beast and boor

A thing open to sight with nothing screening it is ער. Taking a cover off a thing is גלוי, uncovering, whose opposite is כסוי, covering, the putting on of a cover (he refers to the root גל). Taking off a thing's peel is חשף: what the language of the Talmud calls קליפה, peeling, the holy tongue calls חשף, as חשף חשפה והשליך (Yoel 1:7), he has stripped it bare and cast it away, and the verb ויחשף יערות (Tehillim 29:9), and strips the forests bare. But a thing that is exposed of itself, not hidden from the eye and with nothing on it to cover it, is ער.

דק מחספס (Shemos 16:14), a fine thing, husk-like or peeled: either it had a husk like the husk of millet and rice, or it was like a thing whose husk had been taken off. מחשף הלבן (Bereishis 30:37), laying bare the white: peeling white strips from the white bark on the rods. From peeling the word was borrowed for other kinds of uncovering: וחשופי שת (Yeshayahu 20:4), with buttocks bared, and ולחשף מים מגבא (Yeshayahu 30:14), to skim water from a cistern, which is taking off the top surface of the water, itself like a peel.

The noun for the condition is עריה, bareness: עריה תעור קשתך (Chavakuk 3:9), Your bow is laid bare, the bow uncovered and left bare. In ואת ערם ועריה (Yechezkel 16:7), and you were naked and bare, ערם is being without clothing, and עריה is lacking anything else to screen the body. He comes back to it later: עירם is said of the lack of clothing, and עריה of the lack of the body's other needs.

The verbs: את-שארו הערה (Vayikra 20:19), he has laid bare his own flesh, that is, uncovered; כי ארזה ערה (Tzefaniah 2:14), for He has laid bare its cedar work, in the sense of ויחשף יערות, and strips the forests bare, and חשף חשפה, he has stripped it bare; and so פשטה וערה (Yeshayahu 32:11), strip and make yourselves bare, and אשר הערה למות נפשו (Yeshayahu 53:12), because he laid bare his soul to death.

ערות על-יאור (Yeshayahu 19:7), the shoots by the Nile: plants at the start of their showing are called ערות, a word of uncovering, since no earth covers them any longer. So ומתערה כאזרח רענן (Tehillim 37:35), showing himself like a fresh native tree: he appears at the very start of his growing like a fresh native tree. Or ומתערה is from shaking out, shaking himself out and spreading like a fresh tree; and the sense is one, since shaking out too belongs to ער and uncovering.

What shakes itself out is left bare of what was in it, and what is shaken out of a vessel is left bare, with the vessel no longer covering it: ותער כדה אל-השקת (Bereishis 24:20), she emptied her jar into the trough, where pouring out the water left the jar bare; and תשכרי ותתערי (Eichah 4:21), you shall be drunk and lay yourself bare. The word is found with a nun, וינער (Shemos 14:27), Hashem shook out Mitzrayim, and התנערי מעפר קומי (Yeshayahu 52:2), shake yourself from the dust, arise; and without it, ותער כדה, she emptied her jar, and אל תער נפשי (Tehillim 141:8), do not pour out my soul. The waste shaken out of flax is נעורת, tow: כאשר ינתק פתיל-הנערת (Shoftim 16:9), as a strand of tow snaps, and והיה החסן לנערת (Yeshayahu 1:31), and the strong shall become tow.

From shaking out is מערה, a cave, as וישב במערה, and he dwelt in a cave, and מערת המכפלה, the cave of Machpelah: it is so called because it is emptied out of the ground. The verb is ערו ערו עד היסוד בה (Tehillim 137:7), lay it bare, lay it bare, to its foundation; and he sets beside it כמער-איש וליות (Melachim I 7:36), by the clear space of each, with wreaths.

From uncovering is ערוה, uncovering in a bad sense: a thing whose exposure is unseemly. לראות את-ערות הארץ (Bereishis 42:9), to see the nakedness of the land; לכסות בשר ערוה (Shemos 28:42), to cover the flesh of nakedness; ערות אביך וערות אמך (Vayikra 18:7), the nakedness of your father and the nakedness of your mother; and כי מצא בה ערות דבר (Devarim 24:1), for he has found in her an unseemly matter, which is conduct with licentiousness and exposure, the opposite of modesty.

One lacking children or any other family tie is ערירי: ואנכי הולך ערירי (Bereishis 15:2), and I go childless, without children and without any support from family. It is an adjective from ער and uncovering: children and family are to a man like clothing and a cover to the body, and without them he stands like a naked body with no shelter.

From the same sense is ערער, a tree whose leaves have fallen and whose branches have dried, standing bare: והיה כערער בערבה (Yirmiyahu 17:6), he shall be like a bare tree in the desert, and כערוער במדבר (Yirmiyahu 48:6), like a bare tree in the wilderness. So פנה אל תפלת הערער (Tehillim 102:18), He turned to the prayer of the bare one, the prayer of one like the ערער tree, cast off and forsaken by all; and the verb, ערער תתערער (Yirmiyahu 51:58), shall be utterly laid bare. It may be, Rav Pappenheim adds, that ערירי and ערער are from shaking out: one emptied and void of everything, whether of family or of natural plenty.

From uncovering is עור, skin: כתנות עור (Bereishis 3:21), garments of skin; עורות גדיי העזים (Bereishis 27:16), the skins of the young goats; ועורות תחשים (Shemos 25:5), and tachash skins; הוא שמלתו לעורו (Shemos 22:26), it is his garment for his skin. It is called עור from uncovering, since it alone stands bare and all the other parts of the body are covered by it.

From עור, skin, comes עור, blind, and עורון, blindness: או פקח או עור (Shemos 4:11), or seeing or blind; כי השחד יעור (Shemos 23:8), for the bribe blinds. Blindness is a skin rising over the eye: a film that forms from some fluid, congeals, spreads over the eye and blocks sight. This kind of blindness is commoner than the blindness that comes of the eye being put out or of the fluid in it drying up, and so every lack of sight is called עורון, after the skin-film, the commonest and most usual kind.

ואת עיני צדקיהו עור (Yirmiyahu 39:7), and he blinded the eyes of Tzidkiyahu: since it does not say that he put out his eyes, as is written of Shimshon, וינקרו את עיניו (Shoftim 16:21), and they put out his eyes, and as in העיני האנשים ההם תנקר? (Bamidbar 16:14), will you put out the eyes of those men?, it seems that he did not put out Tzidkiyahu's eyes but smeared them with some drug that blinds, as though a skin were spread over them. So כי השחד יעור (Shemos 23:8) does not mean that the bribe ruins the eyes of the mind for good, so that they cannot see even at another time when there is no bribe. It means that while he takes a bribe he is blind, the bribe rising like a film over his eyes and covering the sight of the truth; at another time, with no bribe and no film to cover them, he sees well again.

From uncovering is עיר, a city: נבנה לנו עיר (Bereishis 11:4), let us build ourselves a city; עיר חומה (Vayikra 25:29), a walled city; וערי מבצר (Yehoshua 19:35), and the fortified cities: for a city has streets and markets that stand open to everyone. The opposite of a city is כפר, a village: נלינה בכפרים (Shir HaShirim 7:12), let us lodge in the villages, a word of covering, in the sense of וכפרת אותה (Bereishis 6:14), and you shall cover it. A village has no exposed open spaces; it is like a courtyard, and so it is also called חצר: ובתי החצרים (Vayikra 25:31), and the houses of the villages, and בחצריהם ובטירותם (Bereishis 25:16), by their villages and by their encampments.

יער, a forest: יבא את רעהו ביער (Devarim 19:5), he goes into the forest with his fellow; חיתו יער (Tehillim 50:10), the beasts of the forest; כתפוח בעצי היער (Shir HaShirim 2:3), like an apple tree among the trees of the forest; יער צומח עצים (Koheles 2:6), a forest sprouting trees. Any tract of trees gathered together that bear no fruit is יער, from uncovering: since its trees carry no fruit, it stands exposed, not ringed by a fence. Its opposite is גן, a garden, from protecting and covering: a tract of fruit trees and vegetables, ringed by a fence to guard it against loss (he refers to the root גן).

Honey too is called יער, after its place. Most bees' honey is found in forests, since the bees gather the honey and the wax from the blossoms of the forest's trees, and even where no hives are made for them they make hives for themselves in the forest trees. So ביערת הדבש (Shmuel I 14:27), in the comb of honey, and אכלתי יערי עם דבשי (Shir HaShirim 5:1), I have eaten my forest honey with my honey: יערי is the forest's honey, which comes from the bees, and דבשי is the honey that comes from dates.

תער, a razor: והעבירו תער על כל בשרם (Bamidbar 8:7), and let them pass a razor over all their flesh; כתער מלטש (Tehillim 52:4), like a sharpened razor. It is from uncovering, since it leaves the skin of the flesh bare of hair. The opposite is כסום יכסמו את ראשיהם (Yechezkel 44:20), they shall keep their heads trimmed, a word of covering (he refers to the root כס).

A sword's sheath is also called תער: וישלפה מתערה (Shmuel I 17:51), and he drew it from its sheath; תצא חרבי מתערה (Yechezkel 21:9), My sword shall go out of its sheath. This תער is not from uncovering, as the shaving razor is, but from shaking out: the sword shakes itself out of the sheath, which is left emptied and void of it, and so the sheath itself is called תער. It is in the sense of אריק חרבי (Shemos 15:9), I will draw my sword, meaning I will empty the sheath of the sword, and שמן תורק שמך (Shir HaShirim 1:3), your name is oil poured out, named for the vessel that is emptied. So too the German calls a sword's sheath שיידע, Scheide, a word of separating, since the sword separates from it.

From ער, uncovering, with a mem added, comes the adjective ערום, lacking clothing, so that one's flesh is exposed: ויהיו שניהם ערומים (Bereishis 2:25), and the two of them were naked; כי-עירם אנכי (Bereishis 3:10), for I am naked; the adjective for the masculine, and in the feminine פן-אפשיטנה ערמה (Hoshea 2:5), lest I strip her naked. Sometimes עירם is the noun for the condition: ואת ערם ועריה (Yechezkel 16:7), and you were naked and bare, and בהיותך עירם ועריה (Yechezkel 16:22), when you were naked and bare, that is, one possessed of nakedness, found in the state of nakedness.

From ערום, the lack of clothing, comes ערמה, a heap: ויבא לשכב בקצה הערמה (Rus 3:7), and he came to lie down at the end of the heap; בטנך ערמת חטים (Shir HaShirim 7:3), your belly is a heap of wheat. A pile of threshed grain is called ערמה because the grain has been stripped of the straw that was its clothing and has become naked; and the stack made of it is called ערמה because it is gathered from naked grain. The opposite is the גדיש, which is gathered from grain still in its ears.

By borrowing, וברוח אפיך נערמו מים (Shemos 15:8), and with the breath of Your nostrils the waters were heaped up: they became waves upon waves, like heaps of grain. Or it is from ערום in its plain sense: the upper waters at the surface cover the lower ones, and when the wind blew the upper waters swelled up and the lower were left naked.

A kind of tree is called ערמון (Bereishis 30:37) because it has no branches below, only above at its top, and so stands naked and stripped of branches, like a naked man without clothing.

Also from uncovering is the verb ער, rousing, waking and motion: כנשר יעיר קנו (Devarim 32:11), as an eagle stirs up its nest; עוררה את גבורתך (Tehillim 80:3), rouse Your might; עורה למה תישן (Tehillim 44:24), awake, why do You sleep?; והוא עורר את-חניתו (Shmuel II 23:18), and he roused his spear; שנאה תערר מדנים (Mishlei 10:12), hatred stirs up strife; מה תעירו ומה תעררו (Shir HaShirim 8:4), why would you wake, why would you rouse: that they not wake her from her sleep, nor rouse her to show herself. Whatever shows itself in motion and in deed, as against lying hidden and concealed within itself, is called ער.

From this is נער, with נערות and נעורים, youth: the time of youth, when a person is still in rousing, motion and wakefulness, as against old age, when the body's powers weaken and a person is like one drowsy and weary. So the young man is called נער, a word of rousing, in the sense of נערו כגורי אריות (Yirmiyahu 51:38), they rouse themselves like lion cubs. והנער נער (Shmuel I 1:24), and the youth was a youth, means that he had extra liveliness; and כי היה נער ואדמני (Shmuel I 17:42), for he was a youth, and ruddy, means that he had extra rousing, a thing felt in a youth's movements. The female in her youth is called נערה, just as עלם and עלמה are from עליה, rising (he refers to the root על).

So too עיר, the young horse and donkey: ועירם עשרה (Bereishis 32:16), and ten foals; אסרי לגפן עירה (Bereishis 49:11), binding his foal to the vine; והאלפים והעירים (Yeshayahu 30:24), the oxen and the young donkeys; ועל עיר בן אתנות (Zecharyah 9:9), and upon a foal, the son of she-donkeys. It too is named for rousing, for the extra wakefulness in it.

ער is also an enemy: ויהי ערך (Shmuel I 28:16), and has become your enemy; נשוא לשוא עריך (Tehillim 139:20), Your enemies lift it up in vain. It is from rousing and rising up, like מתקוממים, those who rise up against one: one who hates another is roused against him whenever he sees him or remembers him (he refers to the root אב). Or ער is uncovering in its plain sense, an open enemy who no longer hides his hatred: there is an enemy who covers his hatred in his heart, and when his hatred grows until he shows it to the other, he is called ער.

From ער and rousing too is ערם, with ערמה, cunning, which is sharpness and wakefulness of mind. A man may have great intelligence and yet know how to use it only in its usual way, and not otherwise, by stratagem (as the matter sometimes demands, when it can be reached only by stratagem); for that he has no capacity, his mind being as though dozing and asleep, not looking about for any way to reach what he seeks. One who has the capacity and the knowledge to use his mind in different ways is called ערום, from the wakefulness and alertness of his mind, poised to spread to every side of the possible: והנחש היה ערום (Bereishis 3:1), and the serpent was cunning, since enticing the woman to do a thing whose penalty was death needed extra stratagem.

Every work of the mind has a side for praise and a side for blame: wise to do good and wise to do evil, a man of מזימה, sound design, and a man of זימה, wicked design. So ערמה has a use for blame and a use for praise. For blame: להרגו בערמה (Shemos 21:14), to kill him by guile; מפר מחשבות ערומים (Iyov 5:12), He frustrates the designs of the crafty; על-עמך יערימו סוד (Tehillim 83:4), against Your people they lay crafty counsel. For praise: ויעשו גם-המה בערמה (Yehoshua 9:4), they too acted with cunning; לתת לפתאים ערמה (Mishlei 1:4), to give prudence to the simple; וערומים יכתרו דעת (Mishlei 14:18), and the prudent are crowned with knowledge; ערום ראה רעה ונסתר (Mishlei 22:3), the prudent man sees evil and hides.

The sense of ערמה is found without the mem as well: ער וענה מאהלי יעקב (Malachi 2:12), the one awake and the one who answers, from the tents of Yaakov, that is, diligent and sharp, whose mind is awake. It is like עצם, the shutting of the eyes, found with a mem, ועצם עיניו (Yeshayahu 33:15), and shuts his eyes, and also without it, עצה עיניו (Mishlei 16:30), he shuts his eyes, with one sense; so too ערם and ער.