rain

הַגֶּשֶׁם וְהַשֶּׁלֶג (Yeshayahu 55:10), the rain and the snow; גֶּשֶׁם שׁוֹטֵף (Yechezkel 13:11), an overflowing rain; וַיּוֹרֶד לָכֶם גֶּשֶׁם (Yoel 2:23), and He brought down rain for you. It is the strong rain. In the plural, וְנָֽתַתִּי גִשְׁמֵיכֶם בְּעִתָּם (Vayikra 26:4), and I will give your rains in their season.

On נָטַע אֹרֶן וְגֶשֶׁם יְגַדֵּֽל (Yeshayahu 44:14), he planted an oren and the rain makes it grow, the Targum says וּמִטְרָא יְרַבֵּי, and the rain makes it grow. Some explain geshem here as the name of a tree, and some as a body, from the Aramaic גִּשְׁמֵהּ יִצְטַבַּע (Daniel 4:30), his body was drenched. Radak holds the right reading is rain.

It is plain that rain makes everything grow, so the pasuk comes to say that although a man plants the tree for avodah zarah, the rain grows it; and though the rain comes on Hashem's errand and by His will, the world goes on in its way. As Chazal said on this matter (Avodah Zarah 54b), one who stole a se'ah of wheat and sowed it, by right it should not sprout, but the world goes on in its way, and the fools who acted corruptly will in time give account.

לֹא גֻשְׁמָהּ בְּיוֹם זָֽעַם (Yechezkel 22:24) he takes as a noun of another pattern, since the heh carries a mappik: alone it would be גֹּֽשֶׁם, rain, on the pattern of גֹּֽרֶל, a lot, and with a suffix joined it takes a shuruk, as כְּרֹב גֻּדְּלֽוֹ (Tehillim 150:2), according to His abundant greatness. The pasuk then means that its rain did not come down in the day of wrath. It may also be a passive verb, it was not rained upon, with the mappik there for the beauty of the reading and not out of need, like וְתַֽעֲלֻמָהּ יֹצִא אֽוֹר (Iyov 28:11), and He brings the hidden thing out to light.

יָרָה בַיָּם (Shemos 15:4), He cast into the sea, הַמַּצֵּבָה אֲשֶׁר יָרִיתִי (Bereishis 31:51), the pillar that I have cast, וְיָרִיתִי לָכֶם גּוֹרָל (Yehoshua 18:6), I will cast lots for you, and לִירוֹת בְּמוֹ־אֹפֶל (Tehillim 11:2), to shoot in the dark. With an alef in place of the heh, לִירוֹא בַּחִצִּים וּבָאֲבָנִים גְּדֹלוֹת (Divrei HaYamim II 26:15), to shoot arrows and great stones. In the passive, אוֹ־יָרֹה יִיָּרֶה (Shemos 19:13), or he shall surely be shot. וַנִּירָם אָבַד חֶשְׁבּוֹן he reads as we shot at them and fought them until Cheshbon perished. הַמּוֹרִים אֶל־עֲבָדֶךָ (Shmuel II 11:24), the shooters at your servants, וַיִּמְצָאֻהוּ הַמּוֹרִים אֲנָשִׁים בַּקָּשֶׁת (Shmuel I 31:3), and the shooters, men with the bow, found him, and וַיֹּרֵם אֱלֹהִים (Tehillim 64:8), and God cast at them: all of these are casting. From this sense his father explains מִי כָמֹהוּ מוֹרֶה (Iyov 36:22), who is like Him in casting down: its meaning is one who casts down and brings low to the earth.

אֲשֶׁר הוֹרָהוּ יְהוֹיָדָע הַכֹּהֵן (Melachim II 12:3), which Yehoyada the kohen taught him, וַיֹּרֵנִי וַיֹּאמֶר לִי (Mishlei 4:4), he taught me and said to me, הוֹרוּנִי וַאֲנִי אַחֲרִישׁ (Iyov 6:24), teach me and I will be silent, וְלֹא־שָׁמַעְתִּי בְּקוֹל מוֹרָי (Mishlei 5:13), I did not listen to the voice of my teachers, אֱלֹהָיו יוֹרֶנּוּ (Yeshayahu 28:26), his God teaches him, and וּלְהוֹרֹת נָתַן בְּלִבּוֹ (Shemos 35:34), He put it in his heart to teach: all of them are a matter of teaching. מִגִּבְעַת הַמּוֹרֶה בָּעֵמֶק (Shoftim 7:1), from the hill of the Moreh in the valley, may be from this, or else a place name; if from this, there was a lookout on the hill who would give word to those living in the valley when an army came upon them, and so Targum Yonasan, מִגִבְעֲתָא דְמִסְתַּכְיָא, from the hill of the lookout. Rabbi Yehudah said that הֹרוֹ וְהֹגוֹ מִלֵּב דִּבְרֵי־שָׁקֶר (Yeshayahu 59:13), on this reading teaching and uttering words of falsehood from the heart, may be from this root. Radak has already written it under the root הָרָה, and that is the correct one; and there he wrote as well that his father put it under this root and this sense.

The noun from this sense, the teaching of the Torah and the mitzvah, is תּוֹרָה: אֶת־הַחֻקִּים וְאֶת־הַתּוֹרֹת (Shemos 18:20), the statutes and the teachings, and מִצְוֹתַי חֻקּוֹתַי וְתוֹרֹתָי (Bereishis 26:5), My mitzvos, My statutes and My teachings; and possibly וְזֹאת תּוֹרַת הָאָדָם (Shmuel II 7:19), and this is the teaching of man. Four words each have their own sense: הַתּוֹרָה is the manner of the mitzvah, how it is to be done; הַמִּשְׁפָּט is the law between one man and his fellow; הַחֹק is the thing decreed upon a man to do, whether as a mitzvah or as a custom; and הַמִּשְׁמֶרֶת is the guarding against transgressing a mitzvah and the fence made about it. Each is a sense of its own, but in places one comes in place of another, as each one's own root will explain.

יוֹרֶה וּמַלְקוֹשׁ (Devarim 11:14) is the early and the late rain, and with an alef for the heh, וּמַרְוֶה גם הוא יוֹרֶא (Mishlei 11:25), and one who gives drink is himself rain: one who gives the poor drink is himself called a יוֹרֶה, like the rain that waters the earth. So too אֶת־הַמּוֹרֶה לִצְדָקָה (Yoel 2:23), the rain for righteousness, and וְהָיוּ עֵינֶיךָ רֹאוֹת אֶת־מוֹרֶיךָ (Yeshayahu 30:20), your eyes shall see your rain. וְלֹא־יִכָּנֵף עוֹד מוֹרֶיךָ is that your rain shall no longer be gathered in, for they were in a time of drought, as it says לֶחֶם צָר וּמַיִם לָחַץ, bread of distress and water of oppression; the tidings are of plenty, that the rain will no longer be held back and they will see with their own eyes that it is near. Some read מוֹרֶיךָ from the second sense, teaching: that is, those who teach you the straight way will not be far off at the corner of the earth, and they are Chizkiyahu and his officers. His father writes אֱלֹהָיו יוֹרֶנּוּ from the third sense, that He will give him rain.

יוֹרֶה וּמַלְקוֹשׁ (Devarim 11:14), the early rain and the late rain: the yoreh is the rain that comes first and the malkosh is the later one.

Likewise the late grass: בִּתְחִלַּת עֲלוֹת הַלָּקֶשׁ (Amos 7:1), at the beginning of the coming up of the late grass, and in that same pasuk וְהִנֵּה־ לֶקֶשׁ אַחַר גִּזֵּי הַמֶּֽלֶךְ, and behold, late grass after the king's mowings. The noun carries six points.

The heavier verb from it: וְכֶרֶם רָשָׁע יְלַקֵּֽשׁוּ (Iyov 24:6), and they leave a vineyard late for the wicked man. His father gave it a correct reading: they hold the vineyard back for the wicked man's need. That is, the grapes are left on the vines after the other vineyards have been picked, so that they ripen well on the vines and make the finest wine; and for dread of the wicked man they are afraid, and no one touches them, though the other vineyards have been picked.

יַֽעֲרֹף כַּמָּטָר לִקְחִי (Devarim 32:2), my teaching shall drop as the rain, and וְנָֽתַתִּי מְטַֽר־אַרְצְכֶם בְּעִתּוֹ (Devarim 11:14), I will give the rain of your land in its season; the plural in the feminine is מִטְרוֹת עֻזּֽוֹ (Iyov 37:6), the rains of His strength.

וּמְטַֽר־גֶּשֶׁם יִתֵּן לָהֶם (Zecharyah 10:1), He will give them the rain of the shower: מָטָר set in construct with גֶּשֶׁם, as in אַדְמַת עָפָר (Daniel 12:2), the ground of dust, and מִטִּיט הַיָּוֵן (Tehillim 40:3), from the mud of the mire.

The heavier form takes a further object: וְהִמְטַרְתִּי עַל־עִיר אֶחָת (Amos 4:7), I will cause rain upon one city, הִנְנִי מַמְטִיר לָכֶם לֶחֶם (Shemos 16:4), I will rain down bread for you, and יַמְטֵר עַל־רְשָׁעִים פַּחִים (Tehillim 11:6), He will rain snares upon the wicked.

In וְחֶלְקָה אֲשֶֽׁר־לֹֽא־תַמְטִיר עָלֶיהָ תִּיבָֽשׁ (Amos 4:7), and the field on which it does not rain shall wither, the one that does not rain upon it is the cloud. Read so, the verb there passes to a second, where וְהִמְטַרְתִּי, I will cause rain, and its fellows pass to a third. The verb is used of the clouds likewise in וְעַל הֶֽעָבִים אֲצַוֶּה מֵֽהַמְטִיר עָלָיו מָטָֽר (Yeshayahu 5:6), and I will command the clouds not to rain rain upon it.