סַנְדָּק (sandak) — the godfather at a circumcision

Etymology

The sandak is the person on whose knees the mohel (circumciser) performs a Jewish ritual circumcision. The role is an honor, and the sandak is traditionally understood as a kind of spiritual godfather to the child. Neither the role nor the word appears in the Talmud. The earliest clear evidence of the institution's spread through the Jewish world is in 13th-century Ashkenazic sources, where it appears in varied spellings: sandak, sandik, sandikos, sindikanos, sindikanus.

The word is universally recognized as being of Greek origin, given the characteristic -os/-us ending found in the manuscript variants. Its ultimate source, however, has been debated for centuries. In the 17th century, Rabbi David Cohen de Lara proposed in his dictionary Keter Kehunah that it derived from Greek σύνδικος (syndikos, "advocate, representative") — adopted unchanged by Benjamin Mussafia in his 1655 Musaf he-Aruch. This was semantically strained, since the sandak is not a legal representative. In the 19th century Rabbi Joseph Perez Perles proposed the word derived from the Greek ανδοχος (andokhos, the Greek term for godfather at Christian baptism), but this required explaining the added initial ס, which he could not do convincingly.

The most coherent proposal came from Dr. Hillel Newman of Haifa University in a 2007 article. Newman analyzed early manuscripts of Midrash Tehillim (Psalms) and demonstrated that a key passage had been miscopied. The passage describing the ritual in relation to a verse about the knees (Psalms 35:10) was originally not saying that a man "becomes a sindikanos for circumcised children on his knees" but rather that he "makes his knees into a sindikanos." In other words, it was the knees, not the man, that were called a sindikanos. Newman found in a 5th–6th century Greek lexicon the word σινδήκς (sindēks) defined as "box, chest" — a container. If this is correct, the word originally meant the knees functioning as a "cradle/box" for the baby, and only later was reinterpreted — through a corrupted manuscript tradition — as the name for the person performing the role.

This explains the otherwise puzzling history: the word entered Jewish vocabulary through the midrash, was misunderstood, and a whole institution built around the misreading. The institution itself may have developed in imitation of the Christian practice of godparenthood, which began in the 6th century (the term compater, "co-father," appeared at the end of the 6th century CE). The word sandak is then used in the reverse direction — the Christian "godfather" is called by the name of the Jewish sandak because the roles are analogous.

In modern Hebrew, the sandak also gave his name to "The Godfather" — the Coppola film's title in Hebrew is הַסַּנְדָּק, and by association the term now refers to a powerful patron figure in criminal organizations as well.

Key Quotes

"מנהג בישראל שהאחד נעשה בעל ברית לתינוק הנימול ותופס אותו על יריכיו" — Rabbi Isaac ben Moses of Vienna, Or ha-Zarua, 13th century

"בני, שים ספרים חבריך וארגזיך ותבותיך" — Yehuda ibn Tibbon (12th century); context illustrating medieval Hebrew word-culture (tangential)

Timeline

• 6th century CE: Christian institution of godparenthood established; Latin term compater ("co-father") coined
• End of first millennium: Midrash Tehillim composed (Israel or Italy); contains the word sindikanos/sindiknus in a passage about ritual circumcision
• 13th century: Institution of sandak attested in Ashkenazic Jewish communities (Or ha-Zarua and other sources)
• 17th century: Rabbi David Cohen de Lara proposes Greek syndikos as the etymology (later copied by Mussafia)
• 19th century: Rabbi Joseph Perez Perles proposes Greek andokhos as the source
• 1858: Rabbi Joseph Sheinhaak in Sefer ha-Mashbir proposes Greek syntēknos ("co-parent") — a more compelling suggestion
• 2007: Dr. Hillel Newman publishes new analysis arguing the knees, not the man, were originally called sindikos (from Greek sindēks, "box/chest")
• 1972: Francis Ford Coppola's film "The Godfather" released; Hebrew title הַסַּנְדָּק

Related Words

• בַּעַל בְּרִית — "master of the covenant"; an alternative traditional title for the sandak role
• קוֹמְפָּטֵר (compater) — the Latin term for the analogous Christian role
• אַנְדוֹכוֹס — Greek word for Christian godfather; one proposed etymological source