eleven

כְּיָמִים אֲחָדִים (Bereishis 29:20), that is, they were in his eyes like a few days. וְהָיוּ לַֽאֲחָדִים בְּיָדֶֽךָ, and they shall be as one in your hand, means מחוברים בדבר אחד, joined in one thing. Where the alef falls away, וְדִבֶּר־חַד אֶת־ אַחַד (Yechezkel 33:30), one speaking with another.

הִתְאַֽחֲדִי הֵימִנִי (Yechezkel 21:21), keep yourself alone, go to the right: that is, התבודדי באחד המקומות, take yourself off alone to one of the places.

אַל־תֵּחַד כְּבֹדִי (Bereishis 49:6), let my honour not be joined to them, has its root and its sense here, on the pattern of אֵהָב (Mishlei 8:17), I will love. אַל־ יִחַדְּ בִּימֵי שָׁנָה (Iyov 3:6), let it not be joined among the days of the year, is set here too, its doubled dalet only setting the reading right, since the word is stressed on the earlier syllable, as he wrote in the grammar; but it is good to take it from חָדָה, of joy, let it not rejoice among the days of the year, while אַל־תֵּחַד כְּבֹדִי stays with this root.

אַחַת אֶל־ אֶחָֽת (Shemos 36:12), one to another, would properly be אַחֶדֶת, the dalet dropping and the tav being the sign of the feminine. In his own view אחת is a word derived on its own and not from אחד at all, but from אח, as וְעָשָׂה אָח מֵאַחַד מֵאֵֽלֶּה (Yechezkel 18:10), and does one of any of these: אח said of the masculine and אחת of the feminine, since from אחד no feminine form is found. Yonasan rendered that pasuk as it sounds, וְיַעְבֵּד לַאֲחוּהִי מֵחֲדָא מֵאִלֵין, and does to his brother one of these.

שָֽׁמְנוּ עָֽשְׁתוּ (Yirmiyahu 5:28), they grew fat, they grew bright: he glosses עָֽשְׁתוּ as צחו וזכו, they became bright and clear. בַּרְזֶל עָשׁוֹת (Yechezkel 27:19) is iron that is clear and burnished, עָשׁוֹת being a description of the iron weighed like רָחוֹק, far, and קָרוֹב, near. It is the metal called in la'az אציי"ר, or the iron called in Arabic הינד"י. Yonasan renders בְּעַרְקִין דְבַרְזֶל, which Radak explains as שבטי ברזל, rods of iron, like וְגִיד בַּרְזֶל עָרְפֶּךָ (Yeshayahu 48:4), your neck a sinew of iron; and so in the words of Chazal (Yoma 34b), עששית של ברזל היו מחמין מערב יום הכפורים, they would heat a piece of iron from erev Yom Kippur.

עֶשֶׁת שֵׁן (Shir HaShirim 5:14), which he takes as like the clearness of ivory. On another pattern, לְעַשְׁתּוּת שַֽׁאֲנָן (Iyov 12:5), weighed like עַבְדּוּת, servitude: Iyov says of himself that he is לַפִּיד בּוּז, a torch of contempt, and that before this he was for the clearness and pleasantness of the quiet and untroubled, and now he is נָכוֹן לְמוֹעֲדֵי רָֽגֶל, ready for those whose foot slips.

אוּלַי יִתְעַשֵּׁת הָֽאֱלֹהִים לָנוּ (Yonah 1:6), perhaps Elokim will take thought for us: He will be appeased and take thought for us, for the will lies in the thought. אָבְדוּ עֶשְׁתֹּנֹתָֽיו (Tehillim 146:4), his thoughts perish; like it in Aramaic is וּמַלְכָּא עֲשִׁית לַֽהֲקָמוּתֵהּ (Daniel 6:4), and the king thought and wished to set him up; and the Targum of כִּי־אַֽחֲרֵי מַחְשְׁבוֹתֵינוּ (Yirmiyahu 18:12), for after our thoughts, is בָתַר עַשְׁתּוֹנָתָא נְהַךְ, after the thoughts we will go.

לְעַשְׁתֵּֽי ־עָשָׂר חֹדֶשׁ (Zecharyah 1:7), the eleventh month, and עַשְׁתֵּֽי ־עֶשְׂרֵה יְרִיעֹת (Shemos 26:7), eleven curtains: eleven is called so because it is the counter's thought, the first thing that rises in his heart to count after ten, ten being the end of the number. Rabbi Yonah explained the word from שתי, two, and Radak says he has already broken Rabbi Yonah's words in the part on grammar.