animal

זֹאת הַבְּהֵמָה אֲשֶׁר תֹּאכֵלוּ (Devarim 14:4), this is the beast that you shall eat, and בְּהֵמָה וָרֶמֶשׂ (Bereishis 1:24), beast and creeping thing, where the ה is the mark of the feminine; in construct וְאֵת בֶּֽהֱמַת הַֽלְוִיִּם (Bamidbar 3:41), and the beasts of the Leviim. But תַּחַת בְּהֶמְתָּם (Bamidbar 3:45), in place of their beasts, and בְּהֶמְתְּךָ לֹֽא־תַרְבִּיעַ כִּלְאַיִם (Vayikra 19:19), you shall not let your beast mate with another kind, do not come from בהמה at all but from a form בְּהֶמֶת, though it is not found, since from בהמה one would say בְּהֵמָֽתְךָ and not בְּהֶמְתְּךָ; so he wrote in his grammar, in the gate of nouns.

והוא שם כלל ופעם פרט, it is a word for the kind and at times for the one, as כִּי אִם־ הַבְּהֵמָה אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי רֹכֵב בָּֽהּ (Nechemiah 2:12), except the beast that I was riding on, the one animal.

הִנֵּה־נָא בְהֵמוֹת אֲשֶׁר־עָשִׂיתִי עִמָּךְ (Iyov 40:15), behold now Behemos, which I made with you, is בהמה אחת ששמה בהמות, one beast whose name is Behemos. Some say שְׁאַל־נָא בְהֵמוֹת וְתֹרֶךָּ (Iyov 12:7), ask now behemos and it will teach you, is that same beast, since וְתֹרֶךָּ, and it will teach you, is said in the singular. Radak holds there is no need for that: וְתֹרֶךָּ means each and every one of the beasts, or it falls on the kind; and so וְעוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם וְיַגֶּד־לָֽךְ, and the bird of the sky, and it will tell you.

בַּֽהֲמוֹת נֶגֶב (Yeshayahu 30:6), the beasts of the Negev. The navi foretold that the beasts of the Negev would come out to devour Yisrael as they went to seek help from Mitzrayim, carrying their wealth on the shoulders of young donkeys and their treasures on camels' humps to bribe Mitzrayim for aid, a people who would not profit them. The beasts are the ones the pasuk itself names, לָבִיא וָלַיִשׁ מֵהֶם אֶפְעֶה וְשָׂרָף מְעוֹפֵף, lion and lioness, from them viper and flying serpent. Mitzrayim is called Negev because it lies south of Eretz Yisrael; or נֶגֶב is meant as in אֶרֶץ הַנֶּגֶב נְתַתָּנִי (Shoftim 1:15), you have given me the land of the Negev, since wild beasts dwell in the wilderness and in the land of the Negev.

וְחָיְתָה נַפְשִׁי בִּגְלָלֵךְ (Bereishis 12:13), that my soul may live on your account. Likewise the name חַוָּה, for הִוא הָיְתָה אֵם כָּל חָי (Bereishis 3:20), she was the mother of all living, the yud turned to a vav so that it should not be confused with זֹאת הַחַיָּה אֲשֶׁר תֹּאכְלוּ, the chayah that you shall eat. It is also health: עַד חֲיוֹתָם (Yehoshua 5:8), until they were well, and וְיִמְרְחוּ עַל הַשְּׁחִין וְיֶחִי (Yeshayahu 38:21), let them rub it on the boil, and he will be well. Where the verb takes an object it is to keep alive or to let live, as מְכַשֵּׁפָה לֹא תְחַיֶּה (Shemos 22:17), you shall not let a sorceress live. בְּקֶרֶב שָׁנִים חַיֵּיהוּ (Chavakuk 3:2), in the midst of years keep it alive, he explains: Yisrael, which is Your work, keep it alive in the midst of the years of troubles. חַיַּת יָדֵךְ מָצָאת (Yeshayahu 57:10), you found the life of your hand, he explains: it was as pleasant to you as food is to a man, and so you did not grow sick.

וְיוֹאָב יְחַיֶּה אֶת־שְׁאָר הָעִיר (Divrei HaYamim I 11:8), and Yoav revived the rest of the city, means that Yoav closed in the rest of the city: the city was built from the Millo round about, and Yoav built the wall of the rest of it. The pasuk speaks in terms of life because a ruined city is as though dead. So too הַיְחַיּוּ אֶת־הָאֲבָנִים מֵעֲרֵמוֹת הֶעָפָר וְהֵמָּה שְׂרוּפוֹת (Nechemiah 3:34), will they revive the stones out of the heaps of dust, burnt as they are? Elsewhere the same is said in terms of healing: כִּי־עָלְתָה אֲרוּכָה לְחֹמוֹת יְרוּשָׁלַם (Nechemiah 4:1), that healing had come up to the walls of Yerushalayim, and וַיְרַפֵּא אֶת־מִזְבַּח (Melachim I 18:30), and he healed the mizbeach, the mizbeach of Hashem that had been torn down.

On זֹאת הַחַיָּה אֲשֶׁר תֹּאכְלוּ (Vayikra 11:2), this is the chayah that you shall eat, he says the behemah is taken in under chayah. But אֲשֶׁר יָצוּד צֵיד חַיָּה אוֹ עוֹף (Vayikra 17:13), who hunts a chayah or a bird, is of the chayah alone and not the behemah, since the behemah has no covering of its blood.

The neshamah is called חַיָּה, he says, because it lives for ever and is not as the body is; and the animal soul is called חַיָּה too, as וְזִהֲמַתּוּ חַיָּתוֹ לָחֶם (Iyov 33:20), his soul makes him loathe bread. וְחַיָּתָם לַדֶּבֶר הִסְגִּיר (Tehillim 78:50), and He gave their חַיָּה over to the pestilence, may be read in this sense too, of their souls. Some explain it as their cattle, and take the pasuk to speak of the pestilence among the livestock.

Of meat חַי is raw: וְלֹא יִקַּח מִמְּךָ בָּשָׂר מְבֻשָּׁל כִּי אִם חָי (Shmuel I 2:15), he will not take cooked meat from you, only raw. כָּעֵת חַיָּה (Bereishis 18:14) he reads as this same time in the coming year, when it will be living. So too כֹּה לֶחָי (Shmuel I 25:6), thus for the living: for the living time, that is, the coming year, when you will be alive; life is ascribed to the time because life continues in it. Some explain כֹּה לֶחָי as to the rich man, since a poor man is counted as dead, and so נֶגֶד הַחַיִּים (Koheles 6:8), before the living, as before the rich; Radak says there is no need to take it out of its plain sense. Yonasan renders כֹּה לֶחָי as כְּדֵין לְחַיָךְ, so for your life, which Radak explains: so may it be all your days. Chazal call a midwife a חַיָּה (Kiddushin 74a), where they say three are believed about a firstborn, his father, his mother and the midwife; on their usage, Radak says, כִּי חָיוֹת הֵנָּה (Shemos 1:19) may be read as midwives: they need no other midwives, being midwives themselves. Chazal also call a woman giving birth a חַיָּה (Yoma 73b), from which, Radak says, it is good to read כָּעֵת חַיָּה as meaning that at this time she will be bearing a child.

On אֲשֶׁר נָתְנוּ חִתִּיתָם בְּאֶרֶץ חַיִּים (Yechezkel 32:24), who set their terror in the land of the living, וְנָתַתִּי צְבִי בְּאֶרֶץ חַיִּים (Yechezkel 26:20), and I will set desire in the land of the living, and בְּאַרְצוֹת הַחַיִּים (Tehillim 116:9), in the lands of the living, Chazal explain (Avos d'Rabbi Nosson 34) that Eretz Yisrael is called the land of the living, as it is called ארץ צבי, the land of desire; and Chazal say likewise (Kesubos 111a), ארץ שמתיה חיים, a land whose dead live. All of them can also be read in their plain sense.

חַיָּתְךָ יָשְׁבוּ בָהּ (Tehillim 68:11), Your company dwelt in it, and וְחַיַּת פְּלִשְׁתִּים (Shmuel II 23:13), the company of the Pelishtim, are a company of men, and חַיַּת קָנֶה he explains as the company that carries reeds, meaning spears. אַל־תִּתֵּן לְחַיַּת נֶפֶשׁ תּוֹרֶךָ (Tehillim 74:19), do not give to the company the soul of Your turtledove, has a word missing after the construct: do not give the soul of Your turtledove to the company of the enemies, the turtledove being Knesses Yisrael, likened to a turtledove as Scripture likens her to a dove. Some take לְחַיַּת as a noun from יְחִיתַן (Chavakuk 2:17), will break them, which is a sense of breaking. A cluster of houses standing together, unwalled, which could not be built up as a city, is called a חַיָּה as well, as וַיֵּאָסְפוּ פְלִשְׁתִּים לַחַיָּה (Shmuel II 23:11), the Pelishtim gathered at the cluster; and with a vav for the yud, חַוֹּת יָאִיר (Bamidbar 32:41), the clusters of Yair. Rabbi Yonah explains it so, and says the Arabs call such a cluster by the same word.