moon

וְאָרַח לְחֶבְרָה עִם פֹּעֲלֵי אָוֶן (Iyov 34:8), and he goes his way in company with workers of iniquity, is the verb, and the noun it is taken from is אֹרַח, whose sense is דרך, a way: וּכְאֹרַח אִישׁ יַמְצִאֶנּוּ (Iyov 34:11), and according to a man's way He will let it find him, and אָרְחִי וְרִבְעִי זֵרִיתָ (Tehillim 139:3), my way and my lying down You encompass. In the plural, חָדְלוּ אֳרָחוֹת (Shoftim 5:6), the ways ceased, he glosses as those who pass along the ways ceased, and אֳרָחוֹת עֲקַלְקַלּוֹת stands in the same pasuk, crooked ways. וְתִשְׁמוֹר כָּל אָרְחוֹתָי (Iyov 13:27), and You watch all my ways, has a kamatz in Ben Asher's reading and a cholam in Ben Naftali's.

לָאֹרֵחַ הַבָּא לוֹ (Shmuel II 12:4), the traveller who came to him: he is one going, עוֹבֵר אוֹרַח, passing along the way from place to place.

אֹרַח כַּנָּשִׁים (Bereishis 18:11), the way of women, he glosses מנהג כנשים, the custom of women; and likewise כִּי דֶרֶךְ נָשִׁים לִי (Bereishis 31:35), for the way of women is upon me.

אֹרְחַת יִשְׁמְעֵאלִים (Bereishis 37:25), a caravan of Yishmaelim, is as the Targum renders it, שְׁיָרַת עֲרָבָאֵי, a caravan of Arabians; and likewise אֹרְחוֹת דְּדָנִים (Yeshayahu 21:13), caravans of Dedanim. Because caravans are always going along the ways and roads, they themselves were named for the ways.

וַאֲרֻחָתוֹ אֲרֻחַת תָּמִיד (Melachim II 25:30) he glosses as his meal and his upkeep, a continual one, and טוֹב אֲרֻחַת יָרָק (Mishlei 15:17), better a meal of herbs. These, he says, do not fall outside the first sense but are counted within it.

עָשָׂה יָרֵחַ לְמוֹעֲדִים (Tehillim 104:19), He made the moon for appointed times, and וְיָרֵחַ לֹא יַגִּיהַ אוֹרוֹ (Yeshayahu 13:10), which he glosses: the moon shall not give its light.

Because the moon renews itself every month, the month is called יֶרַח: בְּיֶרַח הָאֵתָנִים (Melachim I 8:2), in the month of Eisanim, and מִי יִתְּנֵנִי כְיַרְחֵי קֶדֶם (Iyov 29:2), would that I were as in the months of old. And because the moon renews itself many times, it is spoken of in the plural although it is only one: גֶּרֶשׁ יְרָחִים (Devarim 33:14), the yield of the moons, meaning that the moon ripens the fruits.

וַתְּהִי לָהֶם הַלְּבֵנָה לְאָבֶן (Bereishis 11:3), and the brick served them for stone, with the verb נִלְבְּנָה לְבֵנִים (Bereishis 11:3), let us make bricks, and לִלְבֹּן הַלְּבֵנִים (Shemos 5:7), to make the bricks. The kiln in which the bricks are burnt is called מַלְבֵּן, as בַּמַּלְבֵּן (Shmuel II 12:31), in the kiln, which he reads as: he burnt them in the brick kiln. Yonasan renders it וּגְרַר יַתְהוֹן בְּשׁוּקַיָא, and he dragged them through the streets, which Radak explains: he was dragging them through the streets to put them to a hard and contemptible death. As for rendering במלבן as בשוקיא, in the streets, perhaps Yonasan holds that a street is called מלבן because it is lined with colonnades set in order on this side and that, from Chazal's מלבנות התבואה (Peah 3:1), which are beds of grain, so called because they are set in order; so too they said מלבנות הפתחים (Bava Basra 69a), the doorposts on either side of the doorway. בַּמֶּלֶט בַּמַּלְבֵּן (Yirmiyahu 43:9), in the mortar, in the brickworks, is the place where bricks are made, and הַֽחֲזִיקִי מַלְבֵּֽן (Nachum 3:14), make the kiln strong, means build the brick kiln.

He says the bricks may be from the sense of whiteness, since everything burnt in fire whitens, and so יִתְבָּֽרְרוּ וְיִתְלַבְּנוּ וְיִצָּֽרְפוּ (Daniel 12:10), they shall be purified and made white and refined; and so Chazal said of this matter מלבנן באור והן טהורים (Avodah Zarah 75b), one whitens them in fire and they are tahor.

כְּזֶרַע גַּד לָבָן (Shemos 16:31), like coriander seed, white: the mon was white and its grains were like coriander seed. מַחְשׂף הַלָּבָן (Bereishis 30:37), laying bare the white; וּֽלְבֶן ־שִׁנַּיִם מֵֽחָלָֽב (Bereishis 49:12), white of teeth from milk; and כֵּהוֹת לְבָנֹת (Vayikra 13:39), dull white spots. Standing of itself, כַּשֶּׁלֶג יַלְבִּינוּ (Yeshayahu 1:18), they shall be white as snow, and הִלְבִּינוּ שָֽׂרִיגֶֽיהָ (Yoel 1:7), her branches have whitened, that is, they dried and turned white. Taking an object, וּלְבָרֵר וְלַלְבֵּן עַד־עֵת קֵץ (Daniel 11:35), to purify and to whiten until the time of the end, where the form should have been וּלְהַלְבֵּן, to whiten, and with the heh gone its vowel was thrown onto the prefixed lamed.

Rabbi Yonah explained לִבְנַת הַסַּפִּיר (Shemos 24:10) as a noun, that is, the whiteness of the sapphire, and so the Gaon said, that the sapphire is white. Ibn Ezra wrote in his commentary that the sapphire is red, his proof being אָֽדְמוּ עצם מפנינים סַפִּיר גִּזְרָתָֽם (Eichah 4:7), they were ruddier of bone than pearls, their form was sapphire, where the sense is doubled, as in זַכּוּ נְזִירֶיהָ מִשֶּׁלֶג צַחוּ מֵחָלָב, her nezirim were purer than snow, whiter than milk; and further, why does the pasuk say כמעשה, like the work of, when it should have said כמראה, like the appearance of, the whiteness of the sapphire? Rather, Ibn Ezra concludes, the correct view is that it is from לְבָנָה, a brick, as חֶֽשְׁכַת ־מַיִם (Tehillim 18:12), darkness of waters, is from חֲשֵׁכָה, darkness, and so לבנת הספיר, a brick of sapphire, is like the sapphire stone that Yechezkel saw. The derash is given as going the same way: that they saw the likeness of a brick under the feet of the Kisei HaKavod, to see and remember that Yisrael were enslaved under the hand of Mitzrayim at the work of bricks.

וְחָֽפְרָה הַלְּבָנָה (Yeshayahu 24:23), and the moon shall be abashed: it is the moon, called so because it appears white. תַּחַת אַלּוֹן וְלִבְנֶה (Hoshea 4:13), under oak and livneh, and מַקַּל לִבְנֶה (Bereishis 30:37), a rod of livneh, are a tree whose name comes from לבן, white, and Rabbi Yonah wrote that it is the one called לובני in Arabic. לְבֹנָה זַכָּה (Vayikra 24:7), pure levonah, is well known, and עִם כָּל־עֲצֵי לְבוֹנָה (Shir HaShirim 4:14), with all trees of levonah, are the trees the levonah comes from, for levonah is the resin of a tree.

עַל מוּת לַבֵּן (Tehillim 9:1), upon the death of Labben, or upon the death, for Ben: some take לבן as the name of one of David's enemies, at whose death the mizmor was made; some take it as נָבָל with its letters reversed. His father wrote that the lamed is a prefix and that בֵּן is the name of a singer, set out in Divrei HaYamim among the second rank, זְכַרְיָהוּ בֵּן וְיַֽעֲזִיאֵל וּשְׁמִֽירָמוֹת (Divrei HaYamim I 15:18), Zecharyahu, Ben, and Yaaziel and Shemiramos; David said the mizmor on the death of Golyas and the victory over the Pelishtim, and Ben the singer played it. To the question why it is not לְבֵן with a sheva, as לְאָסָף, since the article does not come on a man's name or a city's, the answer given on this reading is that though it is not the way of the language it comes at times for the sake of definiteness, as it does on a city's name: אֲשֶׁר בַּשֶּׂכוּ (Shmuel I 19:22), which is at Sechu, and וַֽיִּפְקְדֵם בַּטְּלָאִים (Shmuel I 15:4), and he counted them at Telaim; and here the article was used so the name should not be confused with the ordinary word for a son.

שָׁרְרֵךְ אַגַּן הַסַּהַר (Shir HaShirim 7:3), your navel is a bowl of the moon; and the Targum of יָרֵחַ (Tehillim 8:4), the moon, is סִיהֲרָא.

For this מראות הנשים, the women's mirrors, are called שהרונים, as in וְהַשְּׁבִיסִים וְהַשַּֽׂהֲרֹנִֽים (Yeshayahu 3:18), and the shevisim and the saharonim, because they are like the סהר, the moon. That word, he notes, is written with a sin.

בֵּית הַסֹּהַר (Bereishis 39:20), the house of the sohar, is the name of the prison, שהוא עגול בדמות הסהר, which is round in the likeness of the moon.