drawing water

The root's basic sense is return, a going back to what came before, and it comes in three kinds. The first is back to a former place: ויצא יצוא ושוב (Bereishis 8:7), it went out, going and returning; ותשב אליו אל התבה (Bereishis 8:9), she came back to him, to the ark; ודור רביעי ישובו הנה (Bereishis 15:16), the fourth generation shall return here. The second is back to a former condition: עד אשר תשוב חמת אחיך (Bereishis 27:44), until your brother's fury turns back; שוב מחרון אפך (Shemos 32:12), turn back from Your burning anger, that is, to the goodwill there was before; והנה שבה כבשרו (Shemos 4:7), and it had gone back to being like his flesh. Both have three stations and two moves: the thing leaves its first station for a second, then leaves that and goes back to the first.

The third kind has two stations and one move: a thing enters the state it ought to be in, by nature or by right, though it was never there before. One born blind who is healed is said to have שב לראיתו, returned to his sight, though he never saw; since nature calls for sight, it counts as his earlier station, and blindness as a removal from it. So ההשב אשיב את בנך אל הארץ אשר יצאת משם (Bereishis 24:5), shall I bring your son back to the land you came out of?, though Yitzchak had never been there: it was the land of his fathers' birth. So too תשובו לתוכחתי (Mishlei 1:23), turn back to my rebuke, since heeding rebuke is what the soul's nature calls for; and גם אל פיהו לא ישיבנה (Mishlei 19:24), he will not even bring it back to his mouth, since the hand meeting the mouth to eat is a natural need, and so השבה, bringing back, is said of it.

ובשוב צדיק מצדקתו ועשה עול (Yechezkel 18:24), when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does wrong, does not by its plain sense speak of one who was wicked, became righteous and then went back to his wickedness, but of one who was always righteous and became wicked. Nor is ובשוב רשע מרשעתו (Yechezkel 18:27), when a wicked man turns from his wickedness, about one who was righteous, became wicked and turned righteous again because תוהא על הראשונות, he regrets the earlier ones, the reading Chazal give by way of derash (Kiddushin 40b). Rav Pappenheim's account is that man is set in two natures that oppose each other: his good inclination binds him to be good and his evil inclination binds him to be evil. A lifelong tzaddik who turns wicked has returned to the nature that binds him to evil, and a lifelong rasha who turns righteous has returned to the nature that binds him to righteousness, so תשובה, return, is said of both.

There is also a return of words: וישב משה את דברי העם (Shemos 19:8), Moshe brought back the people's words; וישיבו אותם דבר (Bamidbar 13:26), they brought back word to them; משיב דברים נכוחים (Mishlei 24:26), one who gives back straight words. Speech is like a messenger sent to bring something back, and the other man's answer is like the messenger coming back to the one who sent him, so תשובה, return, fits an answer.

With the bet doubled comes the noun שביב: ולא-יגה שביב אשו (Iyov 18:5), the spark of his fire will not shine. It is the spark of light that comes back when it falls on a hard body.

The verb שבב: וילך שובב בדרך לבו (Yeshayahu 57:17), he went on wayward in the way of his heart; שובו בנים שובבים (Yirmiyahu 3:14), return, wayward children. It is error and wandering: one who strives to reach a true goal and does not find it, since nothing he finds is the true one, and he must keep turning back and taking another road. So שובב is from תשובה, return, for he must always go back from the road he set out on. A deranged mind that cannot settle is also שובב: ושובבתיך ונתתי חחים (Yechezkel 38:4), I will turn you about and put hooks in you; משובבת מחרב (Yechezkel 38:8), turned about from the sword; ושבבתיך וששאתיך (Yechezkel 39:2), I will turn you about and lead you on.

So the twisting, confused road, where no way out can be found and one must go back to where one came from, is also שבב: רעיהם התעום הרים שובבום (Yirmiyahu 50:6), their shepherds led them astray, on mountains that turned them about, mountains so tangled that no way out of them is found, going always from mountain to hill and from hill to mountain; and כי שבבים יהיה עגל שמרון (Hoshea 8:6), for the calf of Shomron shall become shevavim, meaning the roads that lead to the calf of Shomron will be confused, and the road that brings one there will not be found.

The noun משבה belongs with these: משבה ישראל (Yirmiyahu 3:6), wayward Israel; ארפה משובתיכם (Yirmiyahu 3:22), I will heal your waywardness; משבה נצחת (Yirmiyahu 8:5), a lasting waywardness; ארפא משובתם (Hoshea 14:5), I will heal their waywardness.

From the first sense, return to what came earlier in time or to the natural state that comes first in rank, other nouns and verbs derive that all share one meaning, ceasing from motion, that is, rest, which is in truth a return to the natural state. Rest is a thing's natural state: a body is by nature at rest of itself, and rest involves no action and needs no cause to come about, while nothing moves without a cause, from outside or within, to move it. So a thing that stops moving is said to have שב, returned, to its natural state, which is rest.

That is the verb ישב, sitting, the end of moving about and the return to rest. Sometimes it is the body not moving, the opposite of walking and standing: יושב פתח האוהל (Bereishis 18:1), sitting at the entrance of the tent; קום נא שבה (Bereishis 27:19), rise, please, sit; וכל כלי אשר תשב עליו (Vayikra 15:20), and any vessel she sits on; היושב על כסאו (Shemos 11:5), who sits on his throne.

Sometimes it is no longer moving from place to place, and then it means staying: לשבת אברם בארץ כנען (Bereishis 16:3), of Avram's dwelling in the land of Canaan; בכל מושבותיכם (Shemos 12:20), in all your dwellings; ואשב בהר (Devarim 9:9), I stayed on the mountain; בסוכות תשבו (Vayikra 23:42), you shall dwell in sukkos; גר ותושב (Bereishis 23:4), a sojourner and a resident. One who stays in a land and fixes his dwelling there is called תושב, resident. So תשב על דמי טהרה (Vayikra 12:5), she shall remain in the blood of purity, means she shall stay.

From the end of moving about comes בשובה ונחת תושעון (Yeshayahu 30:15), in stillness and quiet you shall be saved, that is, מתון מתון (Berachos 20a), slowly, slowly, without much moving about. From this sense too is שובנו אלהי ישענו (Tehillim 85:5), settle us, Elokim of our salvation; and with the bet doubled, נפשי ישובב (Tehillim 23:3), He settles my soul, and לשובב יעקב אליו (Yeshayahu 49:5), to settle Yaakov with Him. Or it is from תשובה, return: לשובב is like להשיב, to bring back, as לרומם is like להרים, to raise, in לרומם את בית אלהינו (Ezra 9:9), to raise up the house of our Elokim.

With a nun, one of the formative letters, comes a verb נשב, from ישיבה, settling: וישב אתם אברם (Bereishis 15:11), and Avram blew them away; כי רוח ה׳ נשבה בו (Yeshayahu 40:7), for the breath of Hashem blew upon it; ישב רוחו יזלו מים (Tehillim 147:18), He makes His wind blow and the waters flow. It is from settling: the wind that moves about enters and settles in the body that receives it.

Also from the stopping of motion is the verb שבה, captivity, which stops free natural movement: כי נשבה אחיו (Bereishis 14:14), that his brother had been taken captive; כשבויות חרב (Bereishis 31:26), like captives of the sword; וישב ממנו שבי (Bamidbar 21:1), he took captives from him; שבות יעקב (Yechezkel 39:25), the captivity of Yaakov; שבות בני עמון (Yirmiyahu 49:6), the captivity of the children of Ammon. Any stopping and cessation of moving by choice and will is called שביה, captivity.

For stopping occupation and the motion of work a tav is added: שבת, ceasing, an end to activity: שבת וינפש (Shemos 31:17), He ceased and rested; ושבתה הארץ (Vayikra 25:2), the land shall rest; תשביתו שאור מבתיכם (Shemos 12:15), you shall clear leaven out of your houses, meaning an end to dealing with leaven; שבת שבתון (Shemos 31:15), a Shabbos of complete rest; שחקו על משבתיה (Eichah 1:7), they mocked at her ceasing.

For stopping plain natural motion there is the verb שאב, drawing water: יוצאות לשאוב מים (Bereishis 24:13), coming out to draw water; עד שואב מימיך (Devarim 29:10), to the one who draws your water; ושאבתם מים בששון (Yeshayahu 12:3), you shall draw water in joy. Water brought into a vessel is stopped from flowing and moving with its natural motion. So the three are set apart by the motion each stops: שביה the movement of choice and will, שבת occupation and work, שאב the plain motion of nature; and Rav Pappenheim calls שאב close to שביה, in which the captive is stopped from the movement of his own choice.