nature
mountain
At a glance
In short
Har is the mountain and givah the hill, and what separates them is disputed. The Vilna Gaon takes it as shape: a har rises to a point, a givah is flat on top, a plateau. Malbim takes it as height and position: a har is the tall one, givaos the ring of lower hills around it. Radak stands substantially with the Vilna Gaon. Pisgah is the uncommon third word, a peak higher than an ordinary mountain and so the place to look out from. When Shir HaShirim sets the two side by side, Chazal read the pair as the two sets of forebears, and the mystical reading that follows turns on the shape, not on the height.
Distinctions
Har (הר)
The mountain that comes to a sharp point. In the mystical reading the har carries the male, influential force, which gathers to a peak so as to concentrate its energy on influencing what lies outside it, and the point of the mountain is that concentration.
The word reaches into pregnancy: vatahar, "and she conceived," is super-literally "and she became a har." On the plain level the connection is obvious, but on the deeper level it needs an answer, since womankind is otherwise tied to the givah. The answer given is a shift of role. Before conception she is the recipient of what the male force bestows; after it, she becomes the influencer with respect to the child she carries, and in taking on the work of sustaining that child she is more a har than she has ever been.
Givah (גבעה)
Raised ground that stays flat on top. Here the female, receptive force: it remains open and casts as wide a net as it can, to receive the greatest flow of raw influence (see Berachos 61a), and the wide plateau rather than the small point is what makes the givah fit to stand for it. Rabbi Eliyahu Margules ties givah to gaviah, a goblet: as a goblet is a receptacle holding the drink inside it, so the givah is the receiving one.
The receptive force also engulfs the influential one (see Yirmiyahu 31:21), as a range of givaos surrounds the har, and this is why a kallah circles her chosson seven times under the chuppah.
Pisgah (פסגה)
The third and least common word. The commentators explain that a pisgah is taller even than a regular mountain, which is what makes it suited to serve as a lookout point where a har or a givah would not.
Where the authorities disagree
What divides a har from a givah. Two readings, and they are not the same question.
- Shape. The Vilna Gaon (Aderes Eliyahu to Yeshayahu 2:2, Chavakuk 2:6, Shir HaShirim 2:8): a har is the classical mountain, its upward slope reaching a peak and climaxing at its tip, while a givah is raised ground whose top does not come to a point but stays flat, a mesa. Radak (to Tehillim 114:4) adopts much the same approach.
- Height and position. Malbim (to Yeshayahu 2:2, and Yair Ohr): a har is an overly tall mountain, and givaos are a series of shorter hills that surround it.
The Bottom line keeps both. The mystical reading below is built on the first, because it needs the point and the plateau; it does not settle the second.
Rendering guidance
For translators
Where the two stand together, "mountain" and "hill" carry the pair, and the order in the pasuk is har first. The trap is that English "hill" says only "smaller," which is Malbim's reading and not the Vilna Gaon's: on his reading the givah is distinguished by being flat-topped, and a rendering that leans on size alone loses the shape the mystical reading needs. Where an entry has to choose, "hill" for givah and "plateau" only where the flat top is the point. Pisgah is a peak or a summit; where the pasuk has it as a vantage, "lookout" carries the sense the commentators give it.
For Shir HaShirim 2:8, "skipping over the harim and jumping over the givaos," Rosh Hashanah 11a reads the first of the merit of the avos and the second of the merit of the imahos, which the mystical reading then ties to the point and the plateau.
Radak on these roots
Sefer HaShorashim
ג-ב-ע
A hill, which is like a mountain but not as high; by other senses the cap worn on the head, and the goblet.
The hill
"In Geva of Binyamin" (Shmuel I 13:16) has a segol. With the feminine heh it is givah, and in construct "the hill of Shaul" (Shmuel I 15:34), "the hill of the foreskins" (Yehoshua 5:3); in the plural "the mountains and the hills" (Yeshayahu 55:12). A hill is like a mountain but is not as high as a mountain.
The caps
Another sense is in "and caps you shall make for them", which are the hats set on the head for splendour.
The goblet
Another sense again: "and the goblet was found" (Bereishis 44:12), "and my goblet, the silver goblet" (Bereishis 44:2), "the man in whose hand the goblet was found" (Bereishis 44:17), "three cups shaped like almonds" (Shemos 25:33), "and in the menorah four cups" (Shemos 25:34). It is like a cup but made on another pattern, and that is the force of "bowls full of wine, and cups" (Yirmiyahu 35:5).
בְּגֶבַע בִּנְיָמִן (שמואל א' יג, טז), בסגול. ובה"א הנקבה גִּבְעָה ובסמוך גִּבְעַת שָׁאֽוּל (שמואל א' טו, לד), גִּבְעַת הָֽעֲרָלֽוֹת (יהושע ה, ג). והרבות הֶֽהָרִים וְהַגְּבָעוֹת (ישעיה נה, יב). וגבעה כמו הר אבל אינה גבוהה כמו ההר. וענין אחר וּמִגְבָּעוֹת תַּֽעֲשֶׂה לָהֶם (שמות כה, מ), הם הכובעים שמשימין על הראש לתפארת. וענין אחר וַיִּמָּצֵא הַגָּבִיעַ (בראשית מד, יב), וְאֶת־גְּבִיעִי גְּבִיעַֽ הַכֶּסֶף (בראשית מד, ב), שְׁלֹשָׁה גְבִעִים מְשֻׁקָּדִים (שמות כה, לג), וּבַמְּנֹרָה אַרְבָּעָה גְבִעִים (שמות כה, לד), הָאִישׁ אֲשֶׁר נִמְצָא הַגָּבִיעַ בְּיָדוֹ (בראשית מד, יז), והוא כמו כוס אבל הוא עשוי בתכונה אחרת, והוא שאמר גְּבִעִים מְלֵאִים יַיִן וְכֹסוֹת (ירמיה לה, ה).
ה-ר-ר
A mountain: the full form of the word is הֶרֶר, and the common הַר is that same word with the doubled letter fallen away.
The forms
הֶעֱמַדְתָּה לְֽהַֽרְרִי עֹז (Tehillim 30:8), You set my mountain firm, and בְּהַֽרֲרָם שֵׂעִיר (Bereishis 14:6), in their mountain, Seir; in some sefarim the resh there has a chataf patach and in some a bare sheva. The construct is כְּֽהַרְרֵי ־אֵל (Tehillim 36:7), like the mountains of Kel, and יְסוּדָתוֹ בְּהַרְרֵי ־קֹֽדֶשׁ (Tehillim 87:1), His foundation is in the holy mountains; the adjective is הֲרָרִי בַּשָּׂדֶה (Yirmiyahu 17:3), the one on the mountain in the field. With a heh added, הֶרָה נָּֽסוּ (Bereishis 14:10), they fled to the mountain. The plural is הָרִים, mountains, which would take a dagesh were it not for the resh; and the word is spoken of in the feminine, שְׁמָמָה תִֽהְיֶה הַר ־שֵׂעִיר (Yechezkel 35:15), Har Seir shall be a desolation.
Your mountain, or two words
הַרְכֶם צִפּֽוֹר (Tehillim 11:1) he reads as הר שלכם, your mountain; some explain that it is two words instead.
A form he does not allow
Some explain בְּהַֽרֲרָם שֵׂעִיר, in their mountain, Seir, as an infinitive of the doubled form. There is an answer against them, from the patach of the heh.
Fortified cities read as mountains
Some take from this הָרוֹת הַגִּלְעָד (Amos 1:13) and וְהָרֹֽתֵיהֶם תְּבַקֵּֽעַ (Melachim II 8:12); if they are of this root and this sense, he means the cities fortified and set high in the mountains. So too הִֽנְנִי אֵלֶיךָ הַר הַמַּשְׁחִית (Yirmiyahu 51:25) is a fortified city, since Bavel is nothing but a plain, and Targum Yonasan rendered it כְּרַכָּא מְחַבְּלָא, the destroying city.
הֶעֱמַדְתָּה לְֽהַֽרְרִי עֹז (תהלים ל, ח), בְּהַֽרֲרָם שֵׂעִיר (בראשית יד, ו). ובמקצת ספרים הרי"ש בחטף פתח ומקצתם בשוא לבדו. והנפרד מהם הֶרֶר בפלס אֶרֶץ. והקבוץ הֲרָרִים. ובסמוך כְּֽהַרְרֵי־אֵל (תהלים לו, ז), יְסוּדָתוֹ בְּהַרְרֵי־קֹֽדֶשׁ (תהלים פז, א), וּמֵֽהֲרָרֶיהָ תַּחְצֹב נְחֽשֶׁת (דברים ח, ט), והתאר הֲרָרִי בַּשָּׂדֶה (ירמיה יז, ג). ובנפול אות הכפל הַר. ובתוספת ה"א הֶרָה נָּֽסוּ (בראשית יד, י), ובאו הה"א בפתח קטן תחת פתח גדול. ולרבים הָרִים וראוי להדגש לולי הרי"ש. נוּדִו [נוּדִי] הַרְכֶם צִפּֽוֹר (תהלים יא, א) הר שלכם. ויש מפרשים שהם שתי מלות הר כמו צפור. ויש מפרשים בְּהַֽרֲרָם שֵׂעִיר מקור מהדגוש. ויש להשיב עליהן מפני פתחות הה"א. ויש מפרשים מזה עַל־בִּקְעָם הָרוֹת הַגִּלְעָד (עמוס א, יג), וְהָרֹֽתֵיהֶם תְּבַקֵּֽעַ (מלכים ב' ח, יב), ואם הם מן השרש הזה והענין הזה רצה לומר על הערים הבצורות והרמות בהרים. וכן הִֽנְנִי אֵלֶיךָ הַר הַמַּשְׁחִית (ירמיה נא, כה), עיר בצורה, כי בבל אינה כי אם בקעה. וכן תרגם יונתן כְּרַכָּא מְחַבְּלָא. ובא הר מכונה מלשון נקבה שְׁמָמָה תִֽהְיֶה הַר־שֵׂעִיר (יחזקאל לה, טו).
Radak, Sefer HaShorashim, Berlin 1847. Public domain, digitised by Sefaria from the National Library of Israel.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Behar: Making Mountains Out of Hills," What's in a Word?, 15 May 2019. Ohr Somayach does not carry this one; the book manuscript has it as Making Mountains out of Hills, filed under Eikev.
Cited in the essay: Shir HaShirim 2:8; Yirmiyahu 31:21; Rosh Hashanah 11a; Berachos 61a; Radak to Tehillim 114:4; the Vilna Gaon, Aderes Eliyahu to Yeshayahu 2:2, Chavakuk 2:6 and Shir HaShirim 2:8; Malbim to Yeshayahu 2:2 and Yair Ohr; Emunas Eliezer, Purim ch. 4, end of §5; Rabbi Shlomo Aharon Wertheimer, Beiurei Shemos Nirdafim, s.v. הר/גבעה/פסגה.