rock

מִשָּׁם רֹעֶה אֶבֶן יִשְׂרָאֵֽל (Bereishis 49:24), from there, the shepherd, the stone of Yisrael, means all of Yisrael: a stone is one body, so Yisrael spoken of as one is called a stone; or else, since Yisrael are the foundation of the world's building, they are called a stone as a figure. Rabbi Yonah read it as the head of Yisrael. Radak answers that we do not find a head called אֶבֶן unless the pasuk explains itself afterwards, as at אֶבֶן בֹּחַן פִּנַּת יִקְרַת מוּסָד (Yeshayahu 28:16), a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a foundation.

תִּשְׁתַּפֵּכְנָה אַבְנֵי ־קֹדֶשׁ (Eichah 4:1), the holy stones are poured out, means the princes and the great men. אַבְנֵי ־אֵשׁ הִתְהַלָּֽכְתָּ (Yechezkel 28:14), among stones of fire you walked, is as though among the angels. His father takes it as among אבני אקדח, that is, gems shining like lamps, among which the one addressed would walk at night. Targum Yonasan rendered it בְעַמָא קַדִישָׁא סְבַרְתָּא לְמִשְׁלַט, among the holy people you thought to rule, and so, Radak says, the meaning appears to be, since afterwards it says וָֽאַבֶּדְךָ כְּרוּב הַסֹּכֵךְ מִתּוֹךְ אַבְנֵי ־אֵֽשׁ (Yechezkel 28:16), and I destroyed you, the covering keruv, from among the stones of fire: these are Yisrael, called so because they are holy.

וְכָֽבְשׁוּ אַבְנֵי ־קֶלַע (Zecharyah 9:15), and they shall tread down the sling stones: the sling stones are the officers of Greece. Since the kings of the house of the Chashmonaim were likened to crown stones for their greatness, the officers of Greece are likened to sling stones for their lowness.

Weights are made of stone, so a weight is called אבן: לֹא־יִֽהְיֶה לְךָ בְּכִֽיסְךָ אֶבֶן וָאָבֶן (Devarim 25:13), you shall not have in your bag two sorts of weight, and בְּאֶבֶן הַמֶּֽלֶךְ (Shmuel II 14:26), by the king's weight. So too the plummet the builder weighs with is called אבן, being of stone: וְנָטָה עָלֶיהָ קַו־תֹהוּ וְאַבְנֵי ־בֹֽהוּ (Yeshayahu 34:11), and He will stretch over it the line of emptiness and the plummets of void. Even when it is of tin or of lead it is still called a stone: אֶת־ הָאֶבֶן הַבְּדִיל (Zecharyah 4:10), the stone of tin, and אֶבֶן הָֽעוֹפֶרֶת (Zecharyah 5:8), the stone of lead.

עֹשֶׂה מְלָאכָה עַל־ הָֽאָבְנָֽיִם (Yirmiyahu 18:3), doing work on the אבנים, is the potter's implement on which he makes his earthenware, well known to the men of that trade and called in laaz סיל"א. It is said that it is like a pair of millstones, and that is why the name is put as two; but in these lands it is not so, only one round piece of wood shaped like a millstone, on which the potter does his work. Rabbi Yonah wrote that the kind which is two, like a lower and an upper millstone with the upper smaller, is the tool of the potters of the east. Radak's father holds the alef here is added and the word belongs to building.

Rabbi Yonah takes וּרְאִיתֶן עַל־ הָֽאָבְנָיִם (Shemos 1:16), and you shall look upon the אבנים, as the place where the child falls from its mother's womb, which is called משבר, and derives the word from בן and בנים, son and sons, with an added alef. Radak holds it is the womb itself, named אָבְנַיִם for the בנים, the children, and called משבר for the breaking of the woman in labour and her pangs. Were it the place the child falls after coming out, why would the pasuk say you shall look upon the אבנים, when before the child is wholly out of the womb one can already see whether it is male or female, since the male faces downward and the female upward (Sotah 11b)? And why would a place of falling be called משבר? The pasuk הַֽאֲנִי אַשְׁבִּיר וְלֹא אוֹלִיד (Yeshayahu 66:9), shall I bring to the breaking and not cause to bear, shows that the משבר comes before the birth. It is named as two for the צירים at the opening of the womb, which are two like the two hinges of a door; and so the Chachamim taught (Bechoros 45a) in a braisa, Rabbi Eliezer saying that as a house has hinges so has a woman, as it says כִּֽי־נֶֽהֶפְכוּ עָלֶיהָ צִרֶֽיהָ (Shmuel I 4:19), for her צירים turned upon her. When Daniel says נֶֽהֶפְכוּ צִירַי עָלַי (Daniel 10:16), my צירים turned upon me, he likens his pangs to those of a woman in labour, and a woman's צירים are like the hinges of the womb; for צירים is a shared name, said of the hinges of a door and of the pangs of birth.

וַתְּהִי לָהֶם הַלְּבֵנָה לְאָבֶן (Bereishis 11:3), and the brick served them for stone, with the verb נִלְבְּנָה לְבֵנִים (Bereishis 11:3), let us make bricks, and לִלְבֹּן הַלְּבֵנִים (Shemos 5:7), to make the bricks. The kiln in which the bricks are burnt is called מַלְבֵּן, as בַּמַּלְבֵּן (Shmuel II 12:31), in the kiln, which he reads as: he burnt them in the brick kiln. Yonasan renders it וּגְרַר יַתְהוֹן בְּשׁוּקַיָא, and he dragged them through the streets, which Radak explains: he was dragging them through the streets to put them to a hard and contemptible death. As for rendering במלבן as בשוקיא, in the streets, perhaps Yonasan holds that a street is called מלבן because it is lined with colonnades set in order on this side and that, from Chazal's מלבנות התבואה (Peah 3:1), which are beds of grain, so called because they are set in order; so too they said מלבנות הפתחים (Bava Basra 69a), the doorposts on either side of the doorway. בַּמֶּלֶט בַּמַּלְבֵּן (Yirmiyahu 43:9), in the mortar, in the brickworks, is the place where bricks are made, and הַֽחֲזִיקִי מַלְבֵּֽן (Nachum 3:14), make the kiln strong, means build the brick kiln.

He says the bricks may be from the sense of whiteness, since everything burnt in fire whitens, and so יִתְבָּֽרְרוּ וְיִתְלַבְּנוּ וְיִצָּֽרְפוּ (Daniel 12:10), they shall be purified and made white and refined; and so Chazal said of this matter מלבנן באור והן טהורים (Avodah Zarah 75b), one whitens them in fire and they are tahor.

כְּזֶרַע גַּד לָבָן (Shemos 16:31), like coriander seed, white: the mon was white and its grains were like coriander seed. מַחְשׂף הַלָּבָן (Bereishis 30:37), laying bare the white; וּֽלְבֶן ־שִׁנַּיִם מֵֽחָלָֽב (Bereishis 49:12), white of teeth from milk; and כֵּהוֹת לְבָנֹת (Vayikra 13:39), dull white spots. Standing of itself, כַּשֶּׁלֶג יַלְבִּינוּ (Yeshayahu 1:18), they shall be white as snow, and הִלְבִּינוּ שָֽׂרִיגֶֽיהָ (Yoel 1:7), her branches have whitened, that is, they dried and turned white. Taking an object, וּלְבָרֵר וְלַלְבֵּן עַד־עֵת קֵץ (Daniel 11:35), to purify and to whiten until the time of the end, where the form should have been וּלְהַלְבֵּן, to whiten, and with the heh gone its vowel was thrown onto the prefixed lamed.

Rabbi Yonah explained לִבְנַת הַסַּפִּיר (Shemos 24:10) as a noun, that is, the whiteness of the sapphire, and so the Gaon said, that the sapphire is white. Ibn Ezra wrote in his commentary that the sapphire is red, his proof being אָֽדְמוּ עצם מפנינים סַפִּיר גִּזְרָתָֽם (Eichah 4:7), they were ruddier of bone than pearls, their form was sapphire, where the sense is doubled, as in זַכּוּ נְזִירֶיהָ מִשֶּׁלֶג צַחוּ מֵחָלָב, her nezirim were purer than snow, whiter than milk; and further, why does the pasuk say כמעשה, like the work of, when it should have said כמראה, like the appearance of, the whiteness of the sapphire? Rather, Ibn Ezra concludes, the correct view is that it is from לְבָנָה, a brick, as חֶֽשְׁכַת ־מַיִם (Tehillim 18:12), darkness of waters, is from חֲשֵׁכָה, darkness, and so לבנת הספיר, a brick of sapphire, is like the sapphire stone that Yechezkel saw. The derash is given as going the same way: that they saw the likeness of a brick under the feet of the Kisei HaKavod, to see and remember that Yisrael were enslaved under the hand of Mitzrayim at the work of bricks.

וְחָֽפְרָה הַלְּבָנָה (Yeshayahu 24:23), and the moon shall be abashed: it is the moon, called so because it appears white. תַּחַת אַלּוֹן וְלִבְנֶה (Hoshea 4:13), under oak and livneh, and מַקַּל לִבְנֶה (Bereishis 30:37), a rod of livneh, are a tree whose name comes from לבן, white, and Rabbi Yonah wrote that it is the one called לובני in Arabic. לְבֹנָה זַכָּה (Vayikra 24:7), pure levonah, is well known, and עִם כָּל־עֲצֵי לְבוֹנָה (Shir HaShirim 4:14), with all trees of levonah, are the trees the levonah comes from, for levonah is the resin of a tree.

עַל מוּת לַבֵּן (Tehillim 9:1), upon the death of Labben, or upon the death, for Ben: some take לבן as the name of one of David's enemies, at whose death the mizmor was made; some take it as נָבָל with its letters reversed. His father wrote that the lamed is a prefix and that בֵּן is the name of a singer, set out in Divrei HaYamim among the second rank, זְכַרְיָהוּ בֵּן וְיַֽעֲזִיאֵל וּשְׁמִֽירָמוֹת (Divrei HaYamim I 15:18), Zecharyahu, Ben, and Yaaziel and Shemiramos; David said the mizmor on the death of Golyas and the victory over the Pelishtim, and Ben the singer played it. To the question why it is not לְבֵן with a sheva, as לְאָסָף, since the article does not come on a man's name or a city's, the answer given on this reading is that though it is not the way of the language it comes at times for the sake of definiteness, as it does on a city's name: אֲשֶׁר בַּשֶּׂכוּ (Shmuel I 19:22), which is at Sechu, and וַֽיִּפְקְדֵם בַּטְּלָאִים (Shmuel I 15:4), and he counted them at Telaim; and here the article was used so the name should not be confused with the ordinary word for a son.

וְדִבַּרְתֶּם אֶל־ הַסֶּלַע (Bamidbar 20:8), speak to the rock, and סְלָעִים מַחְסֶה לַֽשְׁפַנִּֽים (Tehillim 104:18), the rocks are a refuge for the shefanim: the sense of rock is known.

High fortresses are called סלע because most of them are built on rock, as it says וְשִׂים בַּסֶּלַע קִנֶּֽךָ (Bamidbar 24:21), and set your nest in the rock, which the Targum renders וְשַׁוִּי בִכְרַךְ תַּקִּיף מְדוֹרָךְ, and set your dwelling in a strong city. So too וְתָפַשׂ אֶת־ הַסֶּלַע בַּמִּלְחָמָה (Melachim II 14:6 in his edition), and he seized the stronghold in battle, which the Targum renders וּכְבַשׁ יַת כְּרַכָּא, and he conquered the city.

Figuratively, י"י סַלְעִי וּמְצוּדָתִי (Tehillim 18:3), Hashem is my rock and my fortress, after the manner of מִגְדַּל־עֹז שֵׁם י"י (Mishlei 18:10), the name of Hashem is a tower of strength. וְסַלְעוֹ מִמָּגוֹר יַֽעֲבוֹר (Yeshayahu 31:9) the Targum explains as his king, rendering וְשִׁלְטוֹנוֹהִי מִן קֳדָם דַחֲלָא יֶעְדוּן, and his rulers shall pass away before fear. It can also be taken as it sounds, with a lamed understood: to his rock he will pass for terror, that is, he will flee to his rock and his strong towers from great terror. Radak's father explains that the way of the world is that a man who flees his enemy and reaches his stronghold fears no more; but before the waving of Hashem's hand he will pass beyond even his rock and his fortresses in terror and dread, and fear still, and not trust that he will live.