From "Medinah" to "Medinah"

The Journey of One Hebrew Word – From the Bible to Modern Israel

"Medinah uMedinah kichtavah, ve’am va’am kilshono"

("Each province in its own script and each people in its own language" — Esther 3:12; 8:9)

Over two thousand years separate the Medinat Yisrael (State of Israel) from the provinces (medinot) ruled by King Ahasuerus in the Book of Esther. But what exactly changed — and what didn’t — in the meaning of the word medinah over time?

Medinah in the Bible

The Hebrew word medinah shows up mostly in later biblical books from the Second Temple period — like Esther, Ezra, and Nehemiah — as well as in the Aramaic parts of Daniel and Ezra. Scholars believe it originally comes from Aramaic, and it's built on the root ד־י־ן (D-Y-N), which is related to judgment and law. That’s no coincidence — in the Bible, a medinah is a legal jurisdiction, a district or province under a governing system.

In Esther, King Ahasuerus is said to rule over “127 medinot,” and he sends out letters “to all the king’s provinces.” Elsewhere, like in Daniel and Ezra, the term "Medinat Bavel" ("Province of Babylon") refers to a pachva — a Persian imperial region. The terms "bnei hamedinah" ("people of the province") and "rashei hamedinah" ("heads of the province") likely refer to local leaders in the province of Yehuda (Judea). In 1 Kings 20, we hear about "na’arei sarei hamedinot" — young officers serving the district governors.

A great example of the social hierarchy in a biblical medinah appears in Ecclesiastes 5:7:

"If you see the oppression of the poor and perversion of justice and righteousness in the medinah, do not be surprised; for one official watches over another, and higher officials are over them."

Medinah in Rabbinic Literature

In the writings of the early rabbis (Chazal), medinah appears frequently — but its meaning can shift. Sometimes it still means a district, as in:

"From Beit Horon to the sea is one medinah." (Mishnah, Shevi’it 9:2)

But other times, a medinah is made up of smaller units — for example, in the Talmud, a medinah can be larger than a hegmonia (a small district).

Confusingly, medinah can also refer to a smaller unit than a district! One Talmudic source says teachers were placed “in every medinah and every city,” and here medinah is smaller than a pelech (region), as Rashi explains: "Many medinot make up one pelech."

The word medinah is often paired with ir (city), as in the phrase "me’ir le’ir u’mi’medinah le’medinah". But the relationship between the two isn’t consistent — sometimes an ir is part of a medinah, and sometimes medinah itself simply means city. For instance, a Jerusalem Talmud passage says, "*Shiloach was in the middle of the medinah", meaning the Pool of Siloam was in the middle of Jerusalem. One rabbi even noted: in the Bible "field" equals city, "city" equals medinah, and "medinah" equals province.

In some sources, medinah seems smaller than a city — "sha’arei medinot" ("gates of small settlements") appear beneath sha’arei arayot ("gates of cities") in the Talmud (Yoma 11a).

Some scholars believe this confusion stems from the influence of the Greek word polis — a city-state. In Aramaic and Arabic, medinah can also just mean "city" — hence al-Madinah, the city in Saudi Arabia.

Another rabbinic use of medinah is to mean anywhere in Eretz Yisrael outside of Jerusalem. For example:

"If Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbat, the shofar is blown in the Temple but not in the medinah." (Mishnah, Rosh Hashanah 4:1)

The rabbis also coined some common expressions using the word medinah:

Medinat hayam – A distant land across the sea

Minhag hamedinah – Local custom

Makat medinah – A disaster affecting the entire population (like a plague or drought)

Kesef medinah – The local or national currency

Medinah in the Middle Ages

In medieval Jewish texts, medinah continues to have flexible meanings — it can mean a city, a region, or even a whole country:

City:

“The Jewish communities living in Medinat Fustat…” (Fustat = Old Cairo, 10th century)

“You said ‘a palace was abandoned,’ but armon is like a city or medinah.” (Dunash ben Labrat)

District:

“That was Kinneret, the name of a medinah in Israel.” (Rashi on Pesachim 8b)

Country:

“And Egypt grew strong… Medinat Mitzrayim includes everything.” (Ibn Ezra on Exodus 12:33)

It seems that all of these share a common thread: medinah means a defined political-geographical unit. That’s why even within a single author’s work, like Rashi or Ibn Ezra, you might find the word used for a city in one place and a country in another.

In medieval Jewish philosophy, influenced by Greek thinkers, the Arabic madinah was used like polis — a structured society or government. Maimonides, in The Guide for the Perplexed, wrote in Judeo-Arabic using madinah, and the Hebrew translator, Ibn Tibbon, used the Hebrew medinah — helping to shape its modern meaning as a political state.

Medinah in Modern Hebrew

In early Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) writing, medinah was still used loosely — sometimes even to describe climate regions! But over time, it took on the modern meaning we know: an independent political state with centralized power. In some contexts, like the United States, medinah can also mean a federal state — like medinot Amerika — though many agree “aratzot” (lands) might have been a better translation.

On May 14, 1948, a new medinah joined the world:

"We hereby declare the establishment of a Jewish medinah in the Land of Israel — the Medinat Yisrael." (from the Israeli Declaration of Independence, David Ben-Gurion)