names of Yosef

בְּרָכָה בְּקֶרֶב הָאָֽרֶץ (Yeshayahu 19:24), a blessing in the midst of the earth; בְרָכוֹת לָעַד (Tehillim 21:7), blessings for ever; בִּרְכֹת שָׁמַיִם מֵעָל בִּרְכֹת תְּהוֹם רֹבֶצֶת תָּחַת (Bereishis 49:25), blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep couching beneath; בֵּרַךְ אֶת־אַבְרָהָם בַּכֹּֽל (Bereishis 24:1), He blessed Avraham in all. וּבֵרֵךְ וְלֹא אֲשִׁיבֶנָּה (Bamidbar 23:20), and He has blessed and I will not turn it back, is a past verb too, for it means that Hashem has blessed them and I will not turn the blessing back from them. The forms בְּרוּכָה and בְּרוּכִים, blessed, and their like are all describing words, he says, since the simple verb was not built from this root. Where created beings bless Hashem it is like praise, as בָּֽרֲכִי נַפְשִׁי אֶת־י"י (Tehillim 103:22), bless Hashem, my soul.

בֵּרַךְ נָבוֹת אֱלֹהִים (Melachim I 21:13), Navos blessed Hashem, and בָּרֵךְ אֱלֹהִים וָמֻֽת (Iyov 2:9), bless Hashem and die, and their like, are a way of speaking around a curse.

קַח־נָא אֶת־ בִּרְכָתִי (Bereishis 33:11), take my berachah, he glosses מנחתי, my gift; likewise קַח־נָא בְרָכָה מֵאֵת עַבְדֶּֽךָ (Melachim II 5:15), take a gift from your servant. It may be that מְבָרֵֽךְ אָוֶן (Yeshayahu 66:3) is of this sort too, the מְבָרֵךְ being one who brings the gift, and אָוֶן iniquity. So too לִשְׁאָל־לוֹ לְשָׁלוֹם וּלְבָֽרֲכוֹ, to ask after his peace and to bring him a gift, as he explains the last word.

וְאָֽרוֹתִי אֶת־ בִּרְכֽוֹתֵיכֶם (Malachi 2:2), and I will curse your blessings, is not of that sort, against what Rabbi Yonah wrote. Radak says it is blessing in the plain sense, and the proof is that the pasuk says וְאָֽרוֹתִי, and I will curse, since the curse is the opposite of the blessing: a blessing adds to the good and a curse takes from it.

עֲשׂוּ־אִתִּי בְרָכָה (Yeshayahu 36:16), make a berachah with me, he glosses פשרה ושלום, a settlement and peace. Like it are וַיְבָרֶךְ יַֽעֲקֹב אֶת־פַּרְעֹֽה (Bereishis 47:7), and Yaakov greeted Pharaoh, and כִּי תִמְצָא־אִישׁ לֹא תְבָֽרֲכֶנּוּ (Melachim II 4:29), if you meet a man do not greet him, which are the asking after another's peace; and all of them, he says, are the sense of blessing.

Another sense is kneeling: וַיִּבְרַךְ עַל־ בִּרְכָּיו (Divrei HaYamim II 6:13), and he knelt upon his knees, and נִבְרְכָה לִפְנֵֽי־י"י עֹשֵֽׂנוּ (Tehillim 95:6), let us kneel before Hashem our Maker. The heavy form is וַיַּבְרֵךְ הַגְּמַלִּים (Bereishis 24:11), he made the camels kneel, and with it he sets וַיִּקְרְאוּ לְפָנָיו אַבְרֵךְ (Bereishis 41:43), and they called before him אַבְרֵךְ: the alef stands in place of the heh of הַבְרֵך, or else it is the alef of one speaking of himself, each one calling אַבְרֵךְ before him. The noun is the knee: תִּכְרַע כָּל־ בֶּרֶךְ (Yeshayahu 45:23), every knee shall bow; כָּֽרְעוּ עַל־ בִּרְכֵיהֶם (Shoftim 7:6), they knelt upon their knees, which the Mesorah marks as one of the two places where the word is left soft.

הַבְּרֵכָה הָֽעֶלְיוֹנָה (Yeshayahu 7:3), the upper pool. Some explain bereichah as a spring; the truth, he says, is that it is water gathered together and not a spring. So too in the words of Chazal (Moed Katan 4a): the pesakos and the berechos that filled with water before yom tov may not be used for watering on chol hamoed. He explains their two words himself: the pesakos are ditches not built up with stones, and the berechos ditches built with stones and plaster, into which rainwater is gathered, or water is gathered, or water is drawn to them from the spring. So בְּרֵכוֹת מָיִם (Koheles 2:6), pools of water. It may be that גַּם־ בְּרָכוֹת יַעְטֶה מוֹרֶֽה (Tehillim 84:7), the early rain covers it with pools too, is like them, and so הָֽבָה־לִּי בְרָכָה כִּי אֶרֶץ הַנֶּגֶב נְתַתָּנִי (Shoftim 1:15), give me a pool, for you have given me the land of the Negev, though the resh there has a kamatz, a kamatz in place of a tzeirei as in many words; or it is blessing proper.

וְלֹא־ יָֽסְפָה שׁוּב־אֵלָיו עֽוֹד (Bereishis 8:12), and it did not again return to him any more; לֹא אֹסֵף לִשְׁמֹעַ (Devarim 18:16), I will not again hear. קוֹל גָּדוֹל וְלֹא יָסָף (Devarim 5:22 in his edition), a great voice, and it did not add, means that no other great voice like it came again.

וַיִּֽתְנַבְּאוּ וְלֹא יָסָֽפוּ (Bamidbar 11:25), and they prophesied and did not add, which he explains as they did not prophesy again, as Chazal said in Maseches Sanhedrin that they prophesied that day alone. The Targum took the words in another sense, rendering וְלָא פָּסְקָן, and they did not cease.

יָסַפְתָּ עַל־הַשְּׁמוּעָה אֲשֶׁר שָׁמָֽעְתִּי (Divrei HaYamim II 9:6), you have added to the report that I heard; אַל־ תּוֹסְףְ עַל־דְּבָרָיו (Mishlei 30:6), do not add to His words; and in the passive וְנוֹסַף גַּם־הוּא עַל־שֹׂנְאֵינוּ (Shemos 1:10), and he too will be added to our enemies.

כִּי לֹא תוֹסִיפִי יִקְרְאוּ־לָךְ רַכָּה וַֽעֲנֻגָּֽה (Yeshayahu 47:1), for you shall no more be called tender and delicate, and כִּי לֹא תוֹסִיפִי יִקְרְאוּ־לָךְ גְּבֶרֶת מַמְלָכֽוֹת (Yeshayahu 47:5), for you shall no more be called mistress of kingdoms, both carry the stress on the last syllable, with a single pashta, and the Mesorah marks the two so. The sense of all of it is known. Rabbi Yonah separated them; Radak says there is no need, and all of it is one sense.

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.

יַעַן רַךְ ־לְבָבְךָ (Melachim II 22:19), because your heart was soft; רַכּוּ דְבָרָיו מִשֶּׁמֶן (Tehillim 55:22), his words were softer than oil; רַךְ וָטוֹב (Bereishis 18:7), tender and good; כִּֽי־הַיְלָדִים רַכִּים (Bereishis 33:13), that the children are tender; וְעֵינֵי לֵאָה רַכּוֹת (Bereishis 29:17), and Leah's eyes were tender.

רַךְ וּמָשׁוּחַ מֶלֶךְ (Shmuel II 3:39), soft and an anointed king, he explains to mean that in the matter of kingship he was still soft, as a lad is soft.

אַל־ יֵרַךְ לְבַבְכֶם (Devarim 20:3), let not your heart grow faint; וְאֵל הֵרַךְ לִבִּי (Iyov 23:16), and Hashem made my heart faint; וְלֹא רֻכְּכָה בַּשָּֽׁמֶן (Yeshayahu 1:6), nor softened with oil; and the noun וְהֵבֵאתִי מֹרֶךְ (Vayikra 26:36), and I will bring faintness.