bird

כָּל־בַּעַל כָּנָֽף (Mishlei 1:17), every owner of a wing, and כֹּל צִפּוֹר כָּל־ כָּנָֽף (Bereishis 7:14), every bird, every wing, which he glosses as כל צפור בעל כנף, every bird that owns a wing. So כְּנַף ־רְנָנִים נֶעֱלָסָה (Iyov 39:13), the wing of the renanim rejoices; וְלָהֵנָּה כְנָפַיִם כְּכַנְפֵי הַֽחֲסִידָה (Zecharyah 5:9), and they had wings like the wings of the stork; יִפְרֹשׂ כְּנָפָיו (Devarim 32:11), it spreads its wings; and כַּנְפֵי יוֹנָה נֶחְפָּה בַכֶּסֶף (Tehillim 68:14), the wings of a dove overlaid with silver. The sense is known.

By borrowing, אֲשֶׁר־בָּאת לַֽחֲסוֹת תַּֽחַת־ כְּנָפָֽיו (Rus 2:12), under whose wings you have come to take shelter, which is to shelter in His shade. The lower edge of a garment is called a כנף: עַל־צִיצִת הַכָּנָף (Bamidbar 15:38), on the fringe of the edge; על ארבע כַּנְפוֹת כסותך (Devarim 22:12), on the four edges of your covering; and וְנָגַע בִּכְנָפוֹ אֶל־הַלֶּחֶם (Chaggai 2:12), and he touches the bread with the edge of his garment.

Likewise מִכְּנַף הָאָרֶץ (Yeshayahu 24:16), from the end of the earth, and לֶאֱחֹז בְּכַנְפוֹת הָאָרֶץ (Iyov 38:13), to take hold of the ends of the earth: both are בקצות הארץ, at the ends of the earth. אֶשָּׂא כַנְפֵי ־שָׁחַר (Tehillim 139:9), should I take up the wings of dawn, means: if I go to the far end of the east.

וּמַרְפֵּא בִּכְנָפֶיהָ (Malachi 3:20), and healing in its wings, likens the spreading of light to the spreading of a wing; and וְעַל כְּנַף שִׁקּוּצִים מְשֹׁמֵם (Daniel 9:27), and over the wing of abominations one is appalled, he takes as: over the spreading of the abominations a man will be appalled and full of wrath. In וְלֹֽא־ יִכָּנֵף עוֹד מוֹרֶיךָ (Yeshayahu 30:20), and your moreh will be gathered in no more, the verb means לא יאסף ולא יעצר, will not be gathered in and not held back, and its like is in Chazal's language, who call the gathering of people and their assembling כנופיא (Yoma 51a). Some explain it as לא ירחק, will not be far off, that is, will not be בכנף הארץ, at the end of the earth. The pasuk is explained further at the root ירה.

כַּֽחֲלוֹם יָעוּף (Iyov 20:8), he flies off like a dream; מֵחֵץ יָעוּף יוֹמָֽם (Tehillim 91:5), the arrow that flies by day; וַיָּעָף אֵלַי אֶחָד מִן־הַשְּׂרָפִים (Yeshayahu 6:6), one of the Serafim flew to me, where the first root letter is read with a short kamatz. Also כִּי־גָז חִישׁ וַנָּעֻֽפָה (Tehillim 90:10), it passes quickly and we fly away. Doubled, וְעוֹף יְעוֹפֵף עַל־הָאָרֶץ (Bereishis 1:20), and let birds fly over the earth; and turned back on itself, כָּעוֹף יִתְעוֹפֵף כְּבוֹדָם (Hoshea 9:11), their glory will fly off like a bird.

מֻעָף בִּיעָף (Daniel 9:21), made to fly, in flight, may belong to this root, its yud added as the yud of יְקוּם is added to קוּם, and Radak has set it out already under the root יָעַף. Rabbi Yehudah brings here מְגִלָּה עָפָֽה (Zecharyah 5:1), a flying scroll, and so the Targum, which renders it מְגִלָה פִּרְחָא, a flying scroll. Some read it as folded, from the Targum of וְכָפַלְתָּ (Shemos 26:9), and you shall fold, which is וְתֵיעוּף.

תָּעֻפָה כַּבֹּקֶר תִּהְיֶֽה (Iyov 11:17), which he reads as: if you grow dark now, you will be like the morning. So too עֹשֵׂה שַׁחַר עֵיפָה (Amos 4:13), who makes the dawn darkness, and אֶרֶץ עֵיפָתָה כְּמֽוֹ־אֹפֶל (Iyov 10:22), a land of darkness like gloom, that last carrying two feminine endings as יְשׁוּעָתָה does. His father writes that כמו אפל, like gloom, is a place where the sun does not shine for six months, which is not under the line of the earth and which the light of the sun does not reach; and that ולא סדרים, and no order, is that there is no order of moon and stars there, and that וַתֹּפַע כְּמוֹ־אֹֽפֶל, and it is dark like gloom, is that the darkness is like that same gloom. The noun, in another form, is מְעוּף צוּקָה (Yeshayahu 8:22), the darkness of distress, and in the passive כִּי לֹא מוּעָף לַֽאֲשֶׁר מוּצָק לָהּ (Yeshayahu 8:23): it was not made dark for Eretz Yisrael at the first as it is now, for the first trouble, when Pul king of Ashur exiled them, was light and took only Zevulun and Naftali away, while this last time Sancheriv bore down hard. מוּעָף may be a noun, and so מוּצָק. Rabbi Yehudah brings הֲתָעִיף עיניך בו (Mishlei 23:5), will you make your eyes dark upon it, into this group as well. The sense of them all is darkness and gloom.

Most of the commentators take תָּעֻפָה כַּבֹּקֶר תִּהְיֶֽה and הֲתָעִיף עיניך בו the other way, of flashing and light, and explain עֹשֵׂה שַׁחַר עֵיפָה the same way. בְּעֽוֹפְפִי חַרְבִּי עַל־פְּנֵיהֶם (Yechezkel 32:10) is in this sense when I make my sword flash and flame before them as I draw it from its sheath; or it can be read from the first sense, of movement, when I wave it and shake it over them to kill, and movement is close to flight. The noun here is doubled: בְּעַפְעַפֵּי־שָֽׁחַר (Iyov 3:9), the glow of dawn and its light. In this sense the pupil of the eye is called עפעף: לְֽעַפְעַפַּי תְּנוּמָֽה (Tehillim 132:4), slumber to the pupils of my eyes; עַפְעַפָּיו יִבְֽחֲנוּ בְּנֵי אָדָֽם (Tehillim 11:4), the pupils of His eyes try the sons of man; וְעַל עַפְעַפַּי צַלְמָֽוֶת (Iyov 16:16), and on the pupils of my eyes is the shadow of death; and וְעַפְעַפֵּינוּ יִזְּלוּ־מָֽיִם (Yirmiyahu 9:17), the pupils of our eyes will run with water, which Targum Yonasan renders וְגַלְגַלֵי עֵינָנָא יִגְרוּן מַיָא, the balls of our eyes will run with water.

In the words of Chazal it is used this way: אין מדליקין בצרי, one may not light with balsam, מפני שהוא עף, because it flies (Shabbos 25b), that is, it darts and moves off the lamp and spatters here and there; and היתה מעופפת בזמן שכנפיה נוגעות בקן חייב לשלח (Chullin 140b), if she was hovering, at a time when her wings touch the nest, one is bound to send her away, that is, she is stirring, not flying but near to flight. So too, in Radak's own view, וְעָפוּ בְכָתֵף פְּלִשְׁתִּים יָמָּה (Yeshayahu 11:14), and they shall move on the shoulder of the Pelishtim seaward: Israel will move toward the side of the Pelishtim to spoil and to plunder there. בכתף stands as a construct although it is not pointed as one, which would be בְּכֶתֶף with segol; Ben Asher wrote that it came so because of the peh of פלשתים, to set the reading right.

עָֽיְפָה נַפְשִׁי לְהֹֽרְגִֽים (Yirmiyahu 4:31), my soul is faint before the killers; וְהֽוּא־נִרְדַּם וַיָּעַף וַיָּמֹֽת (Shoftim 4:21), he was asleep and spent and died; and וַיָּעַף דָּוִֽד (Shmuel II 21:15), and David grew weary. These last two take a patach in the first root letter to keep them apart from וַיָּעָף אלי, and he flew to me, which is the other sense. The adjective is עָיֵף וְיָגֵעַ (Devarim 25:18), weary and worn. Since a weary man thirsts for water, a thirsty man is called עָיֵף by borrowing, though there is no weariness in him at all but thirst alone, as it says וְכַֽאֲשֶׁר יַֽחֲלֹם הַצָּמֵא וְהִנֵּה שֹׁתֶה וְהֵקִיץ וְהִנֵּה עָיֵף וְנַפְשׁוֹ שֽׁוֹקֵקָה (Yeshayahu 29:8), as when the thirsty man dreams and here he is drinking, and he wakes and here he is thirsty and his soul longs. So too land that thirsts because no rain has fallen on it: בְּאֶֽרֶץ־צִיָּה וְעָיֵף בְּלִי־מָֽיִם (Tehillim 63:2), in a dry and thirsty land without water; נַפְשִׁי כְּאֶֽרֶץ־ עֲיֵפָה לְךָ סֶֽלָה (Tehillim 143:6), my soul is to You like a thirsty land, selah; and כְּצֵל סֶֽלַע־כָּבֵד בְּאֶרֶץ עֲיֵפָֽה (Yeshayahu 32:2), like the shade of a heavy rock in a thirsty land. Some take וְעָפוּ בְכָתֵף פְּלִשְׁתִּים from this sense, and Radak has explained it under the root כָּתֵף.

יָשֹׁב וְיִצְפֹּר (Shoftim 7:3), let him turn back and rise early: its sense is ישכים בבקר, let him rise early in the morning, and the Targum of בֹּקֶר, morning, is צַפְרָא. So too in בָּאָה הַצְּפִירָה (Yechezkel 7:7), it has come, הַצְּפִירָה being the decree that comes upon you in the morning.

Some explain both וְיִצְפֹּר and הַצְּפִירָה as a sense of going round, and Yonasan renders הַצְּפִירָה as מַלְכוּתָא, kingdom. וְלִצְפִירַת תִּפְאָרָה (Yeshayahu 28:5), and for a turban of glory, is the turban that is wound round the head. The Mishnah (Keilim 16:7) has הקופה משיעשה בה שתי צפירות לרחב שלה, the basket, from when two windings are made in it across its breadth, והערק משיעשה בה צפירה אחת, and the erek, from when one winding is made in it; that is, the going round that is made about a basket.

כָּל־ צִפּוֹר טְהֹרָה (Devarim 14:11), every clean bird; כֹּל צִפּוֹר כָּל־כָּנָף (Yechezkel 17:23), every bird of every wing; and שְׁתֵּֽי־ צִפֳּרִים חַיּוֹת טְהֹרוֹת (Vayikra 14:4), two live clean birds. In the masculine, כְּצִפּוֹר בּוֹדֵד עַל־גָּֽג (Tehillim 102:8), like a lone bird on a roof, and אֲשֶׁר־שָׁם צִפֳּרִים יְקַנֵּנוּ (Tehillim 104:17), where birds make their nests. It is a name covering every bird, but sometimes a particular one: in גַּם־ צִפּוֹר מָצְאָה בַיִת וּדְרוֹר קֵן לָהּ (Tehillim 84:4), the bird too has found a house and the swallow a nest, the second word is particular and so the first is particular too, a small bird; and because its kind is so numerous, every bird came to be called by its name.

וְהַצָּפִיר הַשָּׂעִיר (Daniel 8:21), and the he-goat, the sa'ir, וּצְפִיר הָֽעִזִּים (Daniel 8:8), and the he-goat of the goats, and צְפִירֵי חַטָּאת שְׁנֵים עָשָׂר (Ezra 8:35), twelve he-goats for a sin offering; the word is known, and the Targum of שְׂעִיר (Bereishis 37:31), a goat, is צְפִיר. The doubling in וְהַצָּפִיר הַשָּׂעִיר is to make the sense plain, as in נֶגְבָּה תֵימָֽנָה (Shemos 26:18), southward, to the south, and קֵדְמָה מִזְרָֽחָה (Bamidbar 34:15), eastward, toward the sunrise, where the second word is plainer than the first; for צפיר is not common in the language as שעיר is, but belongs to Aramaic. Or else השעיר is from וְיִשְׂתָּעֵר עָלָיו מֶלֶךְ הַצָּפוֹן (Daniel 11:40), the king of the north will storm against him.

בְּצִפֹּרֶן שָׁמִיר (Yirmiyahu 17:1), with a stylus of shamir, and וְעָֽשְׂתָה אֶת־ צִפָּרְנֶֽיהָ (Devarim 21:12), she shall do her nails; the word is known. Since a man digs with his nails, the iron pen that digs was called a ציפורן, and so the pasuk says בְּצִפֹּרֶן שָׁמִיר, for שמיר is the hard iron; and the Midrash at the start of Pekudei likewise has נטל צפורן של ברזל, he took an iron stylus.