man

אָדְמוּ עֶצֶם מִפְּנִינִים (Eichah 4:7), they were ruddier of bone than pearls, and in the passive וְעֹרֹת אֵילִם מְאָדָּמִים (Shemos 25:5), rams' skins dyed red. So אִם־יַאְדִּימוּ כַתּוֹלָע (Yeshayahu 1:18), if they redden like crimson, and אַל־תֵּרֶא יַיִן כִּי יִתְאַדָּם (Mishlei 23:31), do not look at wine when it reddens. The adjectives are דּוֹדִי צַח וְאָדוֹם (Shir HaShirim 5:10), my beloved is white and ruddy, פָרָה אֲדֻמָּה (Bamidbar 19:2), a red cow, and אַדְמוֹנִי עִם־יְפֵה עֵינַיִם (Shmuel I 16:12), ruddy with fair eyes. The stone called אֹדֶם, in אֹדֶם פִּטְדָה (Shemos 28:17), odem and pitdah, is named so because it is red.

Where the second and third root letters are doubled, as אוֹ אֲדַמְדָּם (Vayikra 13:49), or very red, it means much redness; and Chazal in Sifra, on parshas Metzora, said ירקרק ירוק שבירוקים, yerakrak is the greenest of the greens, and אדמדם is אדום שבאדומים, the reddest of the reds. In נֶגַע לָבָן אֲדַמְדָּם (Vayikra 13:42), a white reddish affliction, and לְבָנָה אֲדַמְדֶּמֶת (Vayikra 13:24), white and reddish, it is blended and mixed of two appearances, white and red.

Man is called after the אֲדָמָה, the ground, that he was taken from, and the species is called by his name, אָדָם. אֲדָמָה comes for land, עַל־פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה (Bamidbar 12:3), on the face of the earth; for a field, עֹבֵד אַדְמָתוֹ (Mishlei 12:11), one who works his field, and אִם־עָלַי אַדְמָתִי תִזְעָק (Iyov 31:38), if my field cries out against me; and for dust, וַאֲדָמָה עַל־רֹאשׁוֹ (Shmuel I 4:12), and dust on his head. Joined to dust it is אַדְמַת־עָפָר (Daniel 12:2), the ground of dust, as טִיט הַיָּוֵן (Tehillim 40:3), miry clay.

אָדָם stands for the individual, אָדָם כִּי־יַקְרִיב מִכֶּם קָרְבָּן (Vayikra 1:2), a man of you who brings an offering; for the whole, מֵאָדָם עַד־בְּהֵמָה (Bereishis 6:7), from man to beast; and for part of the whole, אֶת־הָאָדָם (Yeshayahu 6:12), the men. וְהוּא יִהְיֶה פֶּרֶא אָדָם (Bereishis 16:12), and he shall be a wild ass of a man, he glosses as a man of the wilderness, like a wild ass. In גַּם־בְּנֵי אָדָם גַּם־בְּנֵי־אִישׁ (Tehillim 49:3), both the sons of אָדָם and the sons of אִישׁ, the first are the common people and the second the great, as in גִּדְעוֹן בֶּן־יוֹאָשׁ אִישׁ יִשְׂרָאֵל (Shoftim 7:14), Gideon son of Yoash, the אִישׁ of Israel, which means Israel's great one and its head. וּבְיִשְׂרָאֵל וּבָאָדָם (Yirmiyahu 32:20), and in Israel and among mankind, means among the rest of mankind, that is, among the nations, and Yonasan renders פְּרִישָׁן בּגוֹ בְּנֵי אֱנָשָׁא, wonders among the sons of man.

אָדָם is used of women alone: וְנֶפֶשׁ אָדָם מִן־הַנָּשִׁים (Bamidbar 31:35), and persons of the women, and כְּתִפְאֶרֶת אָדָם לָשֶׁבֶת בָּיִת (Yeshayahu 44:13), like the beauty of a person, to sit in a house. His father explains כְּתִפְאֶרֶת אָדָם: and for what? לָשֶׁבֶת בָּיִת, to sit in a house and for no other use, as וְיַנִּיחֻהוּ תַחְתָּיו, and they set it in its place, and מִמְּקוֹמוֹ לֹא יָמִישׁ, from its place it does not stir. הַרְחֵק מְאֹד בֵאָדָם (Yehoshua 3:16), very far off at Adam, is the name of a city.

מַכֵּה אִישׁ וָמֵת (Shemos 21:12), one who strikes a man so that he dies, and אַשְׁרֵי־ אִישׁ יָרֵא אֶת־י"י (Tehillim 112:1), happy is the man who fears Hashem. איש takes in male and female alike; in איש ואשה, man and woman, it is said of the male alone, since אשה, woman, is named beside it, and so too without אשה where the sense of the pasuk shows it. The plural is אֲלֵיכֶם אִישִׁים אֶקְרָא (Mishlei 8:4), to you, O men, I call. The shin of אשה is doubled for the quiescent yud lost from איש, and in the construct it is lightened to אֵשֶׁת; sometimes אשת stands on its own, as כְּמוֹ אֵשֶׁת לֵדָֽה (Yirmiyahu 13:21), like a woman in labour. The plural of אשה is אִשֹּׁת הַזִּמָּֽה (Yechezkel 23:44), the women of lewdness, but נשים, women, belongs to the root אנש and is written there.

Every thing is called איש and אשה, man and woman, though it is not human: of the keruvim, וּפְנֵיהֶם אִישׁ אֶל־אָחִיו (Shemos 25:20), and their faces, each man toward his brother; of the curtains, אִשָּׁה אֶל־אֲחֹתָהּ (Shemos 26:3), each woman to her sister; of the stars, אִישׁ לֹא נֶעְדָּֽר (Yeshayahu 40:26), not a man of them is missing; and of the beasts, אִישׁ וְאִשְׁתּוֹ (Bereishis 7:2), a man and his wife, the male and its mate.

גִּדְעוֹן בֶּן־יוֹאָשׁ אִישׁ יִשְׂרָאֵל (Shoftim 7:14), Gidon ben Yoash, a man of Israel, means the great one of Israel and its head; הֲלֽוֹא־ אִישׁ אַתָּה (Shmuel I 26:15) is, are you not a great man; י"י אִישׁ מִלְחָמָה (Shemos 15:3), Hashem is a man of war, is, He is great and the master of war; אִם־תִּמְצְאוּ אִישׁ (Yirmiyahu 5:3 in his edition), if you find a man, is a great man, a master of good deeds, and its explanation stands beside it, אִם־יֵשׁ עֹשֶׂה מִשְׁפָּט, if there is one who does justice. In גַּם־בְּנֵי אָדָם גַּם־בְּנֵי־ אִישׁ (Tehillim 49:3), both the sons of adam and the sons of ish, בני אדם is said of the multitude and בני איש of the great. וְאִישָׁהּ זָקֵֽן (Melachim II 4:14), and her man is old, is her husband. וְאִם־ אִישׁ שְׂפָתַיִם יִצְדָּֽק (Iyov 11:2), and if a man of lips be in the right, is the master of lips, the master of the tongue, who dresses his arguments in his best words.

איש also comes without its yud, and some say the alef there stands in place of a yud, so that the word is יש, there is: אִם־ אִשׁ לְהֵמִין וּלְהַשְׂמִיל (Shmuel II 14:19), if there is any turning right or left, and עוֹד הַאִשׁ בֵּית רָשָׁע (Michah 6:10), is there still, in the house of the wicked; and so Yonasan rendered the first אִם אִית לְמִסְטֵי לְיַמִינָא, if there is turning to the right, and the second עוֹד הַאִית בֵּית רְשִׁיעָא, is there still in the house of the wicked. On this reading the heh of הַאִשׁ has a patach because it asks, as in היש, is there. Radak's father read אִשׁ as fire, as in אִשׁ אלהים, the fire of Elokim, and עוֹד as in עוֹד יְֽהַלְלוּךָ סֶּֽלָה (Tehillim 84:5), they will ever praise You, selah: that is, all the days there will be fire in the house of the wicked, on account of the treasures of wickedness, אִשׁ taking a chirik where אֵשׁ takes a tzeirei, as חִין stands beside חֵן and בִּין beside בֵן. Radak says his father explained it well, but for the patach under the heh, which makes it look like the heh of a question. Both can also be read as they sound, of a man, as the Chacham Rabbi Avraham explained it; on that reading, the honoured man of the city holds to his wickedness still after hearing the voice of the call, there being treasures of wickedness in his house. That reading too Radak calls good, save that it also pays no heed to the patach of the heh.

וַיַּכּוּ אִישׁ אִישׁוֹ (Melachim I 20:20), and they struck each man his man, means that each of them killed the one who came against him; אִישׁוֹ there is איש with its suffix.

כְּאִישׁוֹן עֵינֽוֹ (Devarim 32:10), as the pupil of his eye, is בת עינו, the pupil, called so because the form of a man is seen in it; that is why the pasuk joins אִישׁוֹן to בת and says שָׁמְרֵנִי כְּאִישׁוֹן בַּת־עָיִן (Tehillim 17:8), guard me as the pupil of the eye. His father wrote that אִישׁוֹן is said to make small, since the form appears small in the eye, and that it is the way of the Hebrews to add letters to make a thing small, as in שַׁבַּת שַׁבָּתוֹן (Vayikra 16:31), where שבת is said of the day itself from evening to evening and שבתון of the time added to it from the weekday to the holy, and הַֽאֲמִינוֹן אָחִיךְ (Shmuel II 13:20), has Aminon your brother been with you, where a letter is added to make the name small; the vernacular too, he wrote, adds letters to make a thing small. Another reason his father gave is that it is called so because it is black, as בְּאִישׁוֹן לַיְלָה וַֽאֲפֵלָֽה (Mishlei 7:9), in the blackness of night and gloom, which means in the blackness of the night; and in another measure, with the middle root letter fallen, בֶּאֱישׁוּן [ בֶּאֱשׁוּן ] חֹֽשֶׁךְ (Mishlei 20:20), in the blackness of darkness.

אֱנוֹשׁ כֶּחָצִיר יָמָיו (Tehillim 103:15), man, his days are as grass: a name that takes in all people. Sometimes it is said of one man in particular, וְאַתָּה אֱנוֹשׁ כְּעֶרְכִּי (Tehillim 55:14), and you, a man of my own rank.

Sometimes אנשים, men, comes bare, and what men are meant is read from the pasuk. In כֻּלָּם אֲנָשִׁים (Bamidbar 13:3), all of them men, we would not know whether great men or lesser were meant, until the end of the pasuk says ראשי בני ישראל המה, they are heads of Bnei Yisrael, and then we know it means great men. In וְכָל־מַרְבִּית בֵּֽיתְךָ יָמוּתוּ אֲנָשִֽׁים (Shmuel I 2:33), and all the increase of your house shall die as men, it has just said there will be no old man in your house, so it means young men. זָקֵן בָּא בַֽאֲנָשִֽׁים (Shmuel I 17:12), old, come among men, means old men. And in זֶרַע אֲנָשִׁים (Shmuel I 1:11), seed of men, after she said she would give him to Hashem all the days of his life, she meant worthy men, whose seed is fit for blessing and to be given to Hashem.

אִשָּׁה, woman, may be of this root, the dagesh standing for a missing nun, properly אנשה, and so the plural אִשֹּׁת הַזִּמָּֽה (Yechezkel 23:44), the lewd women; he has already written of them under the root אישׁ. For women the alef falls away: נָשִׁים בְּקִרְבֵּךְ (Nachum 3:13), women in your midst, and נְשֵׁי אֲדֹנֶיךָ (Shmuel II 12:8), your master's wives.

אָנוּשׁ חִצִּי בְלִי־פָֽשַׁע (Iyov 34:6), my arrow is grievous without transgression, and כִּי אֲנוּשָׁה מַכּוֹתֶיהָ (Michah 1:9), for her wounds are grievous: all of them are pain, breaking and heavy sickness. Or they are an ill in the heart's thought, by a borrowing, as in מִכְּאֵב לֵב וּמִשֵּׁבֶר רוּחַ (Yeshayahu 65:14), from pain of heart and breaking of spirit; so it says עָקֹב הַלֵּב מִכֹּל וְאָנֻשׁ הוּא (Yirmiyahu 17:9), the heart is crooked above all and it is sick, and חֶרְפָּה שָֽׁבְרָה לִבִּי וָֽאָנוּשָׁה (Tehillim 69:21), reproach has broken my heart and I am sick. It may be that man is called אֱנוֹשׁ for this, since all his days are pains, and in this sense it says יֵדְעוּ גוֹיִם אֱנוֹשׁ הֵמָּה סֶּֽלָה (Tehillim 9:21), let the nations know that they are men, Selah.

גָּבַר חַסְדּוֹ עַל יְרֵאָיו (Tehillim 103:11), His kindness prevailed over those who fear Him, and וְהַמַּיִם גָּבְרוּ (Bereishis 7:19), the waters prevailed. All of them, he says, are strength, firmness and victory.

A man is called גֶּבֶר, he says, because he has strength over the woman: וְדֶרֶךְ גֶּבֶר בְּעַלְמָה (Mishlei 30:19), and the way of a man with a maiden. Of the locusts too the pasuk says גֶּבֶר בִּמְסִלָּתוֹ יֵלֵכוּן (Yoel 2:8), each man in his highway they go, because it likens them to men and mighty ones.

הֵן גְּבִיר שַׂמְתִּיו לָךְ (Bereishis 27:37), behold, I have made him a גְּבִיר over you, which he glosses as master and head; and the feminine, שָׂרַי גְּבִרְתִּי (Bereishis 16:8), Sarai my mistress, and גְּבֶרֶת מַמְלָכוֹת (Yeshayahu 47:5), mistress of kingdoms.

וַחֲיָלִים יְגַבֵּר (Koheles 10:10), he must put forth more strength, he reads of a blunt axe: if the axe is blunt, the one cleaving with it must add strength and force. טַלְטֵלָה גָּבֶר (Yeshayahu 22:17), a man's tossing about, Chazal explain (Kesubos 28a): the tossing about of a man is harder than the tossing about of a woman.

לֹא־דָמָה אֵלָיו בְּיָפְיוֹ (Yechezkel 31:8), none was like him in his beauty; and, transitive, הַנָּוָה וְהַמְּעֻנָּגָה דָּמִיתִי בַּת־צִיּוֹן (Yirmiyahu 6:2), to the comely and delicate one I have likened the daughter of Tzion. The noun is דְּמוּת, a likeness.

In אִמְּךָ כַגֶּפֶן בְּדָמְךָ (Yechezkel 19:10), your mother is like a vine in your likeness, בְּדָמְךָ is like בדמותך, as אֵצֶל פִּנָּהּ (Mishlei 7:8), near her corner, is like פנתה, and וְצוּרָם לְבַלּוֹת שְׁאוֹל (Tehillim 49:15), and their form for the grave to wear away, is like וצורתם, and their form. Or else it is another pattern, דַּם, on the measure of צַו and קַו. Rav Hai wrote that it means the moisture of nature, since whatever comes out of another thing and blossoms from it holds some of the moisture of its nature. Some take it instead from the sense of cutting off.

וְדָמִיתִי אִמֶּךָ (Hoshea 4:5), and I will cut off your mother, and נִדְמְתָה אַשְׁקְלֹון, Ashkelon is cut off: the sense of all of them is cutting off and destruction, and בִּדְמִי יָמַי אֵלֵכָה (Yeshayahu 38:10), in the cutting off of my days I shall go, is the noun. נִדְמֶה שֹֽׁמְרוֹן מַלְכָּהּ (Hoshea 10:7) stands under being like, and can also be read in this sense: Shomron, her king is cut off. Words not of this root may also be read in this sense: כִּי י"י אֱלֹהֵינוּ הֲדִמָּנוּ, for Hashem our God has cut us off, and וְנִדְּמָה־שָּׁם (Yirmiyahu 8:14), and let us be cut off there; יֵבשׁוּ רְשָׁעִים יִדְּמוּ לִשְׁאֽוֹל (Tehillim 31:18), let the wicked be ashamed, let them be cut off to the grave; and וְנָדַמּוּ נְאוֹת הַשָּׁלוֹם (Yirmiyahu 25:37), and the peaceful habitations are cut off. עֵינִי נִגְּרָה וְלֹא תִדְמֶה, my eye runs and does not cease, is of this sense too.

וְהוּא לֹא־כֵן יְדַמֶּה (Yeshayahu 10:7), but he does not think so: its sense is יחשוב, he will think. Likewise אַל־תְּדַמִּי בְנַפְשֵׁךְ (Esther 4:13), do not think in yourself. דִּמִּינוּ אֱלֹהִים חַסְדֶּךָ (Tehillim 48:10), we thought, Elokim, of Your kindness, is of this sense too, and may also be read in the sense of hope and expectation: we hoped, Elokim, for Your kindness.

אַל־דֳּמִי־לָךְ (Tehillim 83:2), let there be no silence for You, and דוּמִיָּה in its several places are all שתיקה, silence. לְךָ דֻמִיָּה תְהִלָּה (Tehillim 65:2), to You silence is praise, means that praise falls silent before Your mighty deeds, since praise does not reach You. Some read אוֹי־לִי כִּי־נִדְמֵיתִי (Yeshayahu 6:5), woe is me, for נִדְמֵיתִי, from this sense, that is, I have been silenced, I cannot speak a word; Radak lists it with the words of cutting off.

נָשִׁיתִי טוֹבָה (Eichah 3:17), I have forgotten good, and צוּר יְלָדְךָ תֶּשִׁי (Devarim 32:18), the Rock that bore you, you forgot. יִשְׂרָאֵל לֹא תִנָּשֵׁנִי (Yeshayahu 44:21), Yisrael, you will not be forgotten, he explains לא תנשה ממני, you will not be forgotten by Me. From this sense is בְּאֶרֶץ נְשִׁיָּה (Tehillim 88:13), in the land of forgetting, which is the place of the dead, for they are forgotten. כִּי־נַשַּׁנִי אֱלֹהִים (Bereishis 41:51), for Hashem has made me forget, he has already treated under the root נָשַׁשׁ; some say it is of this root, in the doubled form, with a patach in place of a chirik.

Another sense: לֹא־נָשִׁיתִי וְלֹא־נָשׁוּ־בִי (Yirmiyahu 15:10) is a doubled saying, either I asked nothing of them and they gave me nothing of themselves, or I did not lend to them and they did not lend to me, the verb of the lender being bound with a bet and that of the borrower without one. So כַּנֹּשֶׁה כַּֽאֲשֶׁר נֹשֶׁא בֽוֹ (Yeshayahu 24:2), as the borrower so the one who lends to him. It is said after כַּמַּלְוֶה כַּלּוֶֹה (Yeshayahu 24:2), as the lender so the borrower, because one pair means a loan of money and the other a loan of food.

It is not far-fetched, he says, that נושה should name both the borrower and the lender, since the bond of the bet tells them apart, and where the bond is missing the context shows which is meant; so שובר is said of the buyer and of the seller, the bond and the context telling them apart. The word comes without the bet in וְכָל־אִישׁ אֲשֶׁר־לוֹ נֹשֶׁא (Shmuel I 22:2), and every man who had a creditor; and of the lender without it, the context showing which is meant, in וְהַנֹּשֶׁה בָּא לָקַחַת (Melachim II 4:1), and the creditor has come to take, and in אוֹ מִי מִנּוֹשַׁי (Yeshayahu 50:1), or which of my creditors, which he explains מנושים בי, those who hold a debt against me. In the Targum's view the adjective from this root is נָשָׁה, and in the plural נָשִׁים, since it renders וְנָשִׁים מָשְׁלוּ בוֹ (Yeshayahu 3:12) as וּכְמָרי חוֹבָא שַׁלִיטוּ בֵּיהּ, and like masters of debt they ruled over him.

The heavy form is כִּי־תַשֶּׁה בְרֵעֲךָ מַשַּׁאת מְאוּמָה (Devarim 24:10), when you lend your fellow a loan of anything. One can explain from this sense כִּי־יַשֶּׁה לְךָ אֱלוֹהַ מֵעֲוֹנֶךָ (Iyov 11:6), which Radak also sets under forgetting, as Hashem holding you liable for your iniquity. And וְנָשָׁא־בוֹ אָלָה (Melachim I 8:31) is that the judge lays an oath on him. לֹא־יַשִּׁא אוֹיֵב בּוֹ (Tehillim 89:23) is that no enemy will be to him as a creditor who takes his money, and likewise יַשִּׁי מות (Tehillim 55:16), let death be to them as a creditor who takes them.

The noun is נשי, a debt, in וְשַׁלְּמִי אֶת־נִשְׁיֵכְי (Melachim II 4:7), and pay your debt, the word being read נִשְׁיֵךְ. Another form is מַשָּׁא: וּמַשָּׁא כָל־יָֽד (Nechemiah 10:32), and the debt of every hand; מַשָּׁא אִֽישׁ־בְּאָחִיו (Nechemiah 5:7), a debt each man holds against his brother; and נַֽעַזְבָה־נָּא אֶת־הַמַּשָּׁא הַזֶּֽה (Nechemiah 5:10), let us now leave off this debt. In the feminine it is מַשַּׁאת, as in מַשַּׁאת מְאוּמָה (Devarim 24:10), a loan of anything, and in the plural בַּעֹֽרְבִים מַשָּׁאֽוֹת (Mishlei 22:26), among those who stand surety for loans. It may be that כָּל־בַּעַל מַשֵּׁה יָדוֹ (Devarim 15:2), every holder of a loan of his hand, is a noun as well, on the pattern of מַטֶּה.

גִּיד הַנָּשֶׁה (Bereishis 32:33): Chazal said it is called so because it slipped from its place and went up (Chullin 91a); that is, Radak explains, as though it forgot its place and turned away from it. It would be right, Radak says, to explain it as the sinew that is severed, from נָשְׁתָה גְבוּרָתָם (Yirmiyahu 51:30), their might has failed, and then that too would be of this root; but it is better to join נָשְׁתָה גְבוּרָתָם with וְנִשְּׁתוּ־מַיִם (Yeshayahu 19:5), and the waters shall fail, under the root נָשַׁת.

נָשִׁים, women, and נְשֵׁיהֶם, their women, are not treated here but under the root אָנַשׁ.