Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Isaias 15:6

"Let the earth bring forth (tadshe) grass (deshe):" The correct [understanding] is that deshe is small, soft grass, in which the seed is not recognizable (and therefore it does not say "grass that gives off seed") and the esev (herbs) is bigger than it. And Rabbi Ovadia Sforno says, that deshe is animal food and esev is food for people. But what the commentator on Netivot Shalom wrote - that deshe also includes trees - is not possible, since behold, we find [this word] in many places adjacent to herbs and vegetables (for example II Kings 19:26; Isaiah 15:6; 37:27) and not even once adjacent to trees. And nonetheless, [when used as a verb here in the phrase], "Let the earth bring forth (tadshe)," [it] includes the trees also, since the trees also are small and soft at the beginning of their sprouting (My student, our teacher, Rabbi Avraham Chai Meinster). And behold, "tadshe" is like, "let sprout" and afterwards [the verse] explains [what should sprout]: the deshe which is the smallest, and afterwards, it adds esev that gives off seed - which is bigger than deshe, and afterwards, it adds fruit trees. And therefore the cantillation sign, ravia, which is on top of the word, grass, is correct, since it creates less of a pause than the sign, zakef, which is on top of the word, seed; as grass and herbs [that bear seed] are one matter and fruit trees are another matter. And the sign, pashta over the [word,] earth, creates more of a pause than the ravia after it, as is the way of any ravia that comes after a pashta since it is [only there] so as not to repeat the pashta three times, as [is also the case in] "Behold, I have made him a lord over you, and all of his brothers have I given to him as slaves" (Genesis 27:37). And it is known that the sign, yetiv under the [word,] herb, is only to take the place of a pashta, since the word is [too] short [for it]. However, there is no doubt that the versions that have the word, grass, with a zakef are mistaken. And the 'trustworthy witness' [to this] is in the verse after it, "and the land brought forth grass;" wherein 'grass' is not with a zakef but with a tilsha gedola sign; and the words, "and the land brought forth" are with the signs, kadma and azla, which would not be possible if grass had been with a zakef. And the error in the first [of these two verses] came about because it is easy to mix up a ravia with a zakef, besides [the fact] that there is a pashta in front of it, and it is its way to come in front of a zakef; while no error in the second verse came about because it is unlikely to mix up a tilsha with a zakef, besides [the fact] that there is no pashta in front of it there.