nose

Af sometimes means the whole surface of the face: בזעת אפיך תאכל לחם, "by the sweat of your face you will eat bread" (Bereishis 3:19); וישתחו לאפיו ארצה, "he bowed with his face to the ground" (Bereishis 48:12); אפים ארצה, "face to the ground" (Bereishis 19:1). The plural apayim is for the face's two sides, right and left, and since they are never more than two it is pointed with a patach and a voiced yud, as are שנים ידים רגלים רחים, "two, hands, feet, millstones", things always a pair and never more; nouns of this kind are called the pair-name. So ולחנה יתן מנה אחת אפים, "to Chanah he would give one portion of apayim" (Shmuel I 1:5), is a fine, whole portion that has a face, as one would say a whole breast, since a portion cut up no longer has a face.

Af is sometimes the nose alone: ויפח באפיו נשמת חיים, "He blew into his nose the breath of life" (Bereishis 2:7); וברוח אפיך, "and with the wind of Your nose" (Shemos 15:8); וריח אפך, "and the scent of your nose" (Shir HaShirim 7:9); אף להם ולא יריחון, "they have a nose and do not smell" (Tehillim 115:6). The nose is the glory of the face and its plainest sign, as Chazal say (Yevamos 120a) of testimony for an agunah, אין מעידין אלא על פרצוף פנים עם החוטם, "one testifies only to the features of the face with the nose". For that reason, Rav Pappenheim holds, the nose too is called af, the chief part of a thing being called by the name of the whole. באפיו, "into his nose", is plural for the nose's two sides and its nostrils.

Anger too is called af, ארור אפם, "cursed be their anger" (Bereishis 49:7), because anger leaves its mark on the face and the nose. When anger grows until hot air comes out of the nose it is charon af, "burning anger". So ארך אפים, "slow to anger", literally long of apayim (Mishlei 16:32), is plural for two kinds of anger: anger of the face, which is plain anger, and anger of the nose, which is charon af. It means one who is long-suffering with the middling wicked, and also with the utterly wicked who deserve charon af.

The verb from af as the face is afaf, of the kind with a doubled letter, which marks intensity: אפפוני משברי מות, "the breakers of death turned upon me" (Shmuel II 22:5); אפפו עלי רעות, "evils turned upon me" (Tehillim 40:13); אפפוני מים עד נפש, "waters turned upon me, up to the soul" (Yonah 2:6). In all of them it is the turning of the face toward the thing, and it speaks of something bad, since whatever goes beyond the plain course points to disgrace. Its opposite is כי פנו אלי ערף ולא פנים, "for they have turned to Me the back of the neck and not the face" (Yirmiyahu 2:27).

From af comes afah, baking: ומצות אפה, "and he baked matzos" (Bereishis 19:3); ויאפו את הבצק, "and they baked the dough" (Shemos 12:39). Baking makes a face for the dough. Raw dough has no face, its inside being like its outside; once it is baked and a skin forms over it from the fire, that is the bread's face.

From afah the eifah, a measure, takes its name: עשירית האיפה, "a tenth of the eifah" (Shemos 16:36); איפה שלמה וצדק, "a whole and just eifah" (Devarim 25:15). It is a vessel holding the flour or grain baked at one time for the household, for a week or a month, by the measure of a middling home. The omer holds the grain threshed from one sheaf (omer); since the omer is a tenth of the eifah, an eifah is what is threshed from ten sheaves, the true amount baked at once for a middling household in a middling oven. The eifah is a tenth of the chomer, a stack of a hundred sheaves like those made in the fields at harvest time, heaps upon heaps of the harvest sheaves: ועשירית החומר האיפה, "and the eifah a tenth of the chomer" (Yechezkel 45:11); והעמר עשירית האיפה, "and the omer is a tenth of the eifah" (Shemos 16:36).

From af as the nose comes, by borrowing, the word af for what is new and surprising in a thing that goes beyond the plain course. When a statement gathers many subjects, af falls on the one that holds something new and remarkable: as the nose stands out on the surface of the face and makes its mark, so that remarkable thing stands out over the whole statement. That is the אף על פי, "even though", of Chazal's language, used when they speak of something remarkable: as the nose stands out above the mouth, so is such-and-such. Where there is a novelty upon a novelty they say אף על גב, "even though", literally a nose upon a back: the one is new and stands out like a back (gav), and what is new beyond it stands out further still, like a nose set upon a back.

אף כי אמר אלהים לא תאכלו מכל עץ הגן, "af ki Elokim said, you shall not eat of any tree of the garden" (Bereishis 3:1), is af of novelty: that they may not eat even of the rest of the garden's trees. It is not a question, nor even the serpent's own style of speech, but the style of the writer of the Torah, telling briefly that the serpent drew Chavah into a dispute over eating the garden's fruit, the gist of it being the serpent's contention that they were not permitted to eat even of all the other trees. So ki fits well here, as the word by which the one telling the story announces it, since ki here is used in the sense of i, "if".

האף תספה צדיק עם רשע, "will You even sweep away the righteous with the wicked?" (Bereishis 18:23): it goes without saying that You do not destroy the righteous when there is no charon af, but even when there is charon af and You destroy the wicked, it is still not fitting for You to destroy the righteous with them. ואף בעונות אבותם אתם ימקו, "and even in the sins of their fathers with them they will waste away" (Vayikra 26:39): not only in their own sin, the new sins done by full free choice, but even in sins inherited from their fathers that have become a nature in them beyond a man's power, as when the father was an adulterer or quick to anger and it becomes the son's nature to commit adultery and to rage. Even for those they will waste away, since for all that a man has the strength to bend the shoulders of nature under the yoke of willed and reasoned choice. אף לא אל ארץ זבת חלב ודבש הביאותנו, "you have not even brought us to a land flowing with milk and honey" (Bamidbar 16:14): had you brought us into Eretz Yisrael after the troubles of the wilderness, then, bad and bitter as it is to suffer many troubles to inherit the land, there would still be some way to quiet the complaint; now not even this has come about, for you have completed the bad and the good is left out of reach. Wherever af is used it means afilu, "even", and something remarkable.

וזכרתי את בריתי יעקב ואף את בריתי יצחק ואף את בריתי אברהם אזכור, "and I will remember My covenant with Yaakov, and af My covenant with Yitzchak, and af My covenant with Avraham I will remember" (Vayikra 26:42). Had the Avos been named in order of descent, from first to last, gam and vegam, "also" and "and also", would fit, the sense being "this, and needless to say that". Named from last to first, af fits, "not only this but even that": not only will I remember the covenant of Yaakov, near in time, but even that of Yitzchak, farther off, and even that of Avraham, farther still. In that measure the land too will be remembered, far as it is from the lands of exile, since all times and all places are one before His providence.

Joined to ki, af means kol shekein, "all the more so": הן בעודני חי עמכם ממרים הייתם, "while I am still alive with you, you have been rebels" against Hashem, ואף כי אחרי מותי, "and af ki after my death" (Devarim 31:27); that is, all the more so you will not stop being rebels after my death, a positive that follows from a negation hidden in the statement. Af alone, "even", would fit only had they not rebelled in the speaker's lifetime, to say that even after his death they would not rebel. Since they did rebel in his lifetime, af alone says nothing remarkable of after his death, and so ki is added: "should I suppose of you that even after my death you will not be rebels?", reasoning from one opposite to the other. So too הן צדיק בארץ ישולם, אף כי רשע וחוטא, "behold, the righteous is repaid on earth, af ki the wicked and the sinner" (Mishlei 11:31): should one suppose that even he who is wicked and sinning is nonetheless not repaid? And ואף כי אמר אליך רחץ וטהר, "and af ki he said to you, wash and be clean" (Melachim II 5:13): should one suppose that even a small thing he told you, you are permitted to refuse that too?

The midrash counts these statements among the ten kal vachomers in Scripture (Bereishis Rabbah 92:7). Rav Pappenheim distinguishes those with ve'eich, "and how", from those with af ki. With eich the conclusion is stated outright, positive or negative: הן בני ישראל לא שמעו אלי, ואיך ישמעני פרעה, "behold, the Bnei Yisrael have not listened to me, and how will Pharaoh listen to me?" (Shemos 6:12), says in so many words that Pharaoh will not listen; הן כסף אשר מצאנו, "behold, the silver that we found", and so on, ואיך נגנוב מבית אדוניך, "and how would we steal from your master's house?" (Bereishis 44:8), says outright that they would not steal. With af ki the conclusion, positive or negative, is not stated: ואף כי אחרי מותי, "and af ki after my death" (Devarim 31:27), does not make plain whether they will rebel or not; it follows from the hidden negation, understood of itself.

Gam is said where things share in one matter: what is in one thing and also in a second, gam falls on the second. כי גם זה לך בן, "for this one too is a son for you" (Bereishis 35:17); הגם הלום ראיתי, "have I here too seen" (Bereishis 16:13); ויצו גם את השני גם את השלישי, "he commanded also the second, also the third" (Bereishis 32:20); גם מתמול גם משלשום, "both since yesterday and since the day before" (Shemos 4:10); בשגם הוא בשר, "for he too is flesh" (Bereishis 6:3), man too being flesh like the other living creatures; גם צאנכם גם בקרכם קחו, "take also your flocks, also your herds" (Shemos 12:32), as you take your little ones; וברכתם גם אותי, "and bless me too" (Shemos 12:32), as you bless one another, as is the custom on a festival. Af is used where the thing that shares, though it differs greatly from its fellow, still shares with it in the matter spoken of, and that is a novelty. גם כי אלך בגיא צלמות לא אירא רע, "though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil" (Tehillim 23:4), holds a novelty, but its intent is the plain equality: in a land of peace or in the valley of death he has no fear. Had it said אף כי אלך בגיא צלמות, "af ki I walk in the valley of the shadow of death", its chief intent would be that even in the valley of death, more dangerous than other places, he does not fear.

Where a statement holds a plain equality and an equality upon a novelty together, it says af gam: ואף גם זאת בהיותם בארץ אויביהם לא מאסתים, "and even also this, when they are in the land of their enemies I will not have despised them" (Vayikra 26:44). The plain equality is that they are not despised whether in their own land or in other lands; the remarkable thing is that even in the land of their enemies, where for their rebellion they deserve to be despised, still they are not. Gam marks the equality, which the statement names; af the wonder, which it does not name outright. The reverse, gam af, is not correct: gam goes back to the matter named, so af may not come between them, and one must say instead mah gam, "all the more".

From af comes na'af, adultery. As anger shows on the face, which is why anger is called af, so the lust for harlotry shows on the face, and one expert in faces knows at once who is lecherous by nature. Most of all when a woman comes toward him: at once his look changes, his lips are like a boiling pot, his cheeks burn like coals of fire, his eyes flash like torches of lightning, and the lines of his face go astray, jumbled and distorted. So na'af carries a nun, the letter that marks being acted upon, because the look of the face is acted upon and changed. Na'af then means not the act of harlotry but the look of the face drawn from the urge to it, and the act took its name from the passing look that comes of it, just as anger itself is called af for the change it works on the face.

That is why af was borrowed only for anger and for adultery. Every other trait, pride and humility, jealousy and hatred, flattery and the like, also marks the face and testifies to its owner, yet a man can hide it and give himself a face as though he were the opposite of what he is. Not anger and lust: when the urge for either overpowers him, no stratagem helps him deny the stirring of his heart and keep his face as it was. It changes against his will, through the suddenness and force of the boiling blood that rises over all its banks and breaks out onto the face in a fierce flood.

Chazal say there is ni'uf only with a married woman, and Rav Pappenheim holds that this is because ni'uf speaks of the changed face of the adulterer. With a married woman the face changes far more than in other harlotry, since the adulterer bears two fears, fear of shame lest people notice him and fear of punishment from the husband if he notices; lust grows in the measure of the fear, there being no pleasure like completing a deed bound up with many dangers. So the face of one with a married woman, compounded of fear and dread with longing and lust, cannot but change into many colours, and ni'uf is said above all of a married woman.

Na'af in the light form differs from mena'ef in the heavy, and no'efes from mena'efes. The light: מות יומת הנואף והנואפת, "the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death" (Vayikra 20:10). The heavy: זרע מנאף ותזנה, "seed of an adulterer, and she played the harlot" (Yeshayahu 57:3); כן דרך אשה מנאפת, "so is the way of an adulterous woman" (Mishlei 30:20). The light form is what he undergoes from the woman; the heavy is the things he does so that the woman is moved by him to desire, such as winking with his eyes. So a woman moved by the man is called no'efes, in the light form, and one who uses deeds and gestures to rouse the man's longing is mena'efes, in the heavy.