sanctuary

אַל־תִּגַּשׁ־בִּי כִּי קְדַשְׁתִּיךָ (Yeshayahu 65:5), do not come near me, for קְדַשְׁתִּיךָ, which means קדשתי ממך, I am holier than you.

פֶּן־תִּקְדַּשׁ הַֽמְלֵאָה הַזֶּרַע (Devarim 22:9), lest the full yield of the seed תקדש, which he glosses: lest it become forbidden in benefit, as kodesh is. So Chazal said (Kiddushin 56b): from where do we know that kilayim of the vineyard are forbidden in benefit? It says there ואיש כי יקדיש את ביתו קדש, and when a man consecrates his house as holy, and it says here פן תקדש; as there it is forbidden in benefit, so here.

וְאֶל־כָּל־מַֽאֲכָל הֲיִקְדָּשׁ (Chaggai 2:12), or any food, היקדש: he glosses it היטמא, will it become tamei, that is, forbidden by its tumah as kodesh is forbidden. Chaggai was putting the laws of tumah to the kohanim, which they may have forgotten in the galus. His question was whether the food that stands fourth in tumah is tamei, the food alone, since he says היקדש, in the singular, and not היקדשו, in the plural; and they said no. Some of Chazal hold (Pesachim 17a) that the kohanim erred in this answer, a fourth degree being tamei in kodesh, though to the other question, of one made tamei by a corpse, they answered rightly. On this view, as Radak explains it, they knew a third degree in kodesh to be tamei but not a fourth, and in that they erred; that is why the navi answered them וַֽאֲשֶׁר יַקְרִיבוּ שָׁם טָמֵא הֽוּא, and what they offer there is tamei. Others of Chazal hold that they erred in neither; others, that Chaggai first asked them about a fifth degree in kodesh, and they rightly answered that it is not tamei; others, that he asked them before the decree on a fourth degree in kodesh. On the view that they did not err, Radak explains the navi's answer: though they know the laws of tumah and taharah, all that they offer is as though tamei, since they are slack in building the Beis. The whole parsha, he holds, bears out that they did not err, since throughout it the navi rebukes them over nothing but the Beis.

כֹּל אֲשֶׁר־יִגַּע בִּבְשָׂרָהּ יִקְדָּשׁ (Vayikra 6:20), whatever touches its flesh becomes holy: food that touches the flesh of the chatas and absorbs from it becomes holy as it is. If the chatas is pasul, by piggul or some other disqualification, what touches it is pasul; if it is fit, what touches it is eaten by the stricter of the two. So shelamim flesh slaughtered the day before that touched a chatas slaughtered today is eaten that day only, by the law of shelamim, which are eaten for two days and one night, and not that night as the chatas is; and where both were slaughtered today, the shelamim flesh is eaten by the law of the chatas, that day and night only, and not the next day as other shelamim. כָּל־הַנֹּגֵעַ בַּמִּזְבֵּחַ יִקְדָּֽשׁ (Shemos 29:37), whatever touches the mizbeach becomes holy: even a korban already pasul that has gone up on the mizbeach is made fit by it, and once it has gone up it does not come down; and that is where it was fit for the mizbeach to begin with and became pasul only by one of the things that disqualify a korban. So too כָּל־הַנֹּגֵעַ בָּהֶם יִקְדָּֽשׁ (Shemos 30:29), whatever touches them becomes holy, said of the klei shareis: whatever has entered one is holy with kedushas haguf, so as to be made pasul by any of the things that disqualify what has kedushas haguf, and it cannot be redeemed to go out to chullin.

וְעָשׂוּ לִי מִקְדָּשׁ (Shemos 25:8), and they shall make Me a sanctuary: the house of holiness is called מִקְדָּשׁ. A king's palace is called so as well, since it is like a mikdash, where none enter but those known there: כִּי מִקְדַּשׁ־מֶלֶךְ הוּא (Amos 7:13), for it is a king's mikdash. And וָאֱהִי לָהֶם לְמִקְדָּשׁ מְעַט (Yechezkel 11:16), and I have been to them a little mikdash, is in the way of מִגְדַּל־עֹז שֵׁם י"י (Mishlei 18:10), the name of Hashem is a tower of strength: they are secure in Him a little while they are in galus.

Some read וְהָיָה לְמִקְדָּשׁ (Yeshayahu 8:14), and He shall be for a mikdash, from this sense, that is, a place a man goes to be secure. On that reading לִשְׁנֵי בָתֵּי יִשְׂרָאֵל, for the two houses of Yisrael, is to the one for good and to the other for ill, since Shevna and his party had made peace with the king of Ashur and Chizkiyahu and his party had not. It can also be read as designation, a designation of punishment, a stumbling block set before them, as וְנָתַתִּי מִכְשׁוֹל לְפָנָיו (Yechezkel 3:20), and I shall set a stumbling block before him; the two houses are then Pekach ben Remalyahu and Shevna with his party, both of whom wanted the kingdom of Beis David to fall.

וְלֹֽא־יְקַדְּשׁוּ אֶת־הָעָם בְּבִגְדֵיהֶֽם (Yechezkel 44:19), and they shall not make the people holy with their garments: that the kohanim not make them holy by touching them in the bigdei kehunah, since if the people touched their garments they would seem to be holy like them. So too Yonasan renders it, וְלָא יִתְעָרְבוּן עִם עַמָא בִּלְבוּשֵׁיהוֹן, and they shall not mingle with the people in their garments. הַזָּכָר תַּקְדִּישׁ (Devarim 15:19), the male you shall consecrate: though it is holy from the womb, one must say, it is holy as a bechor. לֹֽא־יַקְדִּישׁ אִישׁ אֹתוֹ (Vayikra 27:26), no man shall consecrate it: he may not consecrate it for another korban. וְהִקְדִּישׁוּ אֶת־קְדוֹשׁ יַֽעֲקֹב (Yeshayahu 29:23), and they shall hallow the Holy One of Yaakov: they shall give Him holiness in their praise.

קַדְּשׁוּ־צוֹם קִרְאוּ עֲצָרָה (Yoel 1:14), appoint a fast, call an assembly, and קַדְּשׁוּ עָלֶיהָ מִלְחָמָה (Yirmiyahu 6:4), appoint war against her: these and all like them are the sense of designating. כְּלֵיל הִתְקַדֶּשׁ־חָג (Yeshayahu 30:29) and הִתְקַדְּשׁוּ וּבָאתֶם (Shmuel I 16:5) are listed with these, but he holds it right to take them from the first sense, holiness. כְּלֵיל הִתְקַדֶּשׁ־חָג then means that the night on which Sancheriv's army dies will be a joy to you like the night on which the festival is hallowed, the night of Pesach, and הִתְקַדְּשׁוּ וּבָאתֶם is make yourselves holy and come. The קָדֵשׁ and the קְדֵשָׁה, as in לֹא־תִֽהְיֶה קְדֵשָׁה (Devarim 23:18), there shall be no קדשה, are all of them those designated for lying with.

אֲשֶׁר שָֽׁכַן ־שָׁם (Yehoshua 22:19), where the Mishkan of Hashem dwelt; וְשָֽׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָֽם (Shemos 25:8), I shall dwell among them; שְׁכֹן בָּאָרֶץ (Bereishis 26:2), dwell in the land; and לִשְׁכֹּן בָּֽעֲרָפֶֽל (Melachim I 8:12), to dwell in the thick darkness. לְשִׁכְנוֹ תִדְרְשׁוּ (Devarim 12:5), to His dwelling you shall seek, has a chirik, and he takes it for an infinitive on the weight of וּכְפִתְחוֹ עָֽמְדוּ כָל־הָעָֽם (Nechemiah 8:5), and when he opened it all the people stood, or else for a noun.

מִשְׁכַּן (Vayikra 17:4), the Mishkan of Hashem; מִשְׁכָּנוֹת לַֽאֲבִיר יַֽעֲקֹֽב (Tehillim 132:5), dwellings for the Mighty One of Yaakov; and וּֽמִשְׁכְּנוֹתָיו מְלֵֽחָה (Iyov 39:6), his dwellings the salt land. The masculine plural is in קְדשׁ מִשְׁכְּנֵי עֶלְיֽוֹן (Tehillim 46:5), the holiest of the dwellings of the Most High.

וּשְׁכֵנוֹ הַקָּרֹב אֶל־בֵּיתוֹ (Shemos 12:4), his neighbour nearest his house; the feminine וְשָֽׁאֲלָה אִשָּׁה מִשְּׁכֶנְתָּהּ (Shemos 3:22), and a woman shall ask of her neighbour, and the plural וַתִּקְרֶאנָה לוֹ הַשְּׁכֵנוֹת (Rus 4:17), and the neighbour women named him. A שכן, he says, is one who dwells beside a man, his house beside his house; but וּבַל־יֹאמַר שָׁכֵן חָלִיתִי (Yeshayahu 33:24), and the dweller shall not say, I am sick, is of one who dwells inside her, in Yerushalayim, as the pasuk goes on, הָעָם הַיּשֵׁב בָּהּ נְשֻׂא עָוֹֽן, the people that dwell in her are forgiven their sin; and יָגוּרוּ שְׁכַן שֹֽׁמְרוֹן (Hoshea 10:5), the dwellers of Shomron shall fear, is those who dwell in Shomron.

Where the verb takes an object, אֹהֶל שִׁכֵּן בָּאָדָֽם (Tehillim 78:60), the tent He set to dwell among men, and לְשַׁכֵּן שְׁמוֹ שָׁם (Devarim 12:11), to set His name to dwell there; וְהִשְׁכַּנְתִּי עָלֶיךָ כָּל־עוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם (Yechezkel 32:4), I will settle all the birds of the sky upon you, and וּכְבוֹדִי לֶֽעָפָר יַשְׁכֵּן סֶֽלָה (Tehillim 7:6), and make my honour dwell in the dust, selah. From this sense comes יִשְׁכְּנוּ אַדִּירֶיךָ (Nachum 3:18), your mighty ones rest, which is the rest of death, and like it שָֽׁכְנָה דוּמָה נַפְשִֽׁי (Tehillim 94:17), my soul rested in silence.

וְשַׂמְתָּ שַׂכִּין בְּלֹעֶךָ (Mishlei 23:2), and you shall put a knife to your throat, of which he says only ידוע, it is known; and he has already written the word in another sense under the root שֹוֹך, where the reading that files it with לְשִׂכִּים בְּעֵינֵיכֶם (Bamidbar 33:55), thorns in your eyes, is his father's.