freedom

וּקְרָאתֶם דְּרוֹר (Vayikra 25:10), and you shall proclaim דרור: חופש, freedom.

מָר־דְּרוֹר (Shemos 30:23) is the good myrrh, the myrrh that is free of counterfeit and of anything mixed into it.

וּדְרוֹר קֵן לָהּ (Tehillim 84:4), the deror has a nest of her own, and כַּדְּרוֹר לָעוּף (Mishlei 26:2), like the deror in its flying. It is the name of an unclean bird, the one called irondela in la'az, and it is called דרור because it nests in houses without fear, as though it were free of men and safe from being caught.

חוּר כַּרְפַּס וּתְכֵלֶת (Esther 1:6), white, karpas and blue: חוּר is white, and so Chazal (Megillah 12a) say that he spread for them a couch of white wool; and תְּכֵלֶת וָחוּר (Esther 8:15), blue and white. The verb shows its middle letter in וְלֹא עַתָּה פָּנָיו יֶחֱוָרוּ (Yeshayahu 29:22), and his face shall not now turn white, and the Targum renders לָבָן (Bereishis 30:35), white, as חִוָּר.

Shame is spoken of in the way of whiteness, since a man who feels shame goes white in the face; and so Chazal (Bava Metzia 58b) speak of one who whitens his fellow's face in public.

Rabbi Yonah explains וְאֹרְגִים חוֹרָי (Yeshayahu 19:9), and the weavers of chorai, from whiteness, as white cloth, and סַלֵּי חֹרִי (Bereishis 40:16), baskets of chori, the same way. They could well be white baskets, that is, baskets made of peeled rods, which are white once the bark is off; but Radak holds this a far reading.

From this sense too Rabbi Yonah explains בֶּן־חוֹרִים (Koheles 10:17), a son of nobles, כָּל־חֹרֵי יְהוּדָה וִירוּשָׁלָם (Yirmiyahu 27:20), all the nobles of Yehudah and Yerushalayim, וָאָרִיבָה אֶת־הַחֹרִים (Nechemiah 5:7), and I contended with the nobles, and חֹרֶיהָ וְאֵין־שָׁם מְלוּכָה (Yeshayahu 34:12), her nobles, and no kingship there. Rabbi Yonah says that in the language of Yishmael the princes and the great men are called by a word for whiteness.

The other sense is a hole: וַיִּקֹּב חֹר בְּדַלְתּוֹ (Melachim II 12:10), he bored a hole in its door, וַיְמַלֵּא־טֶרֶף חֹרָיו (Nachum 2:13), he filled his holes with prey, חֹרֵי עָפָר וְכֵפִים (Iyov 30:6), holes of the dust and of the rocks, and מִן־הַחֹרִים אֲשֶׁר הִתְחַבְּאוּ־שָׁם (Shmuel I 14:11), out of the holes where they had hidden. With a shuruk it is עַל־חֻר פָּתֶן (Yeshayahu 11:8), over the hole of an asp, and הָפֵחַ בַּֽחוּרִים כֻּלָּם (Yeshayahu 42:22), all of them snared in holes; the sense is known.

The same two words may be read from the hole instead: וְאֹרְגִים חוֹרָי (Yeshayahu 19:9) would be cloth pierced with holes at the weaving, for ornament, or else the nets, which are holes upon holes, and that suits the passage, as the pasuk before it says וּפֹרְשֵׂי מִכְמֹרֶת עַל־פְּנֵי־מַיִם (Yeshayahu 19:8), and those who spread nets upon the water; and סַלֵּי חֹרִי (Bereishis 40:16) would be pierced baskets, for that is how they are made. It is explained further under the root חרר.

Rabbi Yehudah and Rabbi Yonah put into this root וְחָרָה נְחֻשְׁתָּהּ (Yechezkel 24:11), and its bottom grows hot, וְעַצְמִי־חָרָה מִנִּי־חֹרֶב (Iyov 30:30), and my bone burns with heat, and חָרוּ יֹשְׁבֵי אֶרֶץ (Yeshayahu 24:6), the dwellers of the earth are scorched. Radak holds the right and straight course is to set them among the doubled verbs.

חֹפֵשׂ כָּל־חַדְרֵי־בָֽטֶן (Mishlei 20:27), searching all the chambers of the belly, and וְֽכַמַּטְמוֹנִים תַּחְפְּשֶֽׂנָּה (Mishlei 2:4), and you search her out as men search for hidden treasure. וַיְחַפֵּשׂ בַּגָּדוֹל הֵחֵל (Bereishis 44:12), he searched, beginning with the eldest, and וְחִפַּשְׂתִּי אֹתוֹ בְּכֹל אַלְפֵי יְהוּדָֽה (Shmuel I 23:23), and I will search him out among all the thousands of Yehudah. Of עִם־לְבָבִי אָשִׂיחָה וַיְחַפֵּשׂ רוּחִֽי (Tehillim 77:7) the sense is: if I speak with my heart, he searches my spirit and knows my thought.

The passive is אֵיךְ נֶחְפְּשׂוּ עֵשָׂו, in Ovadiah, how Esav has been searched out, and וּבְקוּם רְשָׁעִים יְחֻפַּשׂ אָדָֽם (Mishlei 28:12), when the wicked rise, a man is searched out. The noun is חֵפֶשׂ, in תַּמְנוּ חֵפֶשׂ מְחֻפָּשׂ (Tehillim 64:7), we have finished a search well searched; its sense is the known one of searching, like inquiry.

The reflexive is of exchanging and changing the veil or the garment for another: וַיִּתְחַפֵּשׂ בָּֽאֲפֵר (Melachim I 20:38), he changed his garb with a covering; וַיִּתְחַפֵּשׂ מֶלֶךְ יִשְׂרָאֵל (Melachim I 22:30), the king of Yisrael changed his garb; וַיִּתְחַפֵּשׂ שָׁאוּל וַיִּלְבַּשׁ בְּגָדִים אֲחֵרִים, Shaul changed his garb and put on other clothes; and בְּרָב־כֹּחַ יִתְחַפֵּשׂ לְבוּשִׁי (Iyov 30:18), by great force my garment is changed.

הִתְחַפֵּשׂ וָבֹא בַמִּלְחָמָה (Melachim I 22:30), to change garb and go into the battle, he reads as an infinitive: the king of Yisrael said he would change his garb and go into the battle, as though he said, I will change my garb and go into the war, and you wear your own garments, since you have no need to change. His father reads it as a command: the king of Yisrael told Yehoshafat to take off his royal clothes and go into the battle, his view being that both of them would change their garb. On that reading Yehoshafat answered, and you wear your garments, if I am to change mine, since one of us should go in with the majesty of kingship; the king of Yisrael did not accept it from him and changed his garb, and when Yehoshafat saw that, he did not take off his royal clothes, and it was for this that the officers of the chariots thought Yehoshafat was the king of Yisrael, until he cried out and they knew his voice.

וְעֶבֶד חָפְשִׁי מֵֽאֲדֹנָֽיו (Iyov 3:19), and the slave is free of his master, and הָֽעִבְרִי וְהָֽעִבְרִיָּה חָפְשִׁים (Yirmiyahu 34:9), the Hebrew man and the Hebrew woman going free. בַּמֵּתִים חָפְשִׁי (Tehillim 88:6), free among the dead, he explains as free of the toil of the world, as it says, ושם ינוחו יגיעי כח, and there the weary of strength are at rest; and so, he says, is וְעֶבֶד חָפְשִׁי מֵֽאֲדֹנָֽיו.

יֵצֵא לַֽחָפְשִׁי (Shemos 21:2), he shall go out to be free, he explains as going out to a place where he will be free, that is, out of his master's house to his own house. Some explain that the yud is added and the word is like לחופש, to freedom; others say the lamed is added.

כִּי־לֹא חֻפָּֽשָׁה (Vayikra 19:20), because she was not set free, and the noun אוֹ חֻפְשָׁה לֹא נִתַּן־לָהּ (Vayikra 19:20), or freedom was not given her, on the pattern of טֻמְאָה, uncleanness. The heh may be the feminine suffix, her freedom, though it is soft, for he has written of many like it in the grammar; חֻפְשָׁה would then be joined from חֹפֶשׁ, as מְלֹא קֻמְצוֹ (Vayikra 5:12), the full of his fist, is from קֹמֶץ, and כְּרֹב גֻּדְּלֽוֹ (Tehillim 150:2), according to His abundant greatness, is from גֹּדֶל.

בְבִגְדֵי־ חֹפֶשׁ לְרִכְבָּֽה (Yechezkel 27:20), garments of freedom for riding, are costly clothes, the kind fit for a free man and a nobleman. בְּבֵית הַֽחָפְשִׁית (Melachim II 15:5), in the house of freedom, is so called because he kept apart there from people, as though free of their company. Rabbi Yonah reads it otherwise, a small house, from the Arabic, where a small house is called חפשי. The Yerushalmi (Kesubos 34a) says he made him a house in the graveyard, as you say בַּמֵּתִים חָפְשִׁי, free among the dead.

וְעַצְמִי־ חָרָה מִנִּי־חֹֽרֶב (Iyov 30:30), my bone is burnt with heat; וְחָרָה נְחֻשְׁתָּהּ (Yechezkel 24:11), and its copper is burnt; עַל־כֵּן חָרוּ ישְׁבֵי אֶרֶץ (Yeshayahu 24:6), therefore the dwellers of the earth are scorched. In the passive, וְהָֽעֲצָמוֹת יֵחָֽרוּ (Yechezkel 24:10), the bones will be burnt; and with a chirik under the nun, נִחַר גְּרוֹנִי (Tehillim 69:4), my throat is scorched, and וְעַצְמוֹתַי כְּמוֹקֵד נִחָֽרוּ (Tehillim 102:4), my bones are burnt as a hearth.

נָחַר מַפֻּחַ (Yirmiyahu 6:29), the bellows is scorched: the instrument they blow the fire with is kindled and burnt from standing so long in the fire, and the lead is spent, the lead the smiths put in with the silver in refining it so that the fire should not destroy the silver; and for all that, the wicked are not drawn off. It is a mashal for Yisrael. The navi speaks to them הַשְׁכֵּם וְהַֽעֲרֵב, early and late, until he is as one burnt up from speaking to them, his throat scorched from calling to them without stopping, as it says elsewhere עַל־כֵּן חָצַבְתִּי בַּנְּבִיאִים הֲרַגְתִּים בְּאִמְרֵי־פִי (Hoshea 6:5), therefore I hewed at them by the nevi'im, I slew them with the words of My mouth; and with all this they take no rebuke and do not believe the navi's voice.

The noun is וְשָׁכַן חֲרֵרִים בַּמִּדְבָּר (Yirmiyahu 17:6), he dwells in the scorched places of the wilderness, a sense of burning and kindling from much heat; the singular of חררים is חָרֵר or חֲרָרָה. From this the cake baked on the coals is called חֲרָרָה, as in ולא חררה על גבי גחלים (Shabbos 1:10), nor a cake upon coals, and it is called so because its face is scorched. The Talmud Yerushalmi explains סַלֵּי חֹרִי (Bereishis 40:16), baskets of חֹרִי, and its meaning, as Radak gives it, is that the baskets were full of חררות, such cakes.

With the first root letter doubled, לְחַרְחַר ־רִֽיב (Mishlei 26:21), to kindle a quarrel and set it burning; the patach under the second ches stands in place of a tzere. From the same, וּבַֽחַרְחֻר וּבַחֶרֶב (Devarim 28:22), and with burning and with the sword: a sickness that burns from much heat.