gift

וַיֵּשְׁתְּ מִן־הַיַּיִן וַיִּשְׁכָּר (Bereishis 9:21), he drank of the wine and became drunk. But שָׁכְרוּ וְלֹא־יַיִן (Yeshayahu 29:9) is that they are drunk and not from wine, and וּשְׁכֻרַת וְלֹא מִיָּיִן (Yeshayahu 51:21) is one drunk with troubles and not with wine. Where the verb takes an object it is to make drunk: וְהִשְׁכַּרְתִּים לְמַעַן יַעֲלֹזוּ (Yirmiyahu 51:39), I will make them drunk that they may exult, and אַשְׁכִּיר חִצַּי מִדָּם (Devarim 32:42), I will make My arrows drunk with blood.

Being drunk with wine, he says, is to drink what being sated is to food; but a man may drink until he neither feels nor understands. וְהוּא שִׁכֹּר עַד־מְאֹד (Shmuel I 25:36), he was very drunk, and וַיַּחְשְׁבֶהָ עֵלִי לְשִׁכֹּרָה (Shmuel I 1:13), Eli took her for a drunken woman.

Wine is called שֵׁכָר because it makes drunk: שֵׁכָר יִרְדֹּפוּ (Yeshayahu 5:11), they run after intoxicating drink. A drink made from fruit that makes drunk carries the name as well. In יַיִן וְשֵׁכָר אַל־תֵּשְׁתְּ (Vayikra 10:9), drink no wine or intoxicating drink, the word takes in everything that intoxicates, even what is not wine, as Chazal say (Nazir 4a): one who ate pressed figs of Keilah, or drank milk or honey, and entered the Mikdash is liable.

בַּקֹּדֶשׁ הַסֵּךְ נֶסֶךְ שֵׁכָר (Bamidbar 28:7), in the holy place pour a libation of intoxicating drink: a libation of wine that makes drunk, and it is חי, undiluted, as the Sifri says on Pinchas: the quarter of a hin, undiluted you pour it and not the mixed. So too Midrash Rabbah (Naso) on מִיַּיִן וְשֵׁכָר יַזִּיר, from wine and intoxicating drink he shall abstain: Rabbi Elazar HaKappar says יַיִן is the mixed and שֵׁכָר the undiluted; the reverse is raised, and the pasuk of the quarter of a hin, poured undiluted, settles it the first way and not the other.

אֶשְׁכָּר יַקְרִיבוּ (Tehillim 72:10), they shall bring a gift, and הֵשִׁיבוּ אֶשְׁכָּרֵךְ (Yechezkel 27:15), they brought back your gift. He glosses it a מנחה, an offering, and says the word may have four root letters.

וַיָּכִינוּ אֶת־ הַמִּנְחָה (Bereishis 43:25), and they made ready the gift, and אַל־תֵּפֶן אֶל־ מִנְחָתָם (Bamidbar 16:15), do not turn to their offering: of this word some say the mem is of the root. It may rather be added, the root being נָחָה, and that is the closer to the sense, since מנחה is of the sense of נחה, just as it is also called אֲרוּחָה, from the sense of אָרַח. But the truth cannot be settled, because the plural is not found in Scripture.

Since they read מנחות in the Mishnah with a sheva under the mem, and so it is read in every mouth, מְנָחוֹת, the mem looks to be of the root: as from גִּבְעָה you say גְּבָעוֹת, so from מִנְחָה you say מְנָחוֹת. Were the mem added, it should have carried a chirik, as מִצְוָה gives מִצְוֹת and מַחְתָּה gives מַחְתּוֹת.

The evening olah is called מנחה: הַקְטֵר אֶת־עֹֽלַת־הַבֹּקֶר וְאֶת־ מִנְחַת הָעֶרֶב (Melachim II 16:15), burn the morning olah and the evening minchah, and מַֽשְׂאַת כַּפַּי מִנְחַת ־עָֽרֶב (Tehillim 141:2), the lifting of my hands as an evening offering. וַיְהִי בַּֽעֲלוֹת הַמִּנְחָה וַיִּגַּשׁ אֵֽלִיָּהוּ הַנָּבִיא (Melachim I 18:36), and it was at the going up of the minchah that Eliyahu HaNavi came near, means at the time the מנחה went up. The morning olah too is called מנחה: וַיְהִי בַבֹּקֶר כַּֽעֲלוֹת הַמִּנְחָה, and it was in the morning, as the minchah went up, means at the hour they offer the morning minchah.

The prayer of מנחה is so called because it falls at the hour the evening מנחה goes up, והוא עת נטות השמש, the time the sun turns down. So וַֽאֲנִי ישֵׁב מְשׁוֹמֵם עַד לְמִנְחַת הָעָֽרֶב (Ezra 9:4), I sat appalled until the evening מנחה, and וּבְמִנְחַת הָעֶרֶב קַמְתִּי מִתַּֽעֲנִיתִי (Ezra 9:5), at the evening מנחה I rose from my fast.

On וְאֹיְבַי תַּתָּה לִּי עֹרֶף (Shmuel II 22:41), and my enemies, You gave me their back, he notes בחסרון הקצוות, with the ends missing, not as the past tense usually runs. וַאֲנַחְנוּ נִתַּן ־לָךְ (Shoftim 16:5), and we will give you, carries a patach, לגזרת אֶפְעַל, for the אפעל pattern. And לְתִתֵּן שָׁם אֶת־אֲרוֹן בְּרִית (Melachim I 6:19), to set there the ark of the covenant, he calls an infinitive with the nun added.

וַיִּתֶּן ־יָד (Bereishis 38:28), he put out a hand; תְּנָה אֶת־יָדֶךָ (Melachim II 10:15), give your hand; נָתְנוּ יָד תַּחַת שְׁלֹמֹה (Divrei HaYamim I 29:24), they gave the hand under Shlomo; and מִצְרַיִם נָתַנּוּ יָד (Eichah 5:6), to Mitzrayim we gave the hand. He sets them in a row and glosses none of them.

נִתְּנָה רֹאשׁ (Bamidbar 14:4), let us set a head; וְנָתוֹן אֹתוֹ עַל כָּל־אֶרֶץ מִצְרָֽיִם (Bereishis 41:43), setting him over all the land of Mitzrayim; תְּנוּ אֶת־אֲרֽוֹן־הַקֹּדֶשׁ בַּבַּיִת (Divrei HaYamim II 35:3), put the holy ark in the house; נְתֻנִים נְתֻנִים הֵמָּה לִי (Bamidbar 8:16), given, given they are to Me; and שְֽׂאוּ־זִמְרָה וּתְנוּ ־תֹף (Tehillim 81:3), raise a song and sound the drum.

כְּבוֹד הַלְּבָנוֹן נִתַּן ־לָהּ (Yeshayahu 35:2), the glory of Levanon was given her; וְהִוא לֹֽא־ נִתְּנָה לוֹ לְאִשָּֽׁה (Bereishis 38:14), and she was not given him to wife; תֶּבֶן אֵין נִתָּן לַֽעֲבָדֶיךָ (Shemos 5:16), no straw is given your servants; and הִנָּתֹן תִּנָּתֵן הָעִיר הַזֹּאת (Yirmiyahu 38:3), this city will surely be given. Where the doer is not named, וְכִי יֻֽתַּן ־מַיִם עַל־זֶרַע (Vayikra 11:38), if water be put on seed.

וּמִן־ הַנְּתִינִים שֶׁנָּתַן דָּוִיד וְהַשָּׂרִים לַֽעֲבֹדַת הַֽלְוִיִּם (Ezra 8:20), of the Nesinim whom David and the officers gave for the service of the Leviim. The nouns are מֹהַר וּמַתָּן (Bereishis 34:12), bride price and gift; תְּרוּמַת מַתָּנָם (Bamidbar 18:11), the offering of their gift; עֲבֹדַת מַתָּנָה (Bamidbar 18:7), a service of gift; אִישׁ כְּמַתְּנַת יָדוֹ (Devarim 16:17), each man according to the gift of his hand; and in another pattern וְאֶתְּנָה לְךָ מַתָּֽת (Melachim I 13:7), and I will give you a gift.

שָׁרִים וְשָׁרוֹת (Koheles 2:8), men singers and women singers, and אָז יָשִׁיר מֹשֶׁה (Shemos 15:1), then Moshe sang. The nouns are שִׁיר and שִׁירָה, a song.

אֲשׁוּרֶנּוּ וְלֹא קָרוֹב (Bamidbar 24:17), I behold him but not near. יָשׁוּר כְּשַׁךְ יְקוּשִׁים (Yirmiyahu 5:26) he glosses: he watches as a man who sets a trap watches the birds when they settle, and so do they watch and lie in wait for men. Their sense, he says, is looking and observing, and from it אֱלֹהִים יַרְאֵנִי בְשֹׁרְרָי (Tehillim 59:11), Elokim will let me see those who watch me, means my enemies, since an enemy watches his enemy and observes him for harm.

וּתְשׁוּרָה אֵין לְהָבִיא (Shmuel I 9:7), and there is no present to bring, תְּשׁוּרָה being as a minchah, a gift. Rabbi Yonah writes that וַתָּשֻׁרִי לַמֶּלֶךְ בַּשֶּׁמֶן (Yeshayahu 57:9) is of this sense, that you offered a minchah before him, and Rav Saadiah Gaon explains it so too. Radak holds that the right reading is that ותשורי is as ותלכי, and you went to the king with oil; and so תָּשׁוּרִי מֵרֹאשׁ אֲמָנָה, you shall go from the top of Amanah, and יָשֹׁר עַל אֲנָשִׁים, he goes to men and confesses before them. From this sense of going, he says, a gift is called תשורה, because a man brings it. It may be, too, that יָשׁוּר כְּשַׁךְ יְקוּשִׁים (Yirmiyahu 5:26) is of going: they go about while the trappers rest, the trappers being those who spread the nets, who rest and set no trap at night, whereas these go about all night to catch men.

Of going too: אֳנִיּוֹת תַּרְשִׁישׁ שָׁרוֹתַיִךְ (Yechezkel 27:25), the ships of Tarshish were your caravans, which he explains as the caravans that travel in trade; the Targum renders אֹרְחַת יִשְׁמְעֵאלִים, a caravan of Yishmaelim, by שְׁיָרַת עֲרָבָאֵי, a caravan of Arabs. Those who go by sea are called a caravan too, since many ships go together. It may also be read as those that encamp by you, from the Targum's וּשְׁרָא for וַיִּחַן (Shemos 19:2), and he encamped.

בָּנוֹת צָעֲדָה עֲלֵי שׁוּר (Bereishis 49:22), daughters stride upon the wall, where שׁוּר is a wall, as the Targum of חוֹמָה is שׁוּרִין. עִקְּרוּ שׁוֹר (Bereishis 49:6), spelled with a cholam, he puts under the wall as well: they uprooted a wall. From this sense is בֵּין שׁוּרֹתָם יַצְהִירוּ (Iyov 24:11), between their walls they make oil, שׁוּרֹת being the plural of שׁוּר: for fear of the wicked they bring the olives in and make the oil between the walls. Some explain it as between the rows of the olive trees, from Chazal's word שורה, a row (Pesachim 1:1, 2a). And שׁוֹר אוֹ כֶשֶׂב אוֹ עֵז (Vayikra 17:3), an ox or a sheep or a goat, is the ox. Rabbi Yaakov ben Elazar puts עִקְּרוּ שׁוֹר under the ox, as a figure for a ruler, as Tanach calls great princes rams and he-goats; some take it as a real ox, that they hamstrung the cattle.

שָׂרִים עָצְרוּ בְמִלִּים (Iyov 29:9), princes held back their words, and וַיָּשַׂר אֲבִימֶלֶךְ (Shoftim 9:22), Avimelech ruled. Where the verb takes an object it is to set someone in rule: הֵשִׂירוּ וְלֹא יָדָעְתִּי (Hoshea 8:4), they made princes and I did not know, that is, they set a prince over themselves and not by My leave. Two he reads here are written with a samech: יָסֹר בַּמַּשָּׂא (Divrei HaYamim I 15:22), he was chief in the מַשָּׂא, which Radak says is that he was a prince and eminent in prophecy, or in the raising of the voice in song; and כֻּלָּם סָרֵי סוֹרְרִים (Yirmiyahu 6:28), all of them are סָרֵי סוֹרְרִים, which he reads as שרים סוררים, rebellious princes, and so the Targum, כָּל רַבְרְבֵיהוֹן מָרְדִין, all their great ones rebel. Radak says he has explained that pasuk at the root נחשׁ.

בַּמִּשְׁקָל וּבַמְּשׂוּרָה (Vayikra 19:35), in weight and in measure. A מְשׂוּרָה is a measure, but a very small one, as Chazal say (Bava Metzia 61b) that it is a thirty-third part of a log. וּמַיִם בִּמְשׂוּרָה תִשְׁתֶּה (Yechezkel 4:11), and you shall drink water by measure, does not mean that the measure is a sixth of a hin: he is to drink no more than a sixth of a hin in a day, and to drink it little by little, by the measure. In וּלְכָל מְשׂוּרָה וּמִדָּה (Divrei HaYamim I 23:29), and for every measure, small and large, משורה is said of the small measures and מדה of the large.

In וְשָׂם חִטָּה שׂוֹרָה (Yeshayahu 28:25), and he sets the wheat שׂוֹרָה, some take the last word from ruling: fine and choice wheat. Rabbi Yonah sets it with the measures instead, like what the pasuk says next, וּשְׂעֹרָה נִסְמָן וְכֻסֶּמֶת גְּבֻלָתוֹ, and barley in its marked place and spelt at its border.

כִּי שָׂכֹר שְׂכַרְתִּיךָ (Bereishis 30:16), for I have surely hired you, and בְּיוֹמוֹ תִתֵּן שְׂכָרוֹ (Devarim 24:15), on his day you shall give him his wage. A hired man is שָׂכִיר: אִם שָׂכִיר הוּא (Shemos 22:14), if he is a hired man; the nouns are שָׂכָר and שֶׂכֶר, a wage, and מַשְׂכֻּרְתֶּךָ, your wages. שְׂבֵעִים בַּלֶּחֶם נִשְׂכָּרוּ (Shmuel I 2:5), those who were sated hired themselves out for bread. From this too, though written with a samech, is וְסֹכְרִים עֲלֵיהֶם יוֹעֲצִים (Ezra 4:5), and hiring counsellors against them.

וְשֹׂכֵר כְּסִיל וְשֹׂכֵר עֹבְרִים (Mishlei 26:10), and one who hires a fool and hires עֹבְרִים. Rabbi Yonah explains: the רב of the pasuk, the great man of the people, is מחולל to all and rules them; he pays the fool and forces him into his service, and likewise hires the עוברים, who are the refusers. Of the same kind is מַדּוּעַ אַתָּה עוֹבֵר אֵת מִצְוַת הַמֶּלֶךְ (Esther 3:3), why do you transgress the king's command. Radak's brother Rabbi Moshe joins it to the pasuk above it, חוֹחַ עָלָה בְיַד שִׁכּוֹר וּמָשָׁל בְּפִי כְסִילִים (Mishlei 26:9), a thorn goes up into a drunkard's hand, and a proverb in the mouth of fools, and takes רב as many: the fool who tells many proverbs is מחולל to everyone, like a thorn in a drunkard's hand; and one who hires the fool for his proverbs and pays the עוברים, the refusers who transgress the commandments and whom he has no power to compel, are one, this like that. Radak has written another explanation besides these under the root חול. Rav Saadiah Gaon also joins it to the pasuk before: when a word of wisdom comes into the fool's hand he is מתחולל with it and turns it over and does not understand it, like the drunkard with a thorn in his hand who drives it into his nails and between his fingers and does not feel it; and for all that he begrudges that word to one who does not know it, and pains everyone with it, which is רב מחולל כל, since he angers people's hearts with it, and he shuts his mouth from teaching it to the fool and to the wayfarers who ask him. Rav Saadiah takes שוכר from כִּי יִסָּכֵר פִּי דוֹבְרֵי שָׁקֶר (Tehillim 63:12), for the mouth of those who speak falsehood will be stopped.

גַּם שְׂכִרֶיהָ בְקִרְבָּהּ (Yirmiyahu 46:21), her hired men too in her midst: even the troops hired to fight for them were like fatted calves that cannot fight, for they too turned and fled together; the navi likens them to fatted calves because one who is fat and pampered with food and pleasures cannot fight. Some explain שכיריה as גמליה ונכבדיה, her camels and her honoured ones, and so the Targum renders it, אַף רַבְרְבָהָא בְגַוָהּ, even her great ones in her midst.

בְּתַעַר הַשְּׂכִירָה (Yeshayahu 7:20), with the hired razor, because the razor a man hires is the good and sharpened one. On the other reading, the one that takes שכיריה as her honoured ones and her great ones, בתער השכירה is likewise explained as the great razor.

Another sense: כָּל עֹשֵׂי שֶׂכֶר (Yeshayahu 19:10), all who make שֶׂכֶר. Radak has explained it already under the letter samech, with וַיִּסָּכְרוּ מַעְיְנֹת תְּהוֹם (Bereishis 8:2), the fountains of the deep were stopped up. It may also be read as a net, עושי שכר being men who make nets to catch fish. In the words of Chazal (Sanhedrin 95a), יומא חד נפק לשכר בזאי, one day he went out לשכר בזאי; Radak explains: שכר is a net, and בזאי is the name of a bird with which nobles hunt other birds, a hawk or the like, so that he went out to hunt with a net. And so the Baal HaAruch explains it.

וַיֵּשְׁתְּ מִן־הַיַּיִן וַיִּשְׁכָּר (Bereishis 9:21), he drank of the wine and became drunk. But שָׁכְרוּ וְלֹא־יַיִן (Yeshayahu 29:9) is that they are drunk and not from wine, and וּשְׁכֻרַת וְלֹא מִיָּיִן (Yeshayahu 51:21) is one drunk with troubles and not with wine. Where the verb takes an object it is to make drunk: וְהִשְׁכַּרְתִּים לְמַעַן יַעֲלֹזוּ (Yirmiyahu 51:39), I will make them drunk that they may exult, and אַשְׁכִּיר חִצַּי מִדָּם (Devarim 32:42), I will make My arrows drunk with blood.

Being drunk with wine, he says, is to drink what being sated is to food; but a man may drink until he neither feels nor understands. וְהוּא שִׁכֹּר עַד־מְאֹד (Shmuel I 25:36), he was very drunk, and וַיַּחְשְׁבֶהָ עֵלִי לְשִׁכֹּרָה (Shmuel I 1:13), Eli took her for a drunken woman.

Wine is called שֵׁכָר because it makes drunk: שֵׁכָר יִרְדֹּפוּ (Yeshayahu 5:11), they run after intoxicating drink. A drink made from fruit that makes drunk carries the name as well. In יַיִן וְשֵׁכָר אַל־תֵּשְׁתְּ (Vayikra 10:9), drink no wine or intoxicating drink, the word takes in everything that intoxicates, even what is not wine, as Chazal say (Nazir 4a): one who ate pressed figs of Keilah, or drank milk or honey, and entered the Mikdash is liable.

בַּקֹּדֶשׁ הַסֵּךְ נֶסֶךְ שֵׁכָר (Bamidbar 28:7), in the holy place pour a libation of intoxicating drink: a libation of wine that makes drunk, and it is חי, undiluted, as the Sifri says on Pinchas: the quarter of a hin, undiluted you pour it and not the mixed. So too Midrash Rabbah (Naso) on מִיַּיִן וְשֵׁכָר יַזִּיר, from wine and intoxicating drink he shall abstain: Rabbi Elazar HaKappar says יַיִן is the mixed and שֵׁכָר the undiluted; the reverse is raised, and the pasuk of the quarter of a hin, poured undiluted, settles it the first way and not the other.

אֶשְׁכָּר יַקְרִיבוּ (Tehillim 72:10), they shall bring a gift, and הֵשִׁיבוּ אֶשְׁכָּרֵךְ (Yechezkel 27:15), they brought back your gift. He glosses it a מנחה, an offering, and says the word may have four root letters.