locust

One line, on יֶתֶר הַגָּזָם (Yoel 1:4), what the gazam left, of which he says הוא מין ארבה, it is a kind of locust.

וְאֶת־ הֶֽחָגָב לְמִינֵֽהוּ (Vayikra 11:22), and the chagav after its kind, is one of the kinds of locust.

וְיִסְתַּבֵּל הֶֽחָגָב (Koheles 12:5), the chagav shall be a burden, has been read (Shabbos 152a) as though the word were עגב, as in וַתַּעְגְּבָה עֲלֵיהֶם (Yechezkel 23:16), she lusted after them, so that it hints at the organ of relations. Radak holds the plain meaning is the right one, and says he will explain the word at the root סבל.

כִּי יַחְסְלֶנּוּ הָֽאַרְבֶּֽה (Devarim 28:38), for the locust will make an end of it, is יכרתנו ויכלנו, it will cut it off and finish it. That is why the kind of locust that destroys most is called חָסִיל, as in וְהֶֽחָסִיל וְהַגָּזָם (Yoel 2:25), the chasil and the gazam.

Chazal asked why it is called חָסִיל and answered שהוא חוסל הכל, that it makes an end of everything; and of another of its names, גובי דהוא גבי דינא דמריה, that it collects its Master's due. From this comes the way of saying that a thing is done and complete, חסלת סדר פלוני או מסכת פלונית, such a seder is finished, or such a masechta.

Beside the dogs stands הַמֲלַקְקִים בְּיָדָם אֶל־פִּיהֶם (Shoftim 7:6), those who licked with their hand to their mouth.

יָמָיו כְּצֵל עוֹבֵֽר (Tehillim 144:4), his days are like a passing shadow, is like the shadow that passes quickly as the sunlight spreads. It can also be read as the shadow of a bird passing in its flight, and so it was explained in the Midrash: כהדין עופא דעבר בטוליה וטוליה עבר עמיה, like that bird which passes by with its shadow, and its shadow passes along with it. So כִּי יִנָּטוּ צִלְלֵי ־עָֽרֶב (Yirmiyahu 6:4), for the shadows of evening stretch out; יְסֻכֻּהוּ צֶאֱלִים צִלְלוֹ (Iyov 40:22), the shade trees cover him with their shadow; וְלֹֽא־יַֽאֲרִיךְ יָמִים כַּצֵּל (Koheles 8:13), he will not lengthen his days, like a shadow; בְּצֵל קֹֽרָתִֽי (Bereishis 19:8), in the shade of my roof; סָר צִלָּם מֵֽעֲלֵיהֶם (Bamidbar 14:9), their shadow has turned away from them; וְנָסוּ הַצְּלָלִים (Shir HaShirim 2:17), and the shadows flee.

בְּצֵל הַֽחָכְמָה בְּצֵל הַכָּסֶף (Koheles 7:12), in the shade of wisdom, in the shade of money, means that a man rests in the shade of wisdom when he is also in the shade of money and has enough for his needs: he is better received by others when he has no need of them, and he can occupy himself with wisdom when he has what to live on. So the other pasuk says, טוֹבָה חָכְמָה עִם־נַֽחֲלָה (Koheles 7:11), wisdom is good with an inheritance; and even so, the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom by itself keeps its owner alive.

הוֹי אֶרֶץ צִלְצַל כְּנָפָיִם (Yeshayahu 18:1), woe, land that shades with wings, is a land that casts shade over the world with the great number of its wings, a figure for the quantity of goods and wares that go out from it to other lands. Targum Yonasan rendered it דְאָתָן לָהּ בִּסְפִינָן מֵאַרְעָא רְחִיקָא וְקִלְעֵיהוֹן פְּרִיסָן כְּנִשְׁרָא דְטָאִיס בְּכַנְפוֹהִי, that they come to it in ships from a far land, their sails spread like an eagle flying with its wings.

כַּֽאֲשֶׁר צָֽלְלוּ שַֽׁעֲרֵי יְרֽוּשָׁלַם (Nechemiah 13:19), when the gates of Yerushalayim grew shadowed, is that the sun had set; and וְחֹרֶשׁ מֵצַל (Yechezkel 31:3), a thicket casting shade, is the form that means making shade, or else it may be a word of description.

Another sense: לְקוֹל צָֽלְלוּ שְׂפָתַי (Chavakuk 3:16), at the sound my lips quivered; תִּצַּלְנָה שְׁתֵּי אָזְנָֽיו (Melachim II 21:12), both his ears will ring; תִּצַּלְנָה אָזְנָֽיו (Yirmiyahu 19:3), his ears will ring; תְּצִלֶּינָה שְׁתֵּי אָזְנָֽיו (Shmuel I 3:11), both his ears will ring. The sense is the motion of a noise, which he names in the vernacular. The noun is צְלִיל (Shoftim 7:13): the noise of a לֶחֶם שְׂעֹרִים, a barley loaf, which was heard and then seen turning over in the camp of Midian. He takes the word up again under the root צָלָה.

From this come מְצִלּוֹת הַסּוּס (Zecharyah 14:20), the bells of the horse, the jingles hung on a horse that knock against each other. So too, with the first root letter doubled, וּבִמְנַֽעַנְעִים וּבְצֶלְצֶלִֽים (Shmuel II 6:5), with rattles and with cymbals, and בְצִֽלְצְלֵי ־שָׁמַע (Tehillim 150:5), sounding cymbals: two bronze vessels struck one against the other to make a sound, as the Mishnah says, הקיש בן ארזא בצלצל (Shekalim 5:1), ben Arza struck the cymbal. But בְּֽצִלְצְלֵי תְרוּעָֽה (Tehillim 150:5), with the tziltzelim of the blast, speaks of the trumpets. בַּֽמְצִלְתַּיִם (Ezra 3:10), with cymbals, and בִּמְצִלְתַּיִם נְחֹשֶׁת לְהַשְׁמִֽיעַ (Divrei HaYamim I 15:19), with bronze cymbals to sound out, drop the doubled letter, and the word stands in the form of two because they are a pair struck together.

A further sense is sinking: צָֽלֲלוּ כַּֽעוֹפֶרֶת (Shemos 15:10), they sank like lead, and with it כַּֽאֲשֶׁר צָֽלְלוּ שַֽׁעֲרֵי יְרֽוּשָׁלַם (Nechemiah 13:19), when the gates of Yerushalayim sank; Rabbi Yehudah brought the two so too. On that reading the gates of Yerushalayim were sunk away from being entered, which is to say that it was evening. Radak holds that the right reading of that pasuk is the one given above, from צֵל, shade.

וּבְצִלְצַל דָּגִים רֹאשֽׁוֹ (Iyov 40:31), and his head with a fish tziltzal, is a tool with which a fish is speared in the water and lifted out, which he names in the vernacular; and there are those who say it is a vessel made of rods that the fish's head goes into and is caught in.

אֲשֶׁר צָפַנְתָּ לִּירֵאֶיךָ (Tehillim 31:20), what You have stored up for those who fear You, and וּמִצְוֹתַי תִּצְפֹּן אִתָּךְ (Mishlei 2:1), and store up my commandments with you. The sense of all of them, he says, is concealing and putting away.

His father reads נִצְפְּנָה לְנָקִי חִנָּם (Mishlei 1:11) and יִצְפְּנוּ לְנַפְשֹׁתָם (Mishlei 1:18) as verbs that take no object: let us lie hidden for the innocent without cause, and they lie hidden for their own lives. Of the same kind, יִצְפּוֹנוּ (Tehillim 56:7) means they lie in wait, setting themselves in a hidden place; and so עֵינָיו לְחֵלְכָה יִצְפֹּנוּ (Tehillim 10:8), his eyes lie in wait for the helpless.

וְחִלְּלוּ אֶת־ צְפוּנִי (Yechezkel 7:22), and they shall profane My hidden thing, is a passive form whose sense is the thing hidden and put away; or it may be a noun. וּצְפוּנְךָ תְּמַלֵּא בִטְנָם (Tehillim 17:14), You fill their belly with Your hidden store, the good stored with You to give to whom You please. The good of this world is called hidden, he says, because a man's hand does not reach it as he wishes but only as the Creator wills, so that what is good in his eyes is kept from him as though stored away. וְיִתְיָעֲצוּ עַל צְפוּנֶיךָ (Tehillim 83:4), they take counsel against Your hidden ones, he reads of Yisrael, hidden and sheltered under Your wings.

The north is the left-hand quarter, named so for one of two reasons. Either because the settled world reaches only a little way into that quarter, so that it is as though hidden and unseen by men; or because the sun's path does not run on that side but on the southern one, so that the north is as it were hidden from the sun.

On אֶת שְׁנֵי הָאֲנָשִׁים וַתִּצְפְּנוֹ (Yehoshua 2:4), the two men, and she hid him, he notes the singular: she did not hide the two men together in one place but each by himself, so that nobody should notice them. Or the singular may refer back to the word את, which takes in them both.

צֹֽפְנֶיהָ צָֽפַן־רוּחַ (Mishlei 27:16), those who would hide her hide the wind: whoever wishes to hide the bad woman and conceal her, so that her bad doings are not heard outside, is like one who wishes to hide the wind, which he cannot hide. וְשֶׁמֶן יְמִינוֹ יִקְרָֽא (Mishlei 27:16), and the oil of his right hand calls out: as the oil of his right hand calls and proclaims of itself that it is perfumed and fragrant, so the woman is noticed from afar. The perfumed oil is called the oil of his right hand because the right hand is ready for anointing, and whatever of the oil clings to it gives off fragrance.

וְחָיִיתָ וְרָבִיתָ (Devarim 30:16), and you shall live and multiply; אֶסְפְּרֵם מֵחוֹל יִרְבּוּן (Tehillim 139:18), were I to count them they would be more than the sand; פְּרֵה וּרְבֵה (Bereishis 35:11), be fruitful and multiply. In the heavy form, הִרְבָּה אַשְׁמָֽה (Divrei HaYamim II 33:23), he multiplied guilt, עַד כָּל־ מַרְבֵּה רַגְלַיִם (Vayikra 11:42), every many-footed creature, and וְלֹא יַרְבֶּה־לּוֹ נָשִׁים (Devarim 17:17), he shall not take many wives.

הֶֽרֶב כַּבְּסֵנִי (Tehillim 51:4), wash me thoroughly, is an imperative with a letter missing, or else a noun; and so הַרְבֵּה: אֵשׁ וְעֵצִים הַרְבֵּה (Yeshayahu 30:33), fire and wood in plenty; וְלִבִּי רָאָה הַרְבֵּה חָכְמָה וָדָֽעַת (Koheles 1:16), my heart has seen much wisdom and knowledge; וְהַרְבֵּה עִמּוֹ פְדֽוּת (Tehillim 130:7), and with Him is much redemption. Other patterns are לְמַרְבֵּה הַמִּשְׂרָה (Yeshayahu 9:6), for the increase of the dominion, which takes a tzeirei because it leans on the word after it, and כִּי מַרְבִּית הָעָם (Divrei HaYamim II 30:18), for the multitude of the people.

Rabbi Yehudah set וְלֹא־רִבִּיתָ בִּמְחִירֵיהֶֽם (Tehillim 44:13), and You did not raise their price, with וּבְמַרְבִּית לֹֽא־תִתֵּן אָכְלֶֽךָ (Vayikra 25:37), you shall not give your food at increase, and וְתַרְבִּית לֹא יִקָּח (Yechezkel 18:8), he takes no increase, in a sense of its own. Radak holds there is no need for that, and that they belong to this same sense, as they plainly sound.

A second sense, close to the first, is bringing up: רִבְּתָה גוּרֶֽיהָ (Yechezkel 19:2), she reared her cubs, and אֲשֶׁר־טִפַּחְתִּי וְרִבִּיתִי (Eichah 2:22), those I nursed and reared. The nouns are תַּרְבּוּת אֲנָשִׁים חַטָּאִים (Bamidbar 32:14), a brood of sinful men, and וְכָל־ מַרְבִּית בֵּֽיתְךָ (Shmuel I 2:33), all those reared in your house, the sense being the raising of them.

A third sense is רֹבֶה קַשָּֽׁת (Bereishis 21:20), one who shoots arrows with a bow. Some take it instead from the Targum of נַּעַר (Bereishis 21:12), רַבְיָא, a lad. It may be that אֶת־הָֽאַרְבֶּה לְמִינוֹ (Vayikra 11:22), the locust after its kind, is from this root, called so because it is a numerous kind.