When the Moabites led by Balak turned to their mortal enemies the Midianites to ally with them against the impending threat of the Israelites, the Moabites said to the Midianite elders, “Now the congregation [of Israelites] will lick away all our surroundings, like an ox licks away the vegetable of the field…” ( Num. 22:4). The Hebrew verb for “licking” used twice in this passage is lechicha, and these are the only two times that derivatives of the triliteral root LAMMED-CHET-KAF appear in the Torah. That root appears another four times in the rest of the Bible (II Kgs. 18:38, Mic. 7:17, Isa. 49:23, Ps. 72:9), but there is another term for “licking” — lekikah — which appears slightly more often than that in the Bible. In this essay, we explore these two synonymous expressions, while examining their etymology and considering what the difference between them might be.

The term lechicha appears in the Talmud (Babylonian Talmud Bava Kamma 6a, Jerusalemic Talmud Bava Kamma 6:5) when discussing the liability of a person who lit a fire that scorched a plowed field in such a way that the owner would have to plow the field again. The term used in the Talmud is that the fire “licked” (lichacha) the plowed area. Perhaps the flames that came forth from the greater fire to scorch the earth can be likened to a tongue exiting a person’s mouth and licking something outside. Other than that, I’m at a loss to explain the connection (see I Kgs. 18:38 and Targum to Mal. 3:19 where the verbs for “licking” are again used in reference to a fire “singing” something.)

The verb form lechicha appears in rabbinic literature in another very fascinating context: The Midrash (Esther Rabbah §8:7) relates that when Mordecai declared a fast day over the holiday of Passover (in order to prayer for the overturn of Haman’s decree against the Jewish People), Mordecai prayed to Hashem saying, “It is revealed and known before the Throne of Your Honor O Master of the Worlds that it is not from the haughtiness of my heart or the exaltedness of my eye that I did [this in] not bowing to Haman, rather from You fear I acted in this way to not bow to him, for I am in awe before You to not give Your honor to a [man of] flesh and blood, and [therefore] I did not want to bow to anyone other than You. For who am I that I should not bow to Haman on pain of the salvation of your Nation Israel? For I would have licked [lechicha] the shoe of his foot [if not for my aforementioned considerations]. And now, O our God, save us from his hand…” In a nutshell, Mordecai said that the only reason did not lick Haman’s shoes and instead opposed him was for the sake of Heaven, and not for his own personal gain.........

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