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Of things without life, dragging is slow flowing: וכמים הנגרים (Shmuel II 14:14), "like water that runs off"; ויגר מזה (Tehillim 75:9), "and He poured out of this"; עיני נגרה (Eichah 3:49), "my eye runs". What moves slowly is נוזל, flowing; what comes down drop by drop is נוטף, dripping; and what comes down slowly, neither fast nor drop by drop, is said to יגר, run down. So פרץ נחל מעם גר (Iyov 28:4), "a torrent broke out from where it trickled": from a place where the water only ran gently, a rushing stream burst out.

With a mem added, a bone that holds marrow is גרם, named for the marrow and the fatty juice that runs into it; a bone with no marrow is עץ, wood, since it has dried out like wood, as he explains at the root עץ. יששכר חמר גרם (Bereishis 49:14), "Yissachar is a donkey of bone", is a donkey whose bones have marrow in them. The verb, ועצמתיהם יגרם (Bamidbar 24:8), "and their bones he will drain", is doing something to their bones so as to suck out the marrow in them; and ואת חרשיה תגרמי (Yechezkel 23:34), "and you will suck its shards dry", is sucking out the juice that has run into them. אל גרם המעלות (Melachim II 9:13), "onto the gerem of the steps": the gerem is, as it seems, a kind of gutter into which the water off the roof runs.

So too the berry: שלשה גרגרים בראש אמיר (Yeshayahu 17:6), "three berries at the top of the bough". Each single berry of a fruit, into which the juice runs, is a גרגר.

כאבני גר מנפצות (Yeshayahu 27:9), "like stones of gir, smashed", are stones dragged about over the face of the field with no one to gather them. The verb is והגרתי לגי אבניה (Michah 1:6), "and I will drag her stones down into the valley"; and from the same sense, והגרם על ידי חרב (Yirmiyahu 18:21), "and drag them off by the power of the sword", and וכסאו לארץ מגרתה (Tehillim 89:45), "and his throne You dragged down to the ground", where מגרתה is like הגרת, You dragged, the mem standing in place of a heh.

גרון, the throat, is from dragging: קרא בגרון (Yeshayahu 58:1), "call out with the throat", so named because food and drink are dragged down from there into the belly. The windpipe, called גרגרת, bears the name too, because it is joined to the גרון: וענקים לגרגרתך (Mishlei 1:9), "and necklaces for your neck", since the גרגרת shows more on the outside than the גרון, which is the gullet.

The food dragged to the throat is גרה, the cud: מעלה גרה (Vayikra 11:4), "brings up the cud".

A small coin is also גרה: עשרים גרה השקל (Shemos 30:13), "the shekel is twenty gerah". It is named for dragging, because it is dragged constantly from hand to hand and never stays fixed in its place, unlike the heavy coins that are stored away in a treasury. The same is לאגורת כסף (Shmuel I 2:36), "for a piece of silver", a small coin of whatever kind.

אגרת, as את אגרת הפורים (Esther 9:29), "this letter of Purim", is a writing passed through the whole country from man to man to make its matter known in public. In parentheses he adds צירקולער, a circular.

The saw is מגרה, as מגררות במגרה (Melachim I 7:9), "sawn with a saw", named for the way it is used: not lifted like other tools but dragged over the wood, which splits apart. After this tool the language of the Talmud calls the חרש, the craftsman, נגר: נגר ולא בר נגר (Avodah Zarah 50b), "a carpenter and not a carpenter's son", the craftsman who works with the saw. A craftsman is always called after the tool he does most of his work with: the tailor is חייט after the חוט, the thread he sews with, and the shoemaker רצען after the מרצע, the awl; so the חרש is נגר because most of his work is with the saw.

Also from גרר is the verb אגר, gathering: a gathering that comes by dragging, collecting different things from different places, a little at a time. אגרה בקציר מאכלה (Mishlei 6:8), "she gathers her food in the harvest"; אגר בקיץ (Mishlei 10:5), "he gathers in summer"; ויין לא תשתה ולא תאגר (Devarim 28:39), "and wine you shall neither drink nor gather". The noun is מגרה: נהרסו ממגרות (Yoel 1:17), "the granaries are torn down", and העוד הזרע במגורה (Chaggai 2:19), "is the seed still in the granary?", a store gathered by dragging. Sometimes the alef drops: יגרהו בחרמו (Chavakuk 1:15), "he gathers him in his net", that is, יאגרהו ויאספנו, he gathers and collects him; יגורו עלי עזים (Tehillim 59:4), "the mighty gather against me", gathered against me from every side; and על דגן ותירוש יתגוררו (Hoshea 7:14), "over grain and wine they gather". The noun from it is מגור, as מגור מסביב (Tehillim 31:14), "dread on every side", formed like מקום, place, and מרום, height.

With a nun added, גרן, the threshing floor: גרן ויקב (Hoshea 9:2), "threshing floor and winepress"; כתבואת גרן (Bamidbar 18:30), "as the produce of the threshing floor". It is the place where grain not yet threshed is gathered. That is how it differs from the מגורה: the מגורה is the store of threshed grain, the גרן the store of unthreshed grain and of the sheaves.

From גר in its sense of gathering, the verb גור was borrowed for fear and dread: ויגר מואב (Bamidbar 22:3), "and Moav was in dread"; לא תגורו מפני איש (Devarim 1:17), "do not fear any man". Either it is gathering in to oneself, for fear of being exposed and spreading outward; or it is the gathering and collecting of all one's thoughts so as not to come to harm, as with יראה and מורא, fear, which, as he will explain in their place, come from seeing and watching.

מורא applies when the one afraid knows the one way he could be harmed and need only watch that way alone. מגור applies when the ways of harm are many, and he must gather all his thoughts and consider every way harm could possibly reach him. How the words of fear, מורא, מגור, חיל, אימתה ופחד (fear, dread, trembling, terror and fright), differ from each other is left to their own places.

Also from dragging is the verb גרה, provoking and quarrel: אל תתגרו בם (Devarim 2:5), "do not provoke them"; ואל תתגר בם מלחמה (Devarim 2:9), "and do not provoke them to war"; מתגרת ידך (Tehillim 39:11), "by the strife of Your hand"; איש חמה יגרה מדון (Mishlei 15:18), "a hot-tempered man stirs up strife", an act that drags quarrel and strife after it. It is close to חרחור, as אל תתחר במרעים (Tehillim 37:1), "do not grow heated over evildoers". But חרחור is from חרון, burning anger: the intent to do something that brings on burning wrath. גירוי, provoking, is the intent to do things that will draw one's fellow into dispute, and so it is a cause that drags the quarrel after it as its result. In the language of the Talmud a cause is גורם: זה וזה גורם (Pesachim 26b), "this and that both cause it"; דבר הגורם לממון (Pesachim 5b), "a thing that brings about money".

Of the living, dragging gives the noun גר: כי גר יהיה זרעך (Bereishis 15:13), "your seed will be strangers"; גר ותושב (Bereishis 23:4), "a stranger and a settler"; האזרח והגר (Vayikra 16:29), "the native and the stranger". גר describes one who sojourns in a land not his own, the opposite of the אזרח, who was born in the land where he is. A תושב is one not born here who has taken up his dwelling like one of the land's native-born; a גר is one not born here who also has no fixed home to settle in for all the days of his life.

אזרח is from זריחה, rising. The verb זרח marks the first appearing of anything, as והצרעת זרחה במצחו (Divrei HaYamim II 26:19), "and the tzaraas broke out on his forehead"; so the sun's first appearing on the horizon is called מזרח, as מזרח השמש (Yehoshua 1:15), "the rising of the sun". זריחה is not said once the sun already shines on the land, only of its first coming out and appearing on the horizon. So one who lives in the land of his birth is called אזרח, one found in the place where he rose and first appeared in the world. ומתערה כאזרח רענן (Tehillim 37:35), "spreading out like a fresh native", means like the rising, the first appearing, of a fresh tree, which right from the start of its growth is thick and stout and full of branches; there אזרח is a word that describes, not a noun.

The verb from גר: ויגר אברהם (Bereishis 21:34), "and Avraham sojourned"; האחד בא לגור (Bereishis 19:9), "this one came to sojourn"; לגור בארץ באנו (Bereishis 47:4), "we have come to sojourn in the land"; ארץ מגריהם (Shemos 6:4), "the land of their sojournings". It means dwelling that is not fixed. Sometimes it is said of fixed dwelling as well: אגורה באהלך עולמים (Tehillim 61:5), "I will dwell in Your tent forever"; לא יוסיפו לגור (Eichah 4:15), "they will dwell there no more".

From dwelling, the young of wild beasts is גור: גור אריה יהודה (Bereishis 49:9), "Yehudah is a lion's cub"; רבתה גוריה (Yechezkel 19:2), "she reared her cubs"; היניקו גוריהן (Eichah 4:3), "they suckled their young". It is called גור because it dwells in its den and its hole and does not yet go out to roam the land for prey, the grown beasts bringing it food. So ותעל אחד מגריה כפיר היה וילמד לטרף טרף (Yechezkel 19:3), "she brought up one of her cubs, he became a young lion and learned to tear prey": she brought one of her cubs up out of the hole, and it grew and became a כפיר, the lion that roams the villages, the כפרים, for food, and only afterwards learned to prey. Since the young lion preys more fiercely than the old, the tribes are likened, where preying is meant, to a lion's cub, a young lion, even though as long as it is a cub it does not prey.

The root's basic sense is return, a going back to what came before, and it comes in three kinds. The first is back to a former place: ויצא יצוא ושוב (Bereishis 8:7), it went out, going and returning; ותשב אליו אל התבה (Bereishis 8:9), she came back to him, to the ark; ודור רביעי ישובו הנה (Bereishis 15:16), the fourth generation shall return here. The second is back to a former condition: עד אשר תשוב חמת אחיך (Bereishis 27:44), until your brother's fury turns back; שוב מחרון אפך (Shemos 32:12), turn back from Your burning anger, that is, to the goodwill there was before; והנה שבה כבשרו (Shemos 4:7), and it had gone back to being like his flesh. Both have three stations and two moves: the thing leaves its first station for a second, then leaves that and goes back to the first.

The third kind has two stations and one move: a thing enters the state it ought to be in, by nature or by right, though it was never there before. One born blind who is healed is said to have שב לראיתו, returned to his sight, though he never saw; since nature calls for sight, it counts as his earlier station, and blindness as a removal from it. So ההשב אשיב את בנך אל הארץ אשר יצאת משם (Bereishis 24:5), shall I bring your son back to the land you came out of?, though Yitzchak had never been there: it was the land of his fathers' birth. So too תשובו לתוכחתי (Mishlei 1:23), turn back to my rebuke, since heeding rebuke is what the soul's nature calls for; and גם אל פיהו לא ישיבנה (Mishlei 19:24), he will not even bring it back to his mouth, since the hand meeting the mouth to eat is a natural need, and so השבה, bringing back, is said of it.

ובשוב צדיק מצדקתו ועשה עול (Yechezkel 18:24), when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does wrong, does not by its plain sense speak of one who was wicked, became righteous and then went back to his wickedness, but of one who was always righteous and became wicked. Nor is ובשוב רשע מרשעתו (Yechezkel 18:27), when a wicked man turns from his wickedness, about one who was righteous, became wicked and turned righteous again because תוהא על הראשונות, he regrets the earlier ones, the reading Chazal give by way of derash (Kiddushin 40b). Rav Pappenheim's account is that man is set in two natures that oppose each other: his good inclination binds him to be good and his evil inclination binds him to be evil. A lifelong tzaddik who turns wicked has returned to the nature that binds him to evil, and a lifelong rasha who turns righteous has returned to the nature that binds him to righteousness, so תשובה, return, is said of both.

There is also a return of words: וישב משה את דברי העם (Shemos 19:8), Moshe brought back the people's words; וישיבו אותם דבר (Bamidbar 13:26), they brought back word to them; משיב דברים נכוחים (Mishlei 24:26), one who gives back straight words. Speech is like a messenger sent to bring something back, and the other man's answer is like the messenger coming back to the one who sent him, so תשובה, return, fits an answer.

With the bet doubled comes the noun שביב: ולא-יגה שביב אשו (Iyov 18:5), the spark of his fire will not shine. It is the spark of light that comes back when it falls on a hard body.

The verb שבב: וילך שובב בדרך לבו (Yeshayahu 57:17), he went on wayward in the way of his heart; שובו בנים שובבים (Yirmiyahu 3:14), return, wayward children. It is error and wandering: one who strives to reach a true goal and does not find it, since nothing he finds is the true one, and he must keep turning back and taking another road. So שובב is from תשובה, return, for he must always go back from the road he set out on. A deranged mind that cannot settle is also שובב: ושובבתיך ונתתי חחים (Yechezkel 38:4), I will turn you about and put hooks in you; משובבת מחרב (Yechezkel 38:8), turned about from the sword; ושבבתיך וששאתיך (Yechezkel 39:2), I will turn you about and lead you on.

So the twisting, confused road, where no way out can be found and one must go back to where one came from, is also שבב: רעיהם התעום הרים שובבום (Yirmiyahu 50:6), their shepherds led them astray, on mountains that turned them about, mountains so tangled that no way out of them is found, going always from mountain to hill and from hill to mountain; and כי שבבים יהיה עגל שמרון (Hoshea 8:6), for the calf of Shomron shall become shevavim, meaning the roads that lead to the calf of Shomron will be confused, and the road that brings one there will not be found.

The noun משבה belongs with these: משבה ישראל (Yirmiyahu 3:6), wayward Israel; ארפה משובתיכם (Yirmiyahu 3:22), I will heal your waywardness; משבה נצחת (Yirmiyahu 8:5), a lasting waywardness; ארפא משובתם (Hoshea 14:5), I will heal their waywardness.

From the first sense, return to what came earlier in time or to the natural state that comes first in rank, other nouns and verbs derive that all share one meaning, ceasing from motion, that is, rest, which is in truth a return to the natural state. Rest is a thing's natural state: a body is by nature at rest of itself, and rest involves no action and needs no cause to come about, while nothing moves without a cause, from outside or within, to move it. So a thing that stops moving is said to have שב, returned, to its natural state, which is rest.

That is the verb ישב, sitting, the end of moving about and the return to rest. Sometimes it is the body not moving, the opposite of walking and standing: יושב פתח האוהל (Bereishis 18:1), sitting at the entrance of the tent; קום נא שבה (Bereishis 27:19), rise, please, sit; וכל כלי אשר תשב עליו (Vayikra 15:20), and any vessel she sits on; היושב על כסאו (Shemos 11:5), who sits on his throne.

Sometimes it is no longer moving from place to place, and then it means staying: לשבת אברם בארץ כנען (Bereishis 16:3), of Avram's dwelling in the land of Canaan; בכל מושבותיכם (Shemos 12:20), in all your dwellings; ואשב בהר (Devarim 9:9), I stayed on the mountain; בסוכות תשבו (Vayikra 23:42), you shall dwell in sukkos; גר ותושב (Bereishis 23:4), a sojourner and a resident. One who stays in a land and fixes his dwelling there is called תושב, resident. So תשב על דמי טהרה (Vayikra 12:5), she shall remain in the blood of purity, means she shall stay.

From the end of moving about comes בשובה ונחת תושעון (Yeshayahu 30:15), in stillness and quiet you shall be saved, that is, מתון מתון (Berachos 20a), slowly, slowly, without much moving about. From this sense too is שובנו אלהי ישענו (Tehillim 85:5), settle us, Elokim of our salvation; and with the bet doubled, נפשי ישובב (Tehillim 23:3), He settles my soul, and לשובב יעקב אליו (Yeshayahu 49:5), to settle Yaakov with Him. Or it is from תשובה, return: לשובב is like להשיב, to bring back, as לרומם is like להרים, to raise, in לרומם את בית אלהינו (Ezra 9:9), to raise up the house of our Elokim.

With a nun, one of the formative letters, comes a verb נשב, from ישיבה, settling: וישב אתם אברם (Bereishis 15:11), and Avram blew them away; כי רוח ה׳ נשבה בו (Yeshayahu 40:7), for the breath of Hashem blew upon it; ישב רוחו יזלו מים (Tehillim 147:18), He makes His wind blow and the waters flow. It is from settling: the wind that moves about enters and settles in the body that receives it.

Also from the stopping of motion is the verb שבה, captivity, which stops free natural movement: כי נשבה אחיו (Bereishis 14:14), that his brother had been taken captive; כשבויות חרב (Bereishis 31:26), like captives of the sword; וישב ממנו שבי (Bamidbar 21:1), he took captives from him; שבות יעקב (Yechezkel 39:25), the captivity of Yaakov; שבות בני עמון (Yirmiyahu 49:6), the captivity of the children of Ammon. Any stopping and cessation of moving by choice and will is called שביה, captivity.

For stopping occupation and the motion of work a tav is added: שבת, ceasing, an end to activity: שבת וינפש (Shemos 31:17), He ceased and rested; ושבתה הארץ (Vayikra 25:2), the land shall rest; תשביתו שאור מבתיכם (Shemos 12:15), you shall clear leaven out of your houses, meaning an end to dealing with leaven; שבת שבתון (Shemos 31:15), a Shabbos of complete rest; שחקו על משבתיה (Eichah 1:7), they mocked at her ceasing.

For stopping plain natural motion there is the verb שאב, drawing water: יוצאות לשאוב מים (Bereishis 24:13), coming out to draw water; עד שואב מימיך (Devarim 29:10), to the one who draws your water; ושאבתם מים בששון (Yeshayahu 12:3), you shall draw water in joy. Water brought into a vessel is stopped from flowing and moving with its natural motion. So the three are set apart by the motion each stops: שביה the movement of choice and will, שבת occupation and work, שאב the plain motion of nature; and Rav Pappenheim calls שאב close to שביה, in which the captive is stopped from the movement of his own choice.