Greek Chi and Anointment

Question

In Menachos 75a and other places it says that meshicha, smearing of oil, on the רקיקים wafer-offerings, is done כמין כי יווני - like a greek letter chi. Tosefos there brings quite a few explanations for what this anointment looks like.

כמין כי. צייר בקונט' כמין טי"ת ובפירושי חומש פי' גימל ויש מפרישים כמין נון או כמין כ' ובערוך פירש דתניא בכריתות (דף ה:) המלכים מושחין כמין נזר והכהנים כמין כי יוונית פירוש יצק שמן על ראש [אהרן] ויורד אילך ואילך כמין שני מרגליות
Like a (Hebrew) tet... like a gimel... like a nun or a chaf... And the Arukh explains... like a Greek chi [which is] like two legs descending here and here...

None of them seem to me to correspond to the Greek chi that I thought was well-known: Ⲭ, some kind of "x".
How does one understand this? Is it similar to "Well, Tosefos probably never saw an elephant!" kind of thing? Weren't there at least Christian theologians or some such in France who knew Greek? The Arukh is said to have been born in Rome!
Or were there other ways to make a chi?

Answer 1

It is worth noting this summary of the Tosafos here which adds an additional commentaries note demonstrating that others do read it like an 'Ⲭ'. It writes there:

NOTE: Rashi in Kerisus (5b DH k'Min) and the Rambam (Hilchos Klei ha'Mikdash 1:9) drew the form of an "X". Tif'eres Yisrael (ibid.) concludes like the Rambam.

So it could well be that Tosafos was just not familiar with Greek language, whilst people like Rashi and Rambam were more knowledgeable in this regard.

Although having said this, the summary in the same link does seem to interpret Tosafos' understanding in the same manner - i.e. that it did resemble the X formation:

Explanation #4 (Aruch): A Beraisa in Kerisus (5b) teaches that kings they anoint (put the oil in a shape) like a crown, and Kohanim Gedolim like a Greek Chai. I.e. [Moshe] poured oil on Aharon's head, and it descended in two directions, like two legs (coming out of the torso), and this is its form.

Answer 2

Consolidating my comments, the typical European Rishonic rabbi did not usually consult local Christian scholars to understand Jewish sources. A couple of examples were brought here about the Tosfot's lack of understanding of Greek. To that I would add this statement from Rashi on Eruvin 65a (my translation):

""When distressed, one should not issue decisions" - I have looked over all of scripture and this is not in any of the texts and perhaps it is found in the Book of Ben Sira."

This verse does not appear in Ben Sira, neither the Greek nor the Hebrew versions (at least not those that we have today), yet the Greek Ben Sirach is part of the Catholic Bible and Rashi could have theoretically checked with local Christians. But he didn't.

About the Aruch, it is very likely that he did not know Greek. We find that the author of Yosifon, who also lived in Italy, but about a century prior to the Aruch, did not know Greek, despite being very learned (see Prof. David Flusser's introduction to his edition of Yosifon, pg. 23 and note 62).

On the Aruch's commentary, it is noted here that the Kohut edition of the Aruch brings different manuscripts with different drawn interpretations of which Greek letter the Aruch may have meant, which means it is unclear what he was referring to.

Here it is suggested that the Aruch was actually referring to a Latin C but for some reason referred to it as Greek. I'm afraid I did not quite understand the rationale.

Lastly, on your translation of the Tosfot - as @TamirEvan already pointed out in the comments, it turns out that the quoted Aruch was referring to this phrase in Keritot 5b and Horayot 12a:

"The Sages taught in a baraita: The verse states: “It is like the precious oil upon the head descending upon the beard; the beard of Aaron, that descends upon the collar of his garments” (Psalms 133:2). Two drops of anointing oil shaped like pearls hung from Aaron’s beard."

These pearls are the מרגליות.

Answer 3

I know the question is asking why Tosefot don't know what a Chi is. But I would like to expand your question and argue that not only to Tosefot not know what a Chi is, but they don't know what a Paleo-Hebrew Tau 𐤕 ( ת in Ashurit) looks like.

As others have mentioned the anointing of the bread is similar to the anointing of the priests brought down by the Rambam.

Klei Hamikdash - Chapter 1:9

How was the High Priest anointed? The oil should be poured on his head and applied between his eyes in the form of the Greek letter chi,30 like this C as [Leviticus 8:12] states: "And he poured the anointing oil on Aaron's head and anointed him to sanctify him." The kings of the Davidic dynasty are anointed [with the oil] spread as a crown on their foreheads.31 They should not be anointed on other places [on their bodies], nor should one use an excessive amount of oil.

‏כֵּיצַד מוֹשְׁחִין אֶת הַכֹּהֵן. צָק אֶת הַשֶּׁמֶן עַל רֹאשׁוֹ וְסָךְ מִמֶּנּוּ עַל גַּבֵּי עֵינָיו כְּמִין כִּי יְוָנִית כָּזֶה X שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (ויקרא ח יב) "וַיִּצֹק מִשֶּׁמֶן הַמִּשְׁחָה עַל רֹאשׁ אַהֲרֹן וַיִּמְשַׁח אֹתוֹ לְקַדְּשׁוֹ". וּמַלְכֵי בֵּית דָּוִד מוֹשְׁחִין אוֹתָן כְּמִין נֵזֶר עַל רֹאשׁוֹ. וְלֹא יִמְשַׁח בִּמְקוֹמוֹת אֲחֵרוֹת וְלֹא יַרְבֶּה בְּשֶׁמֶן:

All of these quotes seem to have a precedent in Tanakh in which Ezekiel has a vision in which people to be spared are marked with a Tau. Since Ezekiel is one of the more priestly prophets it makes sense to use a symbol that the priests would be familiar with and that would have some religious meaning.

Ezekiel 9:4

וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהֹוָה֙ אֵלָ֔ו עֲבֹר֙ בְּת֣וֹךְ הָעִ֔יר בְּת֖וֹךְ יְרוּשָׁלָ֑͏ִם וְהִתְוִ֨יתָ תָּ֜ו עַל־מִצְח֣וֹת הָאֲנָשִׁ֗ים הַנֶּֽאֱנָחִים֙ וְהַנֶּ֣אֱנָקִ֔ים עַ֚ל כׇּל־הַתּ֣וֹעֵב֔וֹת הַֽנַּעֲשׂ֖וֹת בְּתוֹכָֽהּ׃ and the LORD said to him, “Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who moan and groan because of all the abominations that are committed in it.”

However, marking someone with a Tau doesn't make much sense because we don't see the shape of ת being used anywhere else. And clearly the mark is supposed to have some religious significance. But my argument is that the mark of Tau is actually a Paleo Hebrew Tau that is shaped like an X

This same X symbol is used to anoint new priests, and the wafer offering. So I believe that once Paleo Hebrew fell out of use the Rabbis started substituting the Greek Chi to describe the X symbol, not realizing we used to have a letter in our Aleph Bet that already had that symbol.

So to answer your question: Knowledge gets lost, and it's rarely restored. Even when we discover how things used to be we often ignore it and do things the way it makes sense to us now. With that logic in mind it doesn't come as a surprise that when the Gemara wants to describe what the X shape looks like they use a Greek example since most Jews at that time would not know that a Paleo Hebrew Tau (𐤕) looks like an X. Move forward some centuries and Tosefot's convoluted listing of possible examples make even more sense.