widow

מְאַלּמִים אֲלֻּמִים (Bereishis 37:7), binding sheaves, means tying bundles together, and the noun in the feminine is נֹשֵׂא אֲלֻמֹּתָֽיו (Tehillim 126:6), carrying his sheaves. From this sense is אֵלֶם צֶדֶק תְּדַבֵּרוּן (Tehillim 58:2), you speak righteousness, where אֵלֶם is a noun meaning a multitude; it may also be explained from אִלֵּם, one who is dumb.

אִלֵּם (Shemos 4:11) is one who cannot speak, and כְּלָבִים אִלְּמִים (Yeshayahu 56:10) are dumb dogs; נֶאֱלַמְתִּי דוּמִיָּה (Tehillim 39:3), I was struck dumb in silence, and תֵּֽאָלַמְנָה שִׂפְתֵי שָׁקֶר (Tehillim 31:19), let lying lips be struck dumb.

Rabbi Yonah explained well, Radak says, that a woman whose husband has died is called אלמנה from this sense, because she cannot speak and contend with those who contend with her. On this derivation the nun in אלמנה is an addition. Under the root too are כִּי לֹֽא־ אַלְמָן יִשְׂרָאֵל (Yirmiyahu 51:5), for Israel is not widowed; the noun שְׁכוֹל וְאַלְמֹן (Yeshayahu 47:9), bereavement and widowhood; and אַלְמְנוּת חַיּֽוּת (Shmuel II 20:3), a widowhood in life.

In פְּלֹנִי אַלְמֹנִי (Rus 4:1), so-and-so, the man is called אַלְמֹנִי because his name is not spoken; and likewise פלוני, from פָלָא, to be hidden, meaning his name is covered. The first is correct, Radak says, rather than that he is called אלמוני because he may have had a wife who died, since a place whose name is not given is called so as well, אל מקום פְּלֹנִי אַלְמוֹנִֽי (Shmuel I 21:3), to such and such a place; though it may be said that there the words are said not of the place but of its owner. The two are joined in one word in לַפַּלְמוֹנִי הַמְדַבֵּר (Daniel 8:13), to a certain one who was speaking.

וְאוּלָם חַי־אָנִי (Bamidbar 14:21), but truly, as I live, and its like mean truly. וְהָֽאוּלָם עַל־פְּנֵי הֵיכַל הַבַּיִת (Melachim I 6:3), and the ulam before the Heichal of the House, is a building like a side chamber, or else a vault, called in the vernacular volta. Another form is וְאֵֽלַמָּו (Yechezkel 40:21), and its ulams, and in the feminine וְאֵֽלַמּוֹת סָבִיב (Yechezkel 40:30), and ulams round about.

Rabbi Yonah explained וּבָרִיא אוּלָם (Tehillim 73:4) as ובריא כאולם, and sound as the ulam: they are sound and strong like the ulam, a likeness of the kind in בְּנוֹתֵינוּ כְזָוִיֹּת מְחֻטָּבוֹת תַּבְנִית הֵיכָל (Tehillim 144:12), our daughters like corner pillars carved in the pattern of a palace. He also explained the house Shlomo made for Pharaoh's daughter, כָּאוּלָם הַזֶּה, like this ulam: the right way, he wrote, is to read the ulam as a palace, from וְעָנָה אִיִּים בְּאַלְמְנוֹתָיו (Yeshayahu 13:22), and wild creatures shall cry out in its אלמנות, taking בְּאַלְמְנוֹתָיו as ארמנותיו, its palaces, and so וַיֵּדַע אַלְמְנוֹתָיו (Yechezkel 19:7), and he knew its palaces. It may be as Rabbi Yonah says, Radak allows, but not by an interchange of lamed and resh, for only the letters אהו"י, alef, heh, vav and yud, interchange. What is right in Radak's eyes is that the word בְּאַלְמְנוֹתָיו means what it says, from the widow: ruined cities are called widows, as in הָיְתָה כְּאַלְמָנָה (Eichah 1:1), she has become like a widow, since a city full of people is like a married woman and when ruined is like a widow. Radak explains וַיֵּדַע אַלְמְנוֹתָיו further at the root ידע.

Rabbi Yonah wrote that עַל־יוֹנַת אֵלֶם רְחֹקִים (Tehillim 56:1), on the dove of אֵלֶם far off, may be of this sense, a palace; so read, אֵלֶם is a noun pointed with five dots, and it is the dove of the far-off palace. What is right in Radak's eyes is that it is from תֵּאָלַמְנָה שִׂפְתֵי שָׁקֶר (Tehillim 31:19), let lying lips be struck dumb: David said this of himself, for he was an exile among the Pelishtim and was as one dumb among them. But in Radak's own view וּבָרִיא אוּלָם means their strength is sound: the mem of אוּלָם is the plural suffix, their, as he explained at the root איל.

וְכַרְמֶל בְּצִקְלֹנוֹ (Melachim II 4:42), and karmel in his sack, and וְלֶחֶם וְקָלִי וְכַרְמֶל (Vayikra 23:14), and bread and parched grain and karmel: the ear of grain is called so while it is soft and still moist. The Sifra reads the word as רַךְ מָל, that is, soft and full; the school of Rabbi Yishmael taught כַּר מָלֵא, a full cushion, that is, the ear is full like a cushion full of down.

His father takes it as a compound, כר מל: כר as in the language of Chazal, כרים וכסתות (Kilayim 9:2), cushions and covers, and מל also from the language of Chazal, מילתא (Shabbos 10b), which is a garment of silk.

רֹאשֵׁךְ עָלַיִךְ כַּכַּרְמֶל (Shir HaShirim 7:6), your head upon you is like karmel, is a colour, and it is said to be the colour of שָׁנִי, scarlet; so too with a yud, וְכַרְמִיל וּתְכֵלֶת (Divrei HaYamim II 2:6), and karmil and blue.

אֶל־הַר הַכַּרְמֶל (Melachim I 18:19), to Har HaKarmel, is a known mountain in Eretz Yisrael by that name, called so because it was a place of fields and trees, for כַּרְמֶל is the name anywhere for a place of fruit trees and fields of grain. וְשָׁב לְבָנוֹן לַכַּרְמֶל וְהַכַּרְמֶל לַיַּעַר יֵחָשֵֽׁב (Yeshayahu 29:17), and Levanon shall turn to karmel and the karmel be counted a forest, is a parable: those high now like the lofty cedars of Levanon will be like the trees of the karmel, which are low, and those low now like the trees of the karmel will be high like the trees of the forest of Levanon; the prophecy is about the kingdom of Chizkiyahu. So in another prophecy, וְהָיָה מִדְבָּר לַכַּרְמֶל (Yeshayahu 32:15), and the wilderness shall become karmel: the cities that are like a wilderness with no trees will be like the karmel with its fruit trees and sown fields, and the karmel like a forest of cedars and tall trees; that is to say, Yisrael will rise from level to level.