seeing

וְנִבַּט לָאָרֶץ (Yeshayahu 5:30), and one looks to the earth: the nun is a root letter, and he takes the word as a past verb of the heavy form with the dagesh; some say it is of the passive form. Another heavy form: לֹא־הִבִּיט אָוֶן בְּיַֽעֲקֹב (Bamidbar 23:21), He has not looked on iniquity in Yaakov, וְהִבִּיטוּ אַֽחֲרֵי מֹשֶׁה (Shemos 33:8), they looked after Moshe, and הַבֶּט־נָא הַשָּׁמַיְמָה (Bereishis 15:5), look now toward the heavens.

וְהַבִּיט אֶל־עָמָל לֹא תוּכָל (Chavakuk 1:13), You cannot look upon wrong, מֵֽהַבִּיט אֶל־הָֽאֱלֹהִֽים (Shemos 3:6), from looking toward Hashem, and אַל־תַּבִּיט אַֽחֲרֶיךָ (Bereishis 19:17), do not look behind you.

The noun is הִנֵּה־כֹה מַבָּטֵנוּ (Yeshayahu 20:6), see, such is what we looked to, and מִכּוּשׁ מַבָּטָם (Yeshayahu 20:5), of Kush, what they looked to, with a patach under the mem; and וְעֶקְרוֹן כִּֽי־הוֹבִישׁ מֶבָּטָהּ (Zecharyah 9:5), and Ekron, for what she looked to has withered, with a segol under the mem. Their sense, he says, ענינם ענין ההשגחה, is that of watchful attention.

צָץ הַמַּטֶּה (Yechezkel 7:10), the staff has blossomed; וַיָּצֵֽץ צִיץ (Bamidbar 17:23), and it put forth a blossom; יָצִיץ וּפָרַח יִשְׂרָאֵל (Yeshayahu 27:6), Yisrael shall bud and blossom. וּפְטוּרֵי צִצִּים (Melachim I 6:18) are figures like flowers and blossoms, the yud swallowed in the dagesh. And וְֽהָיְתָה צִיצַת נֹבֵל (Yeshayahu 28:4), and the fading blossom shall be, takes the feminine tav though נֹבֵל, fading, is masculine. The sense of all of them is the flowers coming out and being seen.

Close to this sense is מֵצִיץ מִן־הַֽחֲרַכִּֽים (Shir HaShirim 2:9), showing himself from the lattices, which is to say he reveals himself and is seen and looks out from the windows. Some read from it וְעָלָיו יָצִיץ נִזְרֽוֹ (Tehillim 132:18), and upon him his crown shall be seen: in the place where I make a horn sprout for David, there his crown will be seen. It can also be read that the crown on his head will flower and blossom, that is, his greatness and glory will grow day by day.

Another sense is a plate of gold: וְעָשִׂיתָ צִּיץ זָהָב (Shemos 28:36), and you shall make a plate of gold, and צִיץ נֶֽזֶר־הַקֹּדֶשׁ (Shemos 39:30), the plate of the holy crown. The verb from it is the יָצִיץ of Tehillim 132:18, upon him his crown, which makes a third way of reading that pasuk; what the verb means on this reading he does not say.

Another sense is תְּנוּ־ צִיץ לְמוֹאָב (Yirmiyahu 48:9), give a wing to Moav, a wing to fly with. The Targum renders סְנַפִּיר (Vayikra 11:9), a fin, as צִיצִין, and Chazal said (Chullin 66b) that fins are what the fish flies with.

וְעָשׂוּ לָהֶם צִיצִת (Bamidbar 15:38), and they shall make themselves fringes. The loose end of a garment, what is left over from the weave and hangs from it, is called ציצית, and so the threads that the Torah commands to be hung on the corner of the garment are called ציצית. Hanging locks of hair are the same, וַיִּקָּחֵנִי בְּצִיצִת רֹאשִׁי (Yechezkel 8:3), and he took me by a lock of my head, and some read מֵצִיץ מִן־הַֽחֲרַכִּֽים this way too, showing the locks of his head from the lattices. It is called ציצית after the loose end that hangs from it, since most of the threads of the ציצית are loose end, as Chazal said (Menachos 39a), a third is the twisted cord and two thirds the loose end; and they said (Menachos 62a) there is no ציצית but a loose end. In the same sense they speak (Shabbos 19:6) of the ציצין, the hanging shreds, that hold back the milah.

צֹפֶה נְתַתִּיךָ (Yechezkel 3:17), I have set you as a watchman, עֵינָיו בַּגּוֹיִם תִּצְפֶּינָה (Tehillim 66:7), His eyes keep watch on the nations, and צָפֹה הַצָּפִית (Yeshayahu 21:5), set the watch. Radak says הַצָּפִית is either a word describing the watchman, the tav standing for the hei of the third root letter, or else the tav is added to the word.

וְהִשְׁקֵיתִי אֶרֶץ צָפָֽתְךָ מִדָּמְךָ (Yechezkel 32:6), I will water the land of your tzafah from your blood: its sense is the land of your looking out and your gazing, that is, even the high places I will water with your blood. Radak notes that he gave another explanation of the word under the root צוּף.

In the heavy form, בְּצִפִּיָּתֵנוּ צִפִּינוּ (Eichah 4:17), in our watching we watched, בֹּקֶר אֶֽעֱרָךְ־לְךָ וַֽאֲצַפֶּֽה (Tehillim 5:4), in the morning I set it before You and look out, and צַפֵּה ־דֶרֶךְ (Nachum 2:2), watch the road. Radak says that in this form it comes close to the sense of hoping, since one who hopes for another looks out for him.

The noun is וַיִּקְרָא אַרְיֵה עַל־ מִצְפֶּה (Yeshayahu 21:8), a lion called out upon the watchtower. A high place is called a מצפה because a man looks out from it far off. All of these, he says, are the sense of looking.

וְצִפָּה רָֽאשֵׁיהֶם (Shemos 36:38), he overlaid their tops, וְצִפִּיתָ אֹתָם (Shemos 27:6), and you shall overlay them, and מְצֻפֶּה עַל־חָרֶשׂ (Mishlei 26:23), laid over earthenware. The noun is צִפּוּי לַמִּזְבֵּֽחַ (Bamidbar 17:4), an overlay for the mizbeach.

Radak allows that וְהַצֶּפֶת אֲשֶׁר־עַל־רֹאשׁוֹ אַמּוֹת חָמֵֽשׁ (Divrei HaYamim II 3:15), and the capital that was on its top was five cubits, may be of this root and this sense, the capital being so called because it was an overlay for the pillar. He adds that he will write צֶפֶת as a root of its own, as Rabbi Yonah did, who said in the name of Rav Saadiah Gaon that the word means a צנצנת, a jar.

וְלִבִּי רָאָה הַרְבֵּה חָכְמָה וָדָֽעַת (Koheles 1:16), my heart saw much wisdom and knowledge. וַיַּרְא יַֽעֲקֹב כִּי יֶשׁ־שֶׁבֶר (Bereishis 42:1), Yaakov saw that there was grain, is either that he saw the people of the land going to Mitzrayim to buy grain, or that he saw in his heart, that is, he understood from what he had heard and seen, as the heart saw in Koheles. הַדּוֹר אַתֶּם רְאוּ (Yirmiyahu 2:31), you, O generation, see, is, give your mind to the word of Hashem; and of the heart's seeing too is רְאֵה דְבָרֶיךָ טוֹבִים וּנְכֹחִים (Shmuel II 15:3), see, your words are good and right, that is, give your mind and understand.

Because the eye's perception is greater than the rest, the other senses are spoken of as seeing: וְכָל־הָעָם רֹאִים אֶת־הַקּוֹלֹת (Shemos 20:15), all the people saw the sounds, and רְאֵה רֵיחַ בְּנִי (Bereishis 27:27), see the smell of my son.

שָׁגוּ בָּֽרֹאֶה (Yeshayahu 28:7), they erred in the seeing, is, they erred in prophecy; his father read it as, they erred in a thing seen by every man. רֹאֶה there is taken as a noun, the seeing, and with the suffix of the one speaking, אַֽחֲרֵי רֹאִֽי (Bereishis 16:13) is, after my prophecy; so Rabbi Yaakov ben Elazar wrote, and Radak says it is right. Radak also reads the same words as, after the One who sees me, that is, the One who appeared to me and saw me in my affliction.

לֹֽא־ אֶרְאֶה יָהּ (Yeshayahu 38:11), I shall not see Hashem, Rav Saadiah Gaon explained in the sense of thanksgiving, and Radak says it is right, since to see the Creator is to give thanks and praise before Him and to consider His ways.

Seeing is used too of war: וַיְמִיתֵהוּ בִּמְגִדּוֹ כִּרְאֹתוֹ אֹתֽוֹ (Melachim II 23:29), and he killed him at Megiddo when he saw him, that is, when he fought him; and so נִתְרָאֶה פָנִֽים (Melachim II 14:8), let us look one another in the face. Some read לָמָּה תִּתְרָאֽוּ (Bereishis 42:1) in this sense too, why do you face one another; or it is read, why do you show yourselves as though you were sated and had food with you, when all the rest of the world is going to buy grain and you sit where you are.

It is used too of what is owed and fixed: הָרְאֻיוֹת לָֽתֶת־לָהּ (Esther 2:9), those due to be given her, that is, maidens of standing who were fit to wait on her.

Some read הֵמָּה יַבִּיטוּ יִרְאוּ ־בִֽי (Tehillim 22:18), they look, they gaze at me, as contempt, and so לְרַֽאֲוָה בָֽךְ (Yechezkel 28:17), to gaze at you. Radak holds there is no need to take them out of their own sense, and so Yonasan renders לְרַֽאֲוָה בָֽךְ as לְאִסְתַכְּלָא בָךְ, to look at you.

The eyes are הָרֹאוֹת, the seers, in וְחָֽשְׁכוּ הָרֹֽאוֹת (Koheles 12:3), and the seers are darkened. The noun is רֹאִי, sight: יִכֶל בְּשָׂרוֹ מֵרֹאִי (Iyov 33:21), his flesh wastes away from sight, and וְטוֹב רֹאִי (Shmuel I 16:12), and good to look upon. With the short vowel, אַתָּה אֵל רֳאִי (Bereishis 16:13), You are a God of seeing, is, a God of seeing in that a man is able to see You. And כִּי אָֽמְרָה הֲגַם הֲלֹם רָאִיתִי, for she said, have I even here seen, is how she knew he was an angel: while he was still speaking with her he vanished from her eyes and she did not see him. That is what her words mean: I saw nothing after him when he parted from me, though the way of the world is that one goes on seeing a man after he parts, until he is far off and passes from sight.

חֲזָקִים כִּרְאִי מוּצָֽק (Iyov 37:18), strong as a cast mirror, and בְּמַרְאֹת הַצֹּבְאֹת (Shemos 38:8), of the mirrors of the women who gathered: this is the vessel in which one looks at one's face.

וְהֵסִיר אֶת־ מֻרְאָתוֹ (Vayikra 1:16), and he shall remove its crop, the מֻרְאָה being the bird's crop, as the Targum has it; וְשַׂמְתִּיךְ כְּרֹֽאִי (Nachum 3:6), and I will make you as filth, is of the sense of filth and soiling, and from this is מֹרְאָה in הוֹי מֹֽרְאָה וְנִגְאָלָה (Tzefaniah 3:1), woe to her that is soiled and defiled. Of וְהָֽרָאָה וְאֶת־הָאַיָּה (Devarim 14:13), and the ra'ah and the ayah, Chazal say (Chullin 63b) that the ra'ah is the da'ah, and that it is called ra'ah because it sees exceedingly.

מִֽמְּכֽוֹן־שִׁבְתּוֹ הִשְׁגִּיחַ (Tehillim 33:14), from the place of His dwelling He looked out closely; רֹאֶיךָ אֵלֶיךָ יַשְׁגִּיחוּ (Yeshayahu 14:16), those who see you look closely at you; מַשְׁגִּיחַ מִן־הַֽחֲלֹּנוֹת (Shir HaShirim 2:9), looking closely in through the windows. Radak gives their sense as looking with close attention.

שָׁרִים וְשָׁרוֹת (Koheles 2:8), men singers and women singers, and אָז יָשִׁיר מֹשֶׁה (Shemos 15:1), then Moshe sang. The nouns are שִׁיר and שִׁירָה, a song.

אֲשׁוּרֶנּוּ וְלֹא קָרוֹב (Bamidbar 24:17), I behold him but not near. יָשׁוּר כְּשַׁךְ יְקוּשִׁים (Yirmiyahu 5:26) he glosses: he watches as a man who sets a trap watches the birds when they settle, and so do they watch and lie in wait for men. Their sense, he says, is looking and observing, and from it אֱלֹהִים יַרְאֵנִי בְשֹׁרְרָי (Tehillim 59:11), Elokim will let me see those who watch me, means my enemies, since an enemy watches his enemy and observes him for harm.

וּתְשׁוּרָה אֵין לְהָבִיא (Shmuel I 9:7), and there is no present to bring, תְּשׁוּרָה being as a minchah, a gift. Rabbi Yonah writes that וַתָּשֻׁרִי לַמֶּלֶךְ בַּשֶּׁמֶן (Yeshayahu 57:9) is of this sense, that you offered a minchah before him, and Rav Saadiah Gaon explains it so too. Radak holds that the right reading is that ותשורי is as ותלכי, and you went to the king with oil; and so תָּשׁוּרִי מֵרֹאשׁ אֲמָנָה, you shall go from the top of Amanah, and יָשֹׁר עַל אֲנָשִׁים, he goes to men and confesses before them. From this sense of going, he says, a gift is called תשורה, because a man brings it. It may be, too, that יָשׁוּר כְּשַׁךְ יְקוּשִׁים (Yirmiyahu 5:26) is of going: they go about while the trappers rest, the trappers being those who spread the nets, who rest and set no trap at night, whereas these go about all night to catch men.

Of going too: אֳנִיּוֹת תַּרְשִׁישׁ שָׁרוֹתַיִךְ (Yechezkel 27:25), the ships of Tarshish were your caravans, which he explains as the caravans that travel in trade; the Targum renders אֹרְחַת יִשְׁמְעֵאלִים, a caravan of Yishmaelim, by שְׁיָרַת עֲרָבָאֵי, a caravan of Arabs. Those who go by sea are called a caravan too, since many ships go together. It may also be read as those that encamp by you, from the Targum's וּשְׁרָא for וַיִּחַן (Shemos 19:2), and he encamped.

בָּנוֹת צָעֲדָה עֲלֵי שׁוּר (Bereishis 49:22), daughters stride upon the wall, where שׁוּר is a wall, as the Targum of חוֹמָה is שׁוּרִין. עִקְּרוּ שׁוֹר (Bereishis 49:6), spelled with a cholam, he puts under the wall as well: they uprooted a wall. From this sense is בֵּין שׁוּרֹתָם יַצְהִירוּ (Iyov 24:11), between their walls they make oil, שׁוּרֹת being the plural of שׁוּר: for fear of the wicked they bring the olives in and make the oil between the walls. Some explain it as between the rows of the olive trees, from Chazal's word שורה, a row (Pesachim 1:1, 2a). And שׁוֹר אוֹ כֶשֶׂב אוֹ עֵז (Vayikra 17:3), an ox or a sheep or a goat, is the ox. Rabbi Yaakov ben Elazar puts עִקְּרוּ שׁוֹר under the ox, as a figure for a ruler, as Tanach calls great princes rams and he-goats; some take it as a real ox, that they hamstrung the cattle.

שָׂרִים עָצְרוּ בְמִלִּים (Iyov 29:9), princes held back their words, and וַיָּשַׂר אֲבִימֶלֶךְ (Shoftim 9:22), Avimelech ruled. Where the verb takes an object it is to set someone in rule: הֵשִׂירוּ וְלֹא יָדָעְתִּי (Hoshea 8:4), they made princes and I did not know, that is, they set a prince over themselves and not by My leave. Two he reads here are written with a samech: יָסֹר בַּמַּשָּׂא (Divrei HaYamim I 15:22), he was chief in the מַשָּׂא, which Radak says is that he was a prince and eminent in prophecy, or in the raising of the voice in song; and כֻּלָּם סָרֵי סוֹרְרִים (Yirmiyahu 6:28), all of them are סָרֵי סוֹרְרִים, which he reads as שרים סוררים, rebellious princes, and so the Targum, כָּל רַבְרְבֵיהוֹן מָרְדִין, all their great ones rebel. Radak says he has explained that pasuk at the root נחשׁ.

בַּמִּשְׁקָל וּבַמְּשׂוּרָה (Vayikra 19:35), in weight and in measure. A מְשׂוּרָה is a measure, but a very small one, as Chazal say (Bava Metzia 61b) that it is a thirty-third part of a log. וּמַיִם בִּמְשׂוּרָה תִשְׁתֶּה (Yechezkel 4:11), and you shall drink water by measure, does not mean that the measure is a sixth of a hin: he is to drink no more than a sixth of a hin in a day, and to drink it little by little, by the measure. In וּלְכָל מְשׂוּרָה וּמִדָּה (Divrei HaYamim I 23:29), and for every measure, small and large, משורה is said of the small measures and מדה of the large.

In וְשָׂם חִטָּה שׂוֹרָה (Yeshayahu 28:25), and he sets the wheat שׂוֹרָה, some take the last word from ruling: fine and choice wheat. Rabbi Yonah sets it with the measures instead, like what the pasuk says next, וּשְׂעֹרָה נִסְמָן וְכֻסֶּמֶת גְּבֻלָתוֹ, and barley in its marked place and spelt at its border.

וְצֶדֶק מִשָּׁמַיִם נִשְׁקָֽף (Tehillim 85:12), righteousness looks down from heaven, בְּעַד אֶשְׁנַבִּי נִשְׁקָֽפְתִּי (Mishlei 7:6), I looked out through my lattice, and כִּי רָעָה נִשְׁקְפָה מִצָּפוֹן (Yirmiyahu 6:1), for evil looks out from the north. Their sense is watching and peering. The Targum renders וּבִנְקִיקֵי הַסְּלָעִים (Yeshayahu 7:19), and in the clefts of the rocks, as וּבִשְׁקִיפֵי כֵיפַיָא, in the look-outs of the rocks, and so it renders וּבִסְעִפֵי הַסְּלָעִים (Yeshayahu 2:21), and in the crags of the rocks, because men look out from them for their height.

Radak says the word is used in the form of being acted upon because a man who stands in a high place and looks out is himself looked at by those who look toward him. That is why it says הַשְׁקִיפָה מִמְּעוֹן קָדְשְׁךָ מִן־הַשָּׁמַיִם (Devarim 26:15), look down from Your holy dwelling from the heavens, in the active form, since the Holy One looks out and is not looked at.

וַיַּשְׁקֵף אֲבִימֶלֶךְ (Bereishis 26:8), and Avimelech looked out, is so put because he was in a place where he saw them and they did not see him; and וַתַּשְׁקֵף בְּעַד הַחַלּֽוֹן (Melachim II 9:30), and she looked out through the window, likewise, for she saw them and they did not see her until Yehu drew near the gate.

On חַלּוֹנֵי שְׁקֻפִים אֲטֻמִֽים (Melachim I 6:4), windows, שְׁקֻפִים and sealed, the Targum says פְּתִיחָן מִלְגָיו וּסְתִימָן מִלְבָרָא, open within and closed without. Radak notes that in the words of the Chachamim the reverse is found (Menachos 86b): open outside and closed inside, unlike other windows, to show that He has no need of light.

אֶל־ הַמַּשְׁקוֹף וְאֶל־שְׁתֵּי הַמְּזוּזֹת (Shemos 12:22), to the lintel and to the two doorposts: it is the upper threshold above the doorpost of the gate, so called, Radak says, because it is always in view, looked at, or because the door strikes against it continually. The Targum renders וּשְׁדוּפֹת קָדִים (Bereishis 41:6), blighted by the east wind, as וּשְׁקִיפָן קִדּוּם, that is, struck by the east wind, and וַיִּסְפֹּק אֶת־כַּפָּיו (Bamidbar 24:10), and he struck his hands together, as וּשְׁקָפִנּוּן לִידוֹהִי, and he struck them, his hands. Ibn Ezra wrote that the משקוף is a window made above the doorway, from which they look out when a man calls at the gate, to see who is calling, and that this is known in the land of Yishmael, where windows are made above the doorways to look out from.

וּשְׁקֻפִים שְׁלֹשָׁה טוּרִים (Melachim I 7:4), and שְׁקֻפִים in three rows, set one facing the other: Targum Yonasan renders it וּכְלֵנְסָא תְּלַת סִדְרִין, and poles, three rows. So too וְכָל־הַפְּתָחִים וְהַמְּזוּזוֹת רְבֻעִים שָׁקֶף (Melachim I 7:5), and all the doorways and doorposts squared, שָׁקֶף, is rendered מְרַבְּעִין וַחֲפָן כְּלֵנְסָא, squared and covered with poles. The same word is in the words of the Chachamim, מביאין כלונסות של ארז, they bring poles of cedar (Rosh Hashanah 22b), and ומודלה על גבי כלונסות, trained up over poles, in Chullin, and כלונסות means staves.