bread

וַיִּפְּלוּ חֲלָלִים (Shmuel I 31:1), they fell slain, and חַלְלֵי חֶרֶב מֵחַלְלֵי רָעָב (Eichah 4:9), better the slain of the sword than the slain of hunger. In the intensive the verb is to kill, and he glosses מְחֻלְלֵי חֶרֶב (Yechezkel 32:26) as those killed by the sword.

וַיָּחֶל נֹחַ (Bereishis 9:20), Noach began, and הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה אָחֵל תֵּת פַּחְדְּךָ (Devarim 2:25), this day I begin to put your dread. The noun is תְּחִלָּה, as תְּחִלַּת חָכְמָה יִרְאַת י"י (Mishlei 9:10), the beginning of wisdom is the fear of Hashem.

כִּי חִלֵּל יְהוּדָה (Malachi 2:11), for Yehudah has profaned. אֲשֶׁר נָטַע כֶּרֶם וְלֹא חִלְּלוֹ (Devarim 20:6) he explains as one who planted a vineyard and has not made it chullin, since it is holy until he redeems it. לֹא יַחֵל דְּבָרוֹ (Bamidbar 30:3) is of this sense too: he shall not make his word chullin, but his word shall stand, as if he had declared it holy. The noun is חֹל, as וּלְהַבְדִּיל בֵּין הַקֹּדֶשׁ וּבֵין הַחֹל (Vayikra 10:10), to distinguish between the holy and the common. חָלִילָה, far be it, is of the sense of profaning too, he says, which stands in place of holiness.

מְחַלְּלִים בַּחֲלִלִים (Melachim I 1:40), piping upon flutes. The instrument is the חָלִיל, one of the instruments of music. Rabbeinu Shlomo says it is what they call קלמי"ל [ קרמל"ש ] in the vernacular, and the חָלִיל is called so because it is hollow; Yonasan renders it צֶלְצְלִין, cymbals. From this too מָחוֹל, the dance, is named, because they make merry within it with flutes.

וּבִמְחִלּוֹת עָפָר (Yeshayahu 2:19), hollows dug under the earth after the manner of caves; and חַלּוֹן, a window, as חַלּוֹן הַתֵּבָה (Bereishis 8:6), the window of the ark.

The entry opens with וְלִבִּי חָלַל בְּקִרְבִּי (Tehillim 109:22), my heart has been slain within me, which he reads as a past verb, as though it said נחלל, it has been slain. On וָאֹמַר חַלּוֹתִי הִיא (Tehillim 77:11), and I said, it is my being slain, he has the navi speaking out of galus: my being slain is my death and my being killed in the length of this galus, but I shall remember the years of the right hand of the Most High, the years when the Most High roused His right hand and brought us out of the galus of Mitzrayim, and so He will rouse it again to bring us out of the galus we are in.

אָז הוּחַל לִקְרֹא בְּשֵׁם (Bereishis 4:26): he explains that in the days of Enosh men strayed after avodah zarah, and then the calling by the Name of Hashem was profaned. Some explain the word from beginning instead, that men then began to call the names of idols and images by the Name of Hashem.

אִשָּׁה זֹנָה וַחֲלָלָה (Vayikra 21:7), a woman who is a zonah or profaned, is the adjective from this sense. וְאַתָּה חָלָל רָשָׁע (Yechezkel 21:30) may belong here, he says, or with the first sense, the slain; Targum Yonasan renders it as one liable to death, wicked one.

וְהוּא דֶּרֶךְ חֹל (Shmuel I 21:6), and it is a common way: he explains that though we went out on a common errand and did not suppose we would need holy bread, the young men's vessels were holy, for we purified ourselves on setting out. וַיִּתֶּן לוֹ הַכֹּהֵן קֹדֶשׁ (Shmuel I 21:7), and the kohen gave him holy bread, is the todah loaves, which a Yisrael may eat in purity, the only other bread there being the lechem hapanim, which is forbidden to those outside the kehunah. His father explains the pasuk the same way.

His father puts רוּחַ צָפוֹן תְּחוֹלֵל גָּשֶׁם (Mishlei 25:23) under this sense: the north wind holds back the rain, תְּחוֹלֵל being תמניע, from the sense of חָלִילָה, which is a sense of holding back. Radak notes that he has already written on it at the root חול.

וְכִכַּר לֶחֶם אַחַת (Shemos 29:23), and one loaf of bread, is a large loaf, since the rest were חלות and רקיקים, cakes and wafers.

וְכִכַּר־לָחֶם (Shmuel I 2:36) is, as its Targum has it, פִּתָּא דְלַחְמָא, that is, a piece of bread.

כִּכַּר הַיַּרְדֵּן (Bereishis 13:11), the plain of the Yarden, as its Targum renders it, מֵישַׁר יַרְדְּנָא, the level plain of the Yarden.

כִּכַּר זָהָב (Shemos 25:39), a talent of gold; וַיָּצַר כִּכְּרַיִם כֶּסֶף (Melachim II 5:23), he bound up two talents of silver; וַיִּקַּח בְּיָדוֹ עֶשֶׂר כִּכְּרֵי־כֶסֶף (Melachim II 5:5), he took ten talents of silver in his hand. The ordinary talent was sixty litrin, and the talent of kodesh double it, a hundred and twenty litrin.

כִּי לָֽחֲמוּ לֶחֶם רֶשַׁע (Mishlei 4:17), for they have eaten the food of wickedness; כִּֽי־תֵשֵׁב לִלְחוֹם אֶת־מוֹשֵׁל (Mishlei 23:1), when you sit to eat with a ruler; לְכוּ לַֽחֲמוּ בְֽלַֽחֲמִי (Mishlei 9:5), come, eat of my food. וּלְחֻמֵי רֶשֶׁף (Devarim 32:24) he glosses אכולי רשף, eaten up by the fiery bolt. Some read וְשֹׁרֶשׁ רְתָמִים לַחְמָֽם (Iyov 30:4), the root of the broom is their food, from this sense; Radak has already written of it under the root חָמַם. Every לֶחֶם, he says, is a word for food in general. It falls on meat alone, as לֶחֶם אִשֶּׁה (Vayikra 3:11), the food of the fire offering, and אֶת־קָרְבָּנִי לַחְמִי לְאִשַּׁי (Bamidbar 28:2), My offering, My food, for My fires; it takes in meat and terumos together at לֶחֶם אֱלֹהָיו (Vayikra 21:22), the food of his God, and likewise מִלֶּחֶם אָבִיהָ תֹּאכֵל (Vayikra 22:13), she eats of her father's food. It settled on bread more than on other foods because bread is the mainstay of what a man eats.

לְהוֹצִיא לֶחֶם מִן־הָאָֽרֶץ (Tehillim 104:14), to bring bread out of the earth, names the end the grass is for, since bread does not come out of the ground but through causes that go before it. So too צֶמַח בְּלִי יַֽעֲשֶׂה־ קֶּמַח (Hoshea 8:7), growth that makes no flour: the end of the growth is the flour, though acts pass into acts before it is reached, and the flour is not the last end either, for the last end is the bread, in what suits a man.

נַשְׁחִיתָה עֵץ בְּלַחְמוֹ (Yirmiyahu 11:19) is let us destroy the tree with its fruit: he takes בְּלַחְמוֹ as בפריו, its fruit. His father reads the words turned about, נשחיתה לחמו בעץ, that is, let us ruin his food with the tree. On that reading the tree is the one called in Arabic דפל"א, which is a deadly poison, and of it was said that Hashem showed him a tree and he cast it into the water (Shemos 15:25), a miracle inside a miracle, as Chazal say (Yelamdenu, Beshalach). Yonasan renders the same way, נִרְמֵי סַמָא דְמוֹתָא בְּמֵיכְלֵיהּ, let us cast deadly poison into his food.

מֵֽאָשֵׁר שְׁמֵנָה לַחְמוֹ (Bereishis 49:20), out of Asher, his bread shall be rich, takes in every food: whatever his land brings out will be rich. שְׁמֵנָה, rich, belongs to his land, as though the pasuk said a rich land will be his bread, the words being cut short as at וּמַֽאֲכָלוֹ בְּרִאָֽה (Chavakuk 1:16), and his food is fat. Or else שְׁמֵנָה is said of לַחְמוֹ, meaning by it an עוּגָה, a cake, or a חַלָּה, a loaf, which is a feminine word; and likewise לֶחֶם תְּנוּפָה שְׁתַּיִם (Vayikra 23:17), two of wave bread, means חַלּוֹת, loaves.

מִלְחָמָה, war, is from this same sense, because in war there is the eating of the sword from this side and from that. The verb from it: לְחַם אֶת־ לֹֽחֲמָֽי (Tehillim 35:1), fight those who fight me, and לֹחֵם יִלְחָצֵֽנִי (Tehillim 56:2), a fighter presses me; and אִם־ נִלְחֹם נִלְחַם בָּֽם (Shoftim 11:25), did he ever fight against them, and וַיִּלָּחֶם עִם־לִבְנָֽה (Yehoshua 10:29), he fought with Livnah. Three he glosses as fighting on someone's behalf: אֲֽשֶׁר־ נִלְחַם אָבִי עֲלֵיכֶם (Shoftim 9:17), that my father fought over you, is בעבורכם, for your sake; כִּי י"י נִלְחָם לָהֶם (Shemos 14:25), for Hashem fights for them, is בעבורם, on their behalf; and יִלָּחֵם לָכֶם (Shemos 14:14), He will fight for you, is on your behalf. וַיִּלָּֽחֲמוּנִי חִנָּֽם (Tehillim 109:3) he glosses וילחמו בי חנם, they fought against me for nothing.

אָז לָחֶם שְׁעָרִים (Shoftim 5:8), then fighting at the gates: Rabbi Yonah writes that לָחֶם is a past verb of the light form, on the measure of יָבֵשׁ חָצִיר (Yeshayahu 40:7), the grass is withered. Rabbi Yonah goes on: though it has a segol, a segol at times comes in place of a tzere; were it of the heavy form the lamed would have a patach, as is usual, but since it has a kamatz it is a past verb of the light form. Radak adds that it may also be a noun on the pattern of חָמֵץ, leaven, so that the words say there was war in the gates, though this one has a segol and that one a tzere.

פָּתוֹת אֹתָהּ פִּתִּים (Vayikra 2:6), break it into pieces, is a sense of cutting and breaking, and so פַת ־לֶחֶם (Bereishis 18:5), a piece of bread, וְאֹכַל פִּתִּי לְבַדִּי (Iyov 31:17), that I ate my morsel alone, and מִפִּתּוֹ תֹאכַל (Shmuel II 12:3), it would eat of his morsel.

מַשְׁלִיךְ קַֽרְחוֹ כְפִתִּים (Tehillim 147:17), casting His ice like morsels, is like a thing broken up into bits; the word in its fuller form is וּבִפְתוֹתֵי לֶחֶם (Yechezkel 13:19), for scraps of bread.

Rabbi Yehudah records another sense in this root, for the heavy form וַֽהֲפִתִּיתָ בִּשְׂפָתֶֽיךָ (Mishlei 24:28), whose regular form would be הֲפִתּוֹתָ, with a cholam. Radak takes it up again under the root פָּתָה, in its proper form. It may also be from the sense given here, breaking and cutting, as suits the pasuk, אַל־תְּהִי עֵֽד־חִנָּם בְּרֵעֶךָ (Mishlei 24:28), be not a witness against your fellow without cause: if you are a witness against him without cause, you break him and strike him with your lips. On that reading, וַֽהֲפִתִּיתָ בִּשְׂפָתֶֽיךָ means and you would break him with your lips.