witness

He calls עד a noun, a verb and a particle, and all three mean ועד והתחבר דברים זה לזה, meeting and the joining of things to each other, whether they were joined from the start or join when one moves to the other. As a particle, עד marks a thing's joining to a particular limit, showing how far it reaches. The limit may be of place, עד מקום שכם עד אלון מורה (Bereishis 12:6), as far as the place of Shechem, as far as Elon Moreh; of time, עד עצם היום הזה (Vayikra 23:14), until this very day, and עד הנה (Bereishis 44:28), until now; or of a matter, עד אשר תפרה (Shemos 23:30), until you are fruitful, and עד בואכם עד המקום הזה (Devarim 1:31), until you came to this place.

Sometimes the limit itself belongs to what is joined to it, which is called עד ועד בכלל, until with the limit included: מראשו ועד רגליו (Vayikra 13:12), from his head to his feet, the feet included, and מיום הראשון עד יום השביעי (Shemos 12:15), from the first day until the seventh day, the seventh day too falling under the ban on chametz. So too מקטן ועד גדול (Bereishis 19:11), both small and great. Sometimes the limit stands outside it and only marks how far the thing reaches, which is called עד ולא עד בכלל, until with the limit left out: מערב עד ערב תשבתו שבתכם (Vayikra 23:32), from evening to evening you shall keep your rest, the second evening not part of the rest; ועד הים האחרון יהיה גבולכם (Devarim 11:24), up to the Western Sea shall be your border, the sea not within it except for some islands; and עד הביאכם את קרבן אלהיכם (Vayikra 23:14), until you have brought the offering of your God, since the new grain is permitted once the offering is brought. In all of these the limit is named.

To show that a thing lasts without bound or end, the limit is hidden and עד stands alone, meaning continuance up to a hidden limit that cannot be fixed: any limit one pictures is not it, and so the thing goes on always. So רם ונשא שכן עד (Yeshayahu 57:15), high and exalted, dwelling for ever; בטחו בה׳ עדי-עד (Yeshayahu 26:4), trust in Hashem for ever; and ויתפצצו הררי-עד (Chavakuk 3:6), the everlasting mountains were shattered. That is ועד, as in ה׳ ימלוך לעלם ועד (Shemos 15:18), Hashem shall reign for ever and ever, which is לעולם גם עד, for ever and also without limit. Sometimes the everlasting limit is named outright, ומעולם עד-עולם אתה אל (Tehillim 90:2), from everlasting to everlasting You are God, and לדוד ולזרעו עד-עולם (Tehillim 18:51), to David and to his seed for ever, which is the limit included; sometimes both are said, עד-עולמי עד (Yeshayahu 45:17), to worlds without end, meaning worlds that go on for ever. And עד may be said of a beginning, to say that it has no limit: הזאת ידעת מני-עד (Iyov 20:4), do you know this, from of old, meaning from the hidden limit in time at which the thing began.

With suffixes עד stands in place of אל, to: האזינה עדי בנו צפר (Bamidbar 23:18), give ear to me, son of Tzippor, where עדי is אלי, to me; עדיך כל בשר יבאו (Tehillim 65:3), to You all flesh shall come; and ועדיכם אתבונן (Iyov 32:12), and to you I gave heed.

From the particle a verb is made, עדה: לא-עדה עליו שחל (Iyov 28:8), the lion has not passed over it, meaning it did not come up to it, just as ותהינו לעלות ההרה (Devarim 1:41), and you made ready to go up the mountain, is made from הן, here. By compounding comes בלעדי, which is בל-עדי, not with me, the thing not joined to me: ויען יוסף את-פרעה לאמר, בלעדי (Bereishis 41:16), and Yosef answered Pharaoh, saying, it is not in me; and בלעדי, רק אשר אכלו הנערים (Bereishis 14:24), nothing for me, only what the young men have eaten, meaning nothing as touching me, only as what the young men ate. Without a suffix it serves as זולת, apart from: מבלעדי אישך (Bamidbar 5:20), other than your husband, a lying in which your husband has no share.

With the bet of instrument and limit comes בעד: כי עצר ה׳ בעד כל רחם (Bereishis 20:18), for Hashem had closed up every womb, that is, about the surface joined to the womb; בעד החלון נשקפה (Shoftim 5:28), through the window she looked out; and הבעד ערפל ישפוט? (Iyov 22:13), can He judge through the thick cloud? In construct it is always pointed with a sheva; standing alone it takes a patach, as מבעד לצמתך (Shir HaShirim 4:1), from behind your veil, and with a suffix always a patach: ויתפלל בעדך וחיה (Bereishis 20:7), and he will pray for you and you shall live; וכפר בעדך ובעד העם (Vayikra 9:7), and make atonement for yourself and for the people; and וכפר בעדו ובעד ביתו (Vayikra 16:6), and he shall make atonement for himself and for his household.

Sometimes עד is compounded with הן and הנה, here: המה חיים עדנה (Koheles 4:2), who are alive still, as עד הנה, until now; and את אשר-עדן לא היה (Koheles 4:3), the one who has not yet been, as עד הן, likewise until now. It is the Talmud's עדיין, still.

As a verb, עד is the joining of two equal subjects in a third, which is the limit binding them together. ונועדתי לך שם (Shemos 25:22), and I will meet with you there: the speech was shared by Hakadosh Baruch Hu and Moshe, and the Mishkan was the limit joining them. So אשר אועד לך שמה (Shemos 30:6), where I will meet with you, and ונועדתי שמה לבני ישראל (Shemos 29:43), and I will meet there with Bnei Yisrael: the revelation of the Shechinah and the appearing of Bnei Yisrael are united in the Mishkan, and so it is called אהל מועד, the Tent of Meeting. With a vav in place of the nun, ויועדו יחדו לבוא (Iyov 2:11), they arranged together to come, setting themselves a place to join; so ונועדה יחדו (Nechemiah 6:2), let us meet together, and נועד אל-בית האלהים (Nechemiah 6:10), let us meet at the house of God.

The name serves both the tent set apart for Hashem's speech with Moshe, ומשה יקח את-האהל ... וקרא לו אהל מועד (Shemos 33:7), and Moshe would take the tent ... and called it the Tent of Meeting, and the tent set apart for the revelation of the Shechinah to Yisrael, which is the Mishkan, בבואם אל אהל מועד (Shemos 28:43), when they come into the Tent of Meeting. So ונועדו אליך כל העדה אל פתח אהל מועד (Bamidbar 10:3), and all the congregation shall gather to you at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and ונועדו אליך הנשיאים (Bamidbar 10:4), and the princes shall gather to you, that is, to the bounded place where you are; and ובית מועד לכל-חי (Iyov 30:23), and the house appointed for all the living.

From this comes the noun עדה: ותקהל העדה (Vayikra 8:4), and the congregation was assembled, and עדת בני ישראל (Shemos 16:1), the congregation of Bnei Yisrael. Any number of people bounded to join in a bounded place, or gathered by a bounded purpose, is an עדה. So והנה עדת דבורים בגוית האריה (Shoftim 14:8), and behold, a swarm of bees in the lion's carcass: bees, gathered together in the hive for one purpose, are rightly called an עדה.

Of the same is יעוד, bounding and appointing to a particular purpose that brings two together, which is marriage: אשר-לו יעדה והפדה... ואם-לבנו ייעדנה (Shemos 21:8-9), who designated her for himself, he shall let her be redeemed ... and if he designates her for his son. So ואל-חוף הים שם יעדה (Yirmiyahu 47:7), and to the seashore, there He has appointed it, and אנה פניך מעדות (Yechezkel 21:21), wherever your face is set.

From יעוד comes מועד, time designated and bounded: והיו לאתת ולמועדים (Bereishis 1:14), and they shall be for signs and for seasons; למועד הזה בשנה האחרת (Bereishis 17:21), at this set time next year; אלה מועדי ה׳ (Vayikra 23:2), these are the appointed seasons of Hashem; חסידה בשמים ידעה מועדיה (Yirmiyahu 8:7), the stork in the heavens knows her seasons. All are the bounding of time, and the bounding of the doer to a particular deed that brings time and doer together. That is התוועדות, meeting, itself: time and doer are two subjects, and the action the third that joins them. The difference between ועד, עת and זמן, meeting, time and season, he sets out at length in his Yerios Shlomo.

From the same meeting comes עוד, excess and addition, what is joined to what is already there: עוד היום גדול (Bereishis 29:7), the day is yet long; והברד לא יהיה עוד (Shemos 9:29), and there will be no more hail; ועל הארץ מתחת אין עוד (Devarim 4:39), and on the earth below there is no other. It serves too for continuing in existence: עוד כל ימי הארץ (Bereishis 8:22), while the earth remains; לא יקרא עוד את שמך אברם (Bereishis 17:5), your name shall no longer be called Avram; עוד זה מדבר וזה בא (Iyov 1:16), while this one was still speaking, another came; and with a suffix, עודנו מדבר עמם (Bereishis 29:9), while he was still speaking with them, and הבשר עודנו בין שניהם (Bamidbar 11:33), the meat was still between their teeth. In every continuing a fresh stretch is joined to the one before, and so עוד is said of both.

Within continuing, עוד and בעוד differ. עוד without the bet is the full stretch: כי לימים עוד שבעה אנכי ממטיר על הארץ (Bereishis 7:4), for in seven more days I will bring rain upon the earth, the seven days running first and then the rain; עוד ארבעים יום ונינוה נהפכת (Yonah 3:4), forty more days and Nineveh is overturned, the forty days complete and then the overturning. בעוד, with the bet, is a stretch not complete: the later thing enters before the bounded time is finished and is swallowed in the earlier, as בעוד שלשת ימים ישא פרעה את-ראשך (Bereishis 40:19), within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head, the lifting falling inside the three days; and הן בעודני חי עמכם היום ממרים הייתם (Devarim 31:27), even while I am still alive with you today you have been rebellious. The bet of בעוד is the bet of within, as in בעת ההיא, at that time, and בימים ההם, in those days.

With a mem, עוד marks the start of a thing's continuing: מעודי עד-היום הזה (Bereishis 48:15), ever since I was, to this day, that is, from when my עוד, my continuing in existence, began, since a whole thing is sometimes named for its beginning. So מעודך עד-היום הזה (Bamidbar 22:30), ever since you were, to this day. The mem of מעוד is the mem of מן, from, as in מערב עד ערב, from evening to evening, מעת (Yeshayahu 48:16), from the time, and מאז היתה לגוי (Shemos 9:24), since it became a nation.

From עוד as continuing in existence comes the verb עודד, its dalet doubled for continuance carried far: קמנו ונתעודד (Tehillim 20:9), we have risen and stand upright; יתום ואלמנה יעודד (Tehillim 146:9), He upholds the orphan and the widow; מעודד ענוים (Tehillim 147:6), He upholds the humble: they are given continuance, long and abundant, so that whenever they are liable to stop, they go on.

From ועד comes עדי, the ornament that beautifies its wearer: ולא-שתו איש עדיו עליו (Shemos 33:4), and no man put on his ornaments; המעלה עדי זהב (Shmuel II 1:24), who put on you ornaments of gold; וככלה תעדה כליה (Yeshayahu 61:10), as a bride adorns herself with her jewels; ותעד נזמה וחליתה (Hoshea 2:15), she decked herself with her nose-ring and her jewelry. It is from meeting: the ornament and its wearer are two subjects and the sense of sight a third, where they meet and bring forth beauty and splendour. The beauty is a relation, lying neither in the ornament alone nor in the wearer alone but in the two together, when the eye takes them in and finds them suited to each other. There are ornaments not fine in themselves that look fine and splendid on the one who wears them, and fine ones that turn ugly on a man whose figure does not suit them, like נזם זהב באף חזיר (Mishlei 11:22), a gold ring in a pig's snout.

The word is said of removing the ornament too: חבלי רשעים עודני (Tehillim 119:61), the bands of the wicked have stripped me, meaning they took my ornaments from me, as ודשנו את המזבח (Bamidbar 4:13), and they shall clear the ashes from the altar, is the removal of the ashes, and מפני רשעים זו שדוני (Tehillim 17:9), from the wicked who despoil me, is the taking away of my breast and what it yields. From stripping ornaments comes עד, spoil: בבקר יאכל עד (Bereishis 49:27), in the morning he devours the spoil; אז חלק עד-שלל (Yeshayahu 33:23), then spoil and plunder were divided; ליום קומי לעד (Tzefaniah 3:8), for the day I rise up to the spoil. It is a particular name for the kinds of ornaments and finery that men of war adorn themselves with, stripped from them when they are taken captive; compare שוד, which speaks both of sucking out and of robbery.

Of the same is עדים in וכבגד עדים כל-צדקתינו (Yeshayahu 64:5), and all our righteousness is like a garment of עדים: a garment of those who plunder the finery of war, one tearing it this way and another that, until it rips. So too מעדה-בגד ביום קרה (Mishlei 25:20), a plunderers' garment on a cold day, slack and weak, which gives no warmth on a cold day; the mem is that of a noun, as in מעטה תהלה (Yeshayahu 61:3), a mantle of praise, and כל כלי מעשה (Bamidbar 31:51), every wrought article.

From the words of Chazal it would seem that עדים and מעדה are a rag or patch, called עדים because it is joined in, bringing the two sides of a tear together. In Masechta Niddah: בדקה עצמה בעד שלה (Niddah 14a), she examined herself with her cloth, and המשמשת בעדים (Niddah 5a), she who uses cloths, that is, a rag kept for wiping. But Rav Pappenheim finds no proof there: עד and עדים may be from testimony and seeing, since the rag one wipes with testifies whether there is blood or not; and that is why the words are found only in Niddah, while elsewhere the Talmud calls a rag סמרטוט and מטלית.

Perhaps בגד עדים in the pasuk is from עדי in its plain sense, a garment made for ornament, slack and light, not strong like other garments since it is made only for beauty: worn two or three times it tears, and so are all our righteous deeds, without strength. Then מעדה-בגד ביום קרה is a verb, formed like מרבה, one who increases: one who adorns himself on a cold day with a garment made for ornament, light and weak, which gives no warmth, as in וככלה תעדה כליה, as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

Further from ועד come the nouns עדן ומעדן, which are pleasure and enjoyment. Of touch: היתה-לי עדנה (Bereishis 18:12), I have had delight; המלבשכם שני עם-עדנים (Shmuel II 1:24), who clothed you in scarlet with delights; מעדנות כימה (Iyov 38:31), the delights of Kimah; עדינה היושבת לבטח (Yeshayahu 47:8), you who live in pleasure, dwelling secure. Of taste: מעדני-מלך (Bereishis 49:20), dainties fit for a king; ונחל עדניך תשקם (Tehillim 36:9), and You give them drink from the river of Your delights; מלא כרשו מעדני (Yirmiyahu 51:34), he has filled his belly with my delicacies. These too are meeting, and a relation: the sweetness and pleasure lie neither in the thing tasted or felt nor in the man who tastes or feels it, but in the meeting of the two in the sense of taste or touch that brings them together, and when they are sensed as suited to each other, pleasure comes of it.

All pleasantness comes from the suiting of the thing sensed to the sense, and that suiting works a pleasant feeling in the one who senses. So עדי and עדן are both the meeting of the thing sensed with the sense; but עדי is pleasantness as beauty, said of the pleasure of sight, and עדן is pleasantness as goodness, said of the pleasure of taste and touch. That is גן עדן, the Garden of Eden, which holds the pleasure of taste in its good fruits and the pleasure of touch in walking there, where the air is good and temperate.

The opposite of meeting with a thing is the verb מעד, made by adding a mem: ולא מעדו קרסלי (Tehillim 18:37), and my ankles did not slip; לא תמעד אשריו (Tehillim 37:31), his steps do not slip; ומתניהם תמיד המעד (Tehillim 69:24), and make their loins continually totter; ורגל מועדת (Mishlei 25:19), and a slipping foot. It is being removed from meeting the thing one should be joined to.

He gives it as a rule founded in the setting of the Hebrew language, to be kept in mind through the whole work: a two-letter root first set for meeting, joining, cleaving, agreement, binding and the like sometimes takes an added mem to mean the reverse of what it was set for. זח is moving off from being joined, as ולא יזח החשן (Shemos 28:28), and the breastplate shall not come loose, and מזח is its reverse. חק is engraving, מחק wiping out what was engraved. כר is recognizing, מכר the loss of recognition, estrangement. לט is folding, מלט ceasing to be folded. לץ is jesting, מליץ the reverse of jesting. נע is moving, מנע holding back from moving. סר is removing from, מסר handing over to. צא is going out of knowledge, מצא coming into it. רד is rule and dominion, מרד ceasing to be ruled. שך is nearness, משך the removing of nearness. So with מעד: עד is meeting, and מעד its reverse. The rule leaves out the mems that form a noun, as מקרא, a reading, מסע, a setting out, מרבה, an increase, מעשה, a deed, מעלה, an ascent, and מטה, a staff.

As a noun, עד is testimony, the joining of two subjects that are not equal in a third that brings them together; the verb, by contrast, joins two equals. The deed is one subject and its doer the second, and they are unequal, one doing and the other done; the one who sees them both is the third, in whom deed and doer are joined. So wherever the Torah says עד it means two (Sotah 2b): יבאהו עד (Shemos 22:12), let him bring it as evidence; להית עד חמס (Shemos 23:1), to be a malicious witness; ועד אין בה (Bamidbar 5:13), and there is no witness against her; unless the pasuk specifies אחד, one, as ועד אחד לא יענה בנפש למות (Bamidbar 35:30), one witness shall not testify against a person that he die. Rav Pappenheim finds this right by the setting of the word: עד is not the name of one person but of the event of meeting, the meeting of the deed and its doer in the knowledge of the third. Any seeing and knowing in which a doer and his deed meet, whether of one or of many, is called עד; as one testimony suffices whether the doers are one or many and the deeds one or more, so it makes no difference whether those who see and know are one or many.

By extension עדות is said of a thing without the breath of life: עד הגל הזה ועדה המצבה (Bereishis 31:52), this heap is witness and the pillar is witness, since here too two subjects meet in that third, which is to be a witness for them. But in full testimony the witness is one who can tell, while in testimony without life the witness is only a sign and token, to remind those who met in it to keep their terms. It is a little more than an אות, a sign: the אות is a sign to save from forgetting, the עד a sign to rouse to the deed, as והיה לאות ולעד (Yeshayahu 19:20), and it shall be for a sign and for a witness, and מה-אעידך מה אדמה-לך (Eichah 2:13), what shall I take to witness for you, what shall I liken to you, meaning what shall I set up as a witness that the like of you has happened before. Hence העידתי בכם היום את השמים ואת הארץ (Devarim 4:26), I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that they be like witnesses in the matter; as למען תהיה לי השירה הזאת לעד בבני ישראל (Devarim 31:19), so that this song may be a witness for Me among Bnei Yisrael.

So some mitzvos are called עדות: אלה העדת והחקים (Devarim 4:45), these are the testimonies and the statutes; עדתיך נאמנו מאד (Tehillim 93:5), Your testimonies are very sure; אשרי נוצרי עדותיו (Tehillim 119:2), fortunate are those who keep His testimonies; הט לבי אל עדותיך (Tehillim 119:32 in his edition), incline my heart to Your testimonies. They are so called because they were given to be witnesses to the events that befell the people of Israel. With a cholam, the tav of עדות is the plural ending, testimonies; with a shuruk the word is the noun of the event, the Testimony: ארון העדות (Shemos 26:33), the Ark of the Testimony; לפני העדות למשמרת (Shemos 16:34), before the Testimony, to be kept.

עדות serves too for warning, for which he gives the German, Warnung: a man makes his own words a witness to the thing he warns his fellow of, and those words are his witnesses afterwards that he warned him. So העד העד בנו האיש (Bereishis 43:3), the man solemnly warned us, that is, warned and cautioned us; רד העד בעם (Shemos 19:21), go down, warn the people; and והועד בבעליו (Shemos 21:29), and its owner has been warned. So הן עד לאומים נתתיו (Yeshayahu 55:4), behold, I have made him a witness to the peoples, meaning one who warns and cautions the nations to listen, and if they do not, בשלח יעבורו (Iyov 36:12), they shall perish by the sword. That fits only a ruler of nations: because he can punish, he can warn. So ויתן עליו את-הנזר ואת-העדות (Melachim II 11:12), and he put upon him the crown and the עדות, names the ornament the king wears as a sign that he is a witness to the nations; or עדות is from עדי, the ornaments of kingship, as the commentators explain.

Rav Pappenheim adds that perhaps the mitzvos called עדות have the name from warning too, and that it belongs to the prohibitions, all of which were stated with warning, caution and punishment, unlike the positive mitzvos, which carry no warning except Pesach and milah, which carry kares. And the Torah as a whole is called עדות, as in לוחות העדות (Shemos 31:18), the Tablets of the Testimony, and אהל העדות (Bamidbar 18:2), the Tent of the Testimony, because the core of the Torah is its לא תעשה, its prohibitions, which outnumber the positive mitzvos and are graver, and the Torah is named for the greater part.

Another noun of the event from עדות is תעודה: וזאת התעודה בישראל (Rus 4:7), and this was the attestation in Yisrael, that is, doing a certain act is testimony that the dealing is concluded; צור תעודה חתום תורה בלמודי (Yeshayahu 8:16), bind up the testimony, seal the Torah among My disciples; and לתורה ולתעודה (Yeshayahu 8:20), to the Torah and to the testimony, that is, to testimony. The difference between עדות and תעודה he sets out at the root בן.