברים כב:ה לֹא יִהְיֶה כְלִי גֶבֶר עַל אִשָּׁה וְלֹא יִלְבַּשׁ גֶּבֶר שִׂמְלַת אִשָּׁה כִּי תוֹעֲבַת יְ־הוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ כָּל עֹשֵׂה אֵלֶּה.
    Deut 22:5 A woman shall not wear a man’s apparel, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment; for whoever does such things is abhorrent to YHWH your God. (NRSV, with adjustments)

    See discussion in Hilary Lipka, “The Prohibition of Cross-Dressing,” TheTorah (2018).

  11. Pollack, “An Historical Inquiry Concerning Purim Masquerade-Inquiry,” 217.

  12. Ben-Yehuda Dictionary p. 3120 [s.v. "ב. מַסֵּכָה"]

  13. Avraham Even Shoshan, המלון החדש: המהדורה המשלבת [The New Dictionary: Updated Edition] (Jerusalem: Kiryat Sefer, 1998) 5.1730 [s.v. "ב. מַסֵּכָה"].

  14. Ernest Klein, A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English (Haifa: The University of Haifa, 1987), 361; Even Shoshan, The New Dictionary, 5.1730.

  15. Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “Mask (n.3), Etymology” (December 2023); Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, s.v. “Maske.”

  16. Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob Grimm und Wilhelm Grimm, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, Version 01/23 (Vol. 12, 1885, p. 1706): https://woerterbuchnetz.de/?sigle=DWB&lemid=M02008.

  17. Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, s.v. “mask-.” Vol. 6, 438: https://lecteur-few.atilf.fr/index.php/page/view.

  18. Oscar Bloch and Walther von Wartburg, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française (Paris: PUB, 1986), s.v. “masque“; Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, s.v. “mask-.” Vol. 6, 438-439: https://lecteur-few.atilf.fr/index.php/page/view.

  19. ἐνθάδε κεῖται Φαυστίνα (Corpus Inscriptionum Judaicarum 283). Adia Konikoff, Sarcophagi from the Jewish Catacombs of Ancient Rome (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1990), 41-44; Samuele Rocca, In the Shadow of the Caesars: Jewish Life in Roman Italy (Leiden: Brill, 2022), 215-223.

Prof. René Bloch is Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Bern (Switzerland), where he holds a joint appointment in the Institute of Jewish Studies and the Institute of Classics. He obtained his Ph.D. (Dr. phil.) as well… Read More
Related Topics:Etymologies