Комментарий к Шмот 9:33

לא נתך means [RAIN] DID NOT REACH the earth (i. e. no fresh rain came down) — that rain, too, which was alredy in the air at the moment when Moses was praying remained there and did not reach the ground. In a similar sense is “ותתך עלינו the curse and the oath” — a passage in the book of Ezra (really, Daniel 9:11) — which signifies, “the curse and the oath have reached us”. But Menachem ben Seruk classified it in the same section as, (Ezekiel 22:22) “כהתוך כסף” which has the meaning of melting (pouring forth) metal. I agree with his opinion, because in the Targum we render ויצק, (Onkelos Exodus 38:5) “And he cast (metal)”, by ואתיך, and (Onkelos Exodus 38:27) לצקת, “to cast (metal)” by לאתכא, each of these Aramaic words being of the same root as our word נתך. Therefore לא נתך ארצה would mean: rain was not poured out to the ground.

נתך, an expression similar to יציקה, “pouring.” We find this root on this sense in Ezekiel 22,22 כהתך כסף בתוך כור כן תותכו בתוכה, “as silver is melted (poured into for refining) in a crucible, so you shall be melted in it.”

ומטר לא נתך ארצה, “and the rain did not reach the earth.” The Torah did not write that the rain did not descend to earth; it wrote לא נתך ארצה, “it was not allowed to complete its descent” (even after it had melted to become like regular rain). Our sages in Tanchuma 17 state that the descent of the rain was arrested in mid-air for 41 years until Joshua 10,11 when it finally descended in the form of large (hail)stones from the sky.
The prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 13,11) commanded these stones to fall. These stones were then called אלגביש, seeing that during these many years they had been “standing” on the back of איש. The איש in question was Moses who has been described in Numbers 12,3 as והאיש משה. Seeing that the hailstones give the illusion to the onlooker that they are pearls, they are called אבני אלגביש, as pearls are described in these terms in Job 28,18. The thunder also was suspended in mid-air only to descend to earth in the days of Elisha (Kings II 7,6) where we are told: “the Lord had made the camp of Aram hear the sounds of chariots, a sound of horses, a sound of a mighty army.” [The sound was equated with thunder. Ed.]

In the category of כהתוך כסף . . . [ בחלק ] is in the same category, i.e., from the same root as כהתוך כסף (the pouring of metal). (From the Maharan’s manuscript)

V. 33. ומטר לא נתך. Bis dahin war von Regen nicht die Rede. Wir möchten die Vermutung wagen, bei dem plötzlichen Innehalten des Hagelniederschlags hätte sich die bereits vorhandene Dunstmasse in Regen auflösen müssen. Das geschah aber nicht, es hörte alles plötzlich auf. Damit stimmte denn auch der Ausdruck נתך überein, der zunächst von einem Schmelzen von Metallen (daher der Name מתכת), somit von dem Flüssigmachen harter Körper gebraucht wird — כהתוך כסף בתוך כור Jechesk. 22, 22 — und sich hier auf das zu erwarten gewesene Auflösen der Hagelmasse beziehen kann, dass statt Hagel Regen gekommen wäre. Dagegen spräche jedoch das folgende חדל המטר, welches voraussetzen lässt, daß Regen wirklich vorangegangen war.