names of the Jewish people

יְדוּ אֵלֶיהָ (Yirmiyahu 50:14) is explained as השליכו, cast at her. Rabbi Yehudah said that גָּמוּל יָדוֹ הָדָה (Yeshayahu 11:8), the weaned child will cast forth his hand, is from this root, the yud exchanged for a heh. In the heavy form, לְיַדּוֹת אֶת קַרְנוֹת הַגּוֹיִם (Zecharyah 2:4), to cast down the horns of the nations, and וַיַּדּוּ אֶבֶן בִּי (Eichah 3:53), they cast a stone at me, whose proper form is וַיְיַּדּוּ. Radak's father holds that it is of the added heavy form, its proper form being וְיַיְּדּוּ.

The heavy form with the added letter is in another sense, praise and thanksgiving: הוֹדִינוּ לְּךָ (Tehillim 75:2), we give thanks to You; גַּם אֲנִי אוֹדְךָ בִכְלִי נֶבֶל (Tehillim 71:22), I too will thank You with the harp; יוֹדוּ שִׁמְךָ גָּדוֹל וְנוֹרָא (Tehillim 99:3), let them praise Your name, great and awesome; and עַל כֵּן עַמִּים יְהוֹדֻךָ (Tehillim 45:18), therefore peoples will praise You. Another noun form is תּוֹדָה וְקוֹל זִמְרָה (Yeshayahu 51:3), thanksgiving and the sound of song.

The name is taken from it: עַל כֵּן קָרְאָה שְׁמוֹ יְהוּדָה (Bereishis 29:35), therefore she called his name Yehudah. Since the mainstay of Israel's kingship and their strong horn was Yehudah, all Israel were called יהודים, Jews: וְאֶל הַיְּהוּדִים כִּכְתָבָם (Esther 8:9), and to the Jews in their own script, and וְהֶחֱזִיקוּ בִּכְנַף אִישׁ יְהוּדִי (Zecharyah 8:23), they will take hold of the corner of a Jew's garment. The holy tongue was named for it too, וְאַל תְּדַבֵּר אֵלֵינוּ יְהוּדִית (Yeshayahu 36:11), do not speak to us in Yehudis; and a verb was built from it for turning from the nations to the faith of the Jews, וְרַבִּים מֵעַמֵּי הָאָרֶץ מִתְיַהֲדִים (Esther 8:17), and many of the peoples of the land became Jews.

Another sense is confession: וּמוֹדֶה וְעֹזֵב יְרֻחָם (Mishlei 28:13), one who confesses and forsakes will be shown mercy, and וְגַם אֲנִי אוֹדֶךָּ (Iyov 40:14), and I too will acknowledge you, though אודך there may be of the second sense. יוֹדוּךָ אַחֶיךָ (Bereishis 49:8), your brothers will acknowledge you, is: they will acknowledge to you that you are fit to rule over them. The reflexive is וְהִתְוַדָּה אֲשֶׁר חָטָא עָלֶיהָ (Vayikra 5:5), he shall confess that in which he sinned, and וְהִתְוַדּוּ אֶת חַטָּאתָם אֲשֶׁר עָשׂוּ (Bamidbar 5:7), they shall confess their sin that they did. The sense of confession is known.

From this sense is זְבַח לֵאלֹהִים תּוֹדָה (Tehillim 50:14), offer a todah to Hashem: the offering over which a man confesses his sins is called תּוֹדָה. It did not carry the law of a chatas or an asham, only that of shelamim, and the todah was eaten only for a day and a night. Though it came upon sins it was neither chatas nor asham, since those come for one particular sin, while a man brought this offering for all his sins together, when he wished to confess and return to the good way. Some say a man brought it when a nes was done for him, and that it is called תּוֹדָה because he was thanking Hashem for the nes done for him. The Torah's words are אִם עַל תּוֹדָה יַקְרִיבֶנּוּ (Vayikra 7:12), if he offers it for a todah.

שְׁתֵּי תוֹדֹת גְּדוֹלֹת (Nechemiah 12:31), two great todos, are two todah breads of chametz, as it is written, עַל חַלֹּת לֶחֶם חָמֵץ יַקְרִיב קָרְבָּנוֹ (Vayikra 7:13), with loaves of chametz bread he shall bring his offering. They are called great because of the matzah there were three kinds and of the chametz only one, so that the one kind of chametz stands against the three kinds of matzah. Rabbi Yehudah and Rabbi Yonah put שְׁתֵּי תוֹדֹת גְּדוֹלֹת and וְהַתּוֹדָה הַשֵּׁנִית (Nechemiah 12:38), and the second todah, in another sense, and Rabbi Yonah explained them as a term of assembly, a congregation and congregations. Chazal explained them as Radak has written: the Mishnah in the second perek of Shevuos says that the city and the azaros are added to only with a beis din of seventy-one, with two todos and with song, the beis din walking and the two todos after them, the inner one eaten and the outer burned; and the Gemara there teaches that the two todos spoken of are in their bread and not in their flesh, from the pasuk ואעמידה שתי תודות גדולות, and I set up two great todos.

לְעָבְרְךָ בִּבְרִית (Devarim 29:11), for you to pass into a covenant, which he explains from the practice itself: the slaughtered animal or bird is cut in two and the parties to the covenant pass between the pieces, as אֲשֶׁר עָבַר בֵּין הַגְּזָרִים הָאֵלֶּה (Bereishis 15:17), which passed between these pieces. לַעֲבֹר בְּרִיתוֹ (Devarim 17:2), to transgress His covenant, is not the same: it means to forsake and abandon the covenant and pass over it, as though it said מעל בריתו, away from His covenant. וָאֶתֵּן לָהֶם יַעַבְרוּם (Yirmiyahu 8:13) he explains: I gave them the mitzvos, and they pass them off from themselves and leave them. וּמַיִם לֹא יַעַבְרוּ פִיו (Mishlei 8:29), and the waters shall not pass His word, is that they do not pass beyond what He says but do as He commanded; and זַמֹּתִי בַּל יַעֲבָר פִּי (Tehillim 17:3) he reads: my mouth does not pass beyond my thought, but as my mouth is so is my thought, for I am not one thing in the mouth and another in the heart.

מַעֲבַר יַבֹּק (Bereishis 32:23), the ford of Yabok, and עָבְרוּ מַעְבָּרָה (Yeshayahu 10:29), they have crossed the ford. Where the verb takes an object it is to bring across or to pass through: הֶעֱבִיר אֶת בְּנוֹ בָּאֵשׁ (Melachim II 21:6), he passed his son through the fire. מַעֲבִרִים (Shmuel I 2:24), said of Hashem's people, he explains as turning them away, keeping them from coming to the Beis HaMikdash to bring offerings. Some read it as in וַיַּעֲבִירוּ קוֹל (Shemos 36:6), they passed word round; on that reading the sense is: I hear that people are passing word about you that you sin, and are murmuring against you.

The noun is הָעֲבָרָה, a crossing: וְעָבְרָה הָעֲבָרָה לַעֲבִיר אֶת בֵּית הַמֶּלֶךְ (Shmuel II 19:19), and the crossing went over to bring the king's household across. Some take הָעֲבָרָה as a name for the small boat that ferries, in which people cross the breadth of a river.

עֹבֵר לַסֹּחֵר (Bereishis 23:16), current with the merchant. The silver, he says, is sometimes taken in by the merchant and sometimes paid out by him, so that it is always passing to and from his hand.

וּכְגֶבֶר עֲבָרוֹ יָיִן (Yirmiyahu 23:9), like a man whom wine has passed over, he explains as the wine having passed over him and made him drunk; or as its having got past him, being stronger than he, as in וַיַּעֲבֹר אֶת הַכּוּשִׁי (Shmuel II 18:23), he outran the Kushi, that is, ran faster than he and passed him; and so עָבְרוּ דִבְרֵי רָע (Yirmiyahu 5:28), they did worse than other wicked men had done.

מֵעֵבֶר הַנָּהָר (Shmuel II 10:16), from the side of the river, and מִכָּל עֲבָרָיו (Melachim I 5:4), on all his sides. עִבְרִי אָנֹכִי (Yonah 1:9), I am a Hebrew, he takes as being of the family of Ever. וְהֵאִיר עַל עֵבֶר פָּנֶיהָ (Shemos 25:37), and it shall give light over against its face, he explains: the mouths of the six lamps at the heads of the branches that come out of its sides are turned toward the middle one, so that the light of the lamps falls on the face of the middle shaft, which is the body of the menorah.

In another sense, וַיְעַבֵּר (Melachim I 6:21), with בְּרַתּוּקוֹת זָהָב, chains of gold, means ויבריח, he barred across. The Targum of מַבְרִחַ מִן הַקָּצֶה אֶל הַקָּצֶה (Shemos 26:28), barring from end to end, is מַעְבַּר מִן סְיָפֵי לִסְיָפֵי, passing across from end to end.

עֹבֵר מִתְעַבֵּר עַל רִיב לֹּא לוֹ (Mishlei 26:17), one who passes by and grows angry at a quarrel not his own, and וַיִּתְעַבֵּר (Devarim 3:26), and He was angry. The noun is עֶבְרָה, as עֶבְרָה וָזַעַם וְצָרָה (Tehillim 78:49), wrath and indignation and trouble. Their sense, he says, is wrath and burning anger.

מֵעֲבוּר הָאָרֶץ (Yehoshua 5:11), the grain of the land; he suggests that the grain of the year past may be called עבור while that of the year coming is תבואה. And בַּעֲבוּר is because of, as בַּעֲבוּר דָּוִד (Tehillim 132:10), for David's sake. He remarks that the word is not rightly used without its bet, as some of the paytanim use it.

שׁוֹרוֹ עִבַּר (Iyov 21:10), his bull breeds: this usage is well known in the words of Chazal, פרה מעוברת, a cow in calf (Bava Kamma 9:1, 93b), and they use it often; the sense of שׁוֹרוֹ עִבַּר he has explained at the root גָּעַל. His father takes וְעֶבְרָתוֹ לֹא כֵן בַּדָּיו (Yeshayahu 16:6) in this sense, of conceiving. On that reading בַּדָּיו are his sons, and they are לֹא כֵן, not so, because his sons are no true sons, being mamzerim; one who considered the conception from Lot their father would not have been proud.

וּבְאוֹנוֹ שָׂרָה אֶת־אֱלֹהִים (Hoshea 12:4), in his strength he contended with Elokim, and כִּי־שָׂרִיתָ עִם־אֱלֹהִים (Bereishis 32:29), for you have contended with Elokim; and the noun לְמַרְבֵּה הַמִּשְׂרָה (Yeshayahu 9:6), for the increase of the dominion. He adds only that the sense is known, and does not define it.

Rabbi Yehudah put שֵׁרִיתִיךָ לְטוֹב (Yirmiyahu 15:11) under this root, and Rabbi Yonah wrote the same, with the explanation that it is akin to the Aramaic וּמְשָׁרֵא קִטְרִין (Daniel 5:12), and loosing knots, so that on that reading it is I have released you for good. Radak has already written it under another root. His father explains תַּחַת כָּל הַשָּׁמַיִם יִשְׁרֵהוּ (Iyov 37:3), under all the heavens He looses it, from this root, and Radak spells out what that comes to: that He looses the binding of the clouds and rains upon the corners of the earth. The same words are also read from steeping. שָׁרוֹתַיִךְ מַעֲרָבֵךְ (Yechezkel 27:25) Radak has written under another root again, and its sense is given there.

וְכָל מִשְׁרַת עֲנָבִים (Bamidbar 6:3), and any steeping of grapes, which he says is known from the words of Chazal: אין שורין דיו וסממנין (Shabbos 1:5), one may not steep ink and dyes, and so they said ולא במי משרה (Berachos 3:5), and not in the water of steeping.

וַיִּלְבַּשׁ צְדָקָה כַּשִּׁרְיָן (Yeshayahu 59:17), he put on righteousness as a coat of mail, בֵּין הַדְּבָקִים וּבֵין הַשִּׁרְיָן (Melachim I 22:34), between the joints and the mail, and וּמִשְׁקַל הַשִּׁרְיוֹן (Shmuel I 17:5), the weight of the mail. וְשִׁרְיוֹן קַשְׂקַשִּׂים (Shmuel I 17:5), a mail of scales, is one made in the manner of scales. With a heh, חֲנִית מַסָּע וְשִׁרְיָה (Iyov 41:18), spear, dart and coat of mail, the שִׁרְיָה being, he says, the תחרה. The plural, with a cholam, is וְשִׁרְיֹנוֹת וּקְשָׁתוֹת (Divrei HaYamim II 26:14), coats of mail and bows.

חֲבַצֶּלֶת הַשָּׁרוֹן (Shir HaShirim 2:1), the rose of the Sharon, and הָיָה הַשָּׁרוֹן כָּעֲרָבָה (Yeshayahu 33:9), the Sharon has become like a wilderness: it has been explained as a land of level ground and a fat place, and so וְעַל הַבָּקָר הָרֹעִים בַּשָּׁרוֹן (Divrei HaYamim I 27:29), and over the cattle grazing in the Sharon. שִׁרְטַי הַשָּׁרוֹנִי, Shirtai the Sharonite, is a name.