morning

וְדָֽרַשְׁתִּי אֶת־צֹאנִי וּבִקַּרְתִּֽים (Yechezkel 34:11), I will seek out My flock and look them over; לֹֽא־יְבַקֵּר הַכֹּהֵן (Vayikra 13:36), the kohen shall not examine; and יִֽהְיֶה־לִּי לְבַקֵּֽר (Melachim II 16:15), it shall be for me to inspect, which he glosses כשיעלה בלבי לבקרו, when it comes into my heart to inspect it. The noun is כְּבַקָּרַת רֹעֶה עֶדְרוֹ (Yechezkel 34:12), like a shepherd's looking over his flock. All of them, he says, are דרישה ובקור, seeking and examining.

From this sense the morning is called בֹּקֶר, because in the morning every thing is made out by the light of day, while its opposite, the evening, is when all things mix together and a man cannot tell them apart. And the light is called בקר: כּוֹכְבֵי בֹקֶר (Iyov 38:7), stars of the morning, as though it said stars of light, like כָּל־כּוֹכְבֵי אֽוֹר (Tehillim 148:3), all the stars of light, and those, he says, are the seven that serve. Likewise the morning is called אור: מִן־הָאוֹר עַד־מַֽחֲצִית הַיּוֹם (Nechemiah 8:3), from the light until midday, as though it said from the morning. And וּלְבַקֵּר בְּהֵיכָלֽוֹ (Tehillim 27:4) can be read from this, like ולשחר: to seek at dawn in His Heichal.

At Vayikra 19:20, which he glosses מולקת תהיה, she shall be lashed. Rav Saadiah Gaon wrote that the word is בקורת because the lashes are given with רצועה של בקר, a strap of cattle hide; or, he wrote, the bet may stand in place of a peh, the two being close in sense because they come from one place in the mouth, as the Mishnah's הבקר לעניים (Peah 6:1), declared free for the poor, is as הפקר, ownerless; and Targum Yerushalmi renders וּנְטַשְׁתָּהּ (Shemos 23:11), and you shall let it lie, with ותבקרון יתה, and you shall leave it ownerless. On this reading the sense of בִּקֹּרֶת תִּֽהְיֶה is that she is הפקר, not having been freed, and therefore they are not put to death, though there is lashing. Chazal say, in Kerisos, that the lashing is hers and not his, since the pasuk says תִּֽהְיֶה, she shall be, and not יהיו, they shall be.

Another sense: צֹאן־וּבָקָר (Bereishis 13:5), flocks and herds, whose sense he calls known; in the plural, אִם־יַֽחֲרוֹשׁ בַּבְּקָרִים (Amos 6:12), does one plough with oxen. And the verb from it, כִּֽי־בוֹקֵר אָנֹכִי (Amos 7:14), for I am a בוקר, which he explains as רועה הבקר, a herdsman of cattle.

יָשֹׁב וְיִצְפֹּר (Shoftim 7:3), let him turn back and rise early: its sense is ישכים בבקר, let him rise early in the morning, and the Targum of בֹּקֶר, morning, is צַפְרָא. So too in בָּאָה הַצְּפִירָה (Yechezkel 7:7), it has come, הַצְּפִירָה being the decree that comes upon you in the morning.

Some explain both וְיִצְפֹּר and הַצְּפִירָה as a sense of going round, and Yonasan renders הַצְּפִירָה as מַלְכוּתָא, kingdom. וְלִצְפִירַת תִּפְאָרָה (Yeshayahu 28:5), and for a turban of glory, is the turban that is wound round the head. The Mishnah (Keilim 16:7) has הקופה משיעשה בה שתי צפירות לרחב שלה, the basket, from when two windings are made in it across its breadth, והערק משיעשה בה צפירה אחת, and the erek, from when one winding is made in it; that is, the going round that is made about a basket.

כָּל־ צִפּוֹר טְהֹרָה (Devarim 14:11), every clean bird; כֹּל צִפּוֹר כָּל־כָּנָף (Yechezkel 17:23), every bird of every wing; and שְׁתֵּֽי־ צִפֳּרִים חַיּוֹת טְהֹרוֹת (Vayikra 14:4), two live clean birds. In the masculine, כְּצִפּוֹר בּוֹדֵד עַל־גָּֽג (Tehillim 102:8), like a lone bird on a roof, and אֲשֶׁר־שָׁם צִפֳּרִים יְקַנֵּנוּ (Tehillim 104:17), where birds make their nests. It is a name covering every bird, but sometimes a particular one: in גַּם־ צִפּוֹר מָצְאָה בַיִת וּדְרוֹר קֵן לָהּ (Tehillim 84:4), the bird too has found a house and the swallow a nest, the second word is particular and so the first is particular too, a small bird; and because its kind is so numerous, every bird came to be called by its name.

וְהַצָּפִיר הַשָּׂעִיר (Daniel 8:21), and the he-goat, the sa'ir, וּצְפִיר הָֽעִזִּים (Daniel 8:8), and the he-goat of the goats, and צְפִירֵי חַטָּאת שְׁנֵים עָשָׂר (Ezra 8:35), twelve he-goats for a sin offering; the word is known, and the Targum of שְׂעִיר (Bereishis 37:31), a goat, is צְפִיר. The doubling in וְהַצָּפִיר הַשָּׂעִיר is to make the sense plain, as in נֶגְבָּה תֵימָֽנָה (Shemos 26:18), southward, to the south, and קֵדְמָה מִזְרָֽחָה (Bamidbar 34:15), eastward, toward the sunrise, where the second word is plainer than the first; for צפיר is not common in the language as שעיר is, but belongs to Aramaic. Or else השעיר is from וְיִשְׂתָּעֵר עָלָיו מֶלֶךְ הַצָּפוֹן (Daniel 11:40), the king of the north will storm against him.

בְּצִפֹּרֶן שָׁמִיר (Yirmiyahu 17:1), with a stylus of shamir, and וְעָֽשְׂתָה אֶת־ צִפָּרְנֶֽיהָ (Devarim 21:12), she shall do her nails; the word is known. Since a man digs with his nails, the iron pen that digs was called a ציפורן, and so the pasuk says בְּצִפֹּרֶן שָׁמִיר, for שמיר is the hard iron; and the Midrash at the start of Pekudei likewise has נטל צפורן של ברזל, he took an iron stylus.

קֶרֶץ מִצָּפֹון (Yirmiyahu 46:20), a cutting from the north: the sense is cutting off and decreeing. So too the passive, מֵחֹמֶר קֹרַצְתִּי גַם־אָֽנִי (Iyov 33:6), I too was cut from clay, which he glosses נגזרתי, I was cut. So too in the Mishnah (Yoma 3:4), הביאו לו את התמיד קרצו, they brought him the tamid and he cut it, that is, slaughtered it.

So too of the moving of the eyes and the lips in mockery and scorn, as though one were cutting and breaking them: יִקְרְצוּ ־עָֽיִן (Tehillim 35:19), they move the eye, קֹרֵץ בְּעֵינָו (Mishlei 6:13), moving with his eyes, and קֹרֵץ שְׂפָתָיו (Mishlei 16:30), moving his lips.

עוֹרִי שָׁחַר מֵֽעָלָי (Iyov 30:30), my skin has turned black upon me; the adjective in וְשֵׂעָר שָׁחֹר צָֽמַח־בּוֹ (Vayikra 13:37), black hair has grown in it, and שְׁחוֹרָה אֲנִי (Shir HaShirim 1:5), I am black; and doubled, שְׁחַרְחֹרֶת (Shir HaShirim 1:6), swarthy. The noun is in חָשַׁךְ מִשְּׁחוֹר תָּֽאֳרָם (Eichah 4:8), their form is darker than שְׁחוֹר, meaning more than black, and the שחור is charcoal. So in the words of Chazal (Gittin 19a; Shabbos 104b), one may write with anything, with שחור and with שיחור. The שחור is charcoal, and the שיחור is קנקנתום, called אוורדמנ"ט in the vernacular, or ויטריאול"ה, vitriol.

In another sense, וּכְמוֹ הַשַּׁחַר עָלָה (Bereishis 19:15), and as the dawn rose, and כְּשַׁחַר פָּרֻשׂ עַל־הֶֽהָרִים (Yoel 2:2), like dawn spread over the mountains. From this youth is called שחרות, as כִּֽי־הַיַּלְדוּת וְהַֽשַּֽׁחֲרוּת הָֽבֶל (Koheles 11:10), for childhood and youth are vanity, since the days of youth are likened to the morning as the days of old age are likened to the evening.

וְשָׁבוּ וְשִֽׁחֲרוּ ־אֵֽל (Tehillim 78:34), they returned and sought God, and אֵלִי אַתָּה אֲֽשַֽׁחֲרֶךָּ (Tehillim 63:2), You are my God, I seek You, and מְשַֽׁחֲרֵי לַטָּרֶף (Iyov 24:5), those who seek after prey. Some explain all of them as seeking and searching out. Even so, Radak says, they belong to the sense of dawn, because at dawn a man seeks and searches and takes account, since one who is eager for a thing rises early at dawn; and you will find them all in this sense. So too, from the sense of morning, it says וּלְבַקֵּר בְּהֵיכָלֽוֹ (Tehillim 27:4), and to inquire in His sanctuary.

אֲשֶׁר אֵין־לוֹ שָֽׁחַר (Yeshayahu 8:20), that has no שחר, means that it has no brightness and no clearness. לֹא תֵֽדְעִי שַׁחְרָהּ (Yeshayahu 47:11), you will not know its dawn, means that you will not know the time of its coming, for it comes suddenly, like a thing that comes at dawn, which a man does not feel until he sees it; and it says the same in בַּשַּׁחַר נִדְמֹה נִדְמָה (Hoshea 10:15), at dawn the king of Yisrael is utterly cut off. Rabbi Yonah explains לֹא תֵֽדְעִי שַׁחְרָהּ as that the way of its healing and of escape from it will not be made clear to you. Radak's father reads חָשַׁךְ מִשְּׁחוֹר תָּֽאֳרָם from this same sense: on that reading מִשְּׁחוֹר is a noun on the pattern of מִזְמוֹר, a song, with a dagesh for beauty like the dagesh of מִקְּדָשׁ (Shemos 15:17), a sanctuary, and the phrase means that the brightness of their form has grown dark.