מַתָּ֣ן אָ֭דָם יַרְחִ֣יב ל֑וֹ וְלִפְנֵ֖י גְדֹלִ֣ים יַנְחֶֽנּוּ׃
אַ מענטשנס מתּנה מאַכט פֿאַר אים אַ װאַרע, און זי ברענגט אים פֿאַר גרױסע לײַט.
Tze'enah Ure'enah
“When the Lord enlarges your territory” [12:20]. Rabbi Abahu said: it is written that you should not forget the Levite, to give him food and what he needs. Thus, the Holy One will expand your boundaries, and you will become rich. Concerning this, the verse said, “a man’s gift eases his way” [Proverbs, 18:16]. This means, that which the person gives, causes that God expands his boundaries. A story occurred with Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Joshua, and Rabbi Akiva. They came to a Jew who was pious and had become impoverished. He saw the rabbis coming to his house and he did not have anything to honor them with, and he was very sad. His wife came and asked him, why are you sad? He said: how should I not be sad? I have nothing with which to honor these good rabbis. His wife was very righteous, and she said: we still have a field left. Sell half the field quickly and we will honor the good rabbis. He immediately sold the half field and gave the rabbis to eat and drink. The rabbis blessed that good man that God should give him double. The rabbis went home and he went to plow the half field. The earth opened under the feet of his ox, and the ox broke its foot in the hole. The good man wanted to pull the ox out, and the Holy One showed him a treasure with gold and silver in the hole. He took the silver and gold and became rich. The rabbis came again to the householder and asked him, how is it going? He responded: your blessing came true and the rabbis honored him.4Yalkut Shimoni, Re’eh, Remez, 884.
Tosafot Yom Tov
TAKING [Heb. מקח]. Midrash Shmuel writes in the name of Rabbenu Ephraim that the mem should be vocalized with a chirik.189Making the word mikach. Some read makach, with a patach under the mem. Both are correct, for one is Biblical Hebrew and the other is Rabbinic Hebrew. So far his words.
He means that we find the word vocalized with a chirik in the Bible, in 2 Chronicles 19:7: וְעַתָּה יְהִי פַחַד יְהוָה עֲלֵיכֶם שִׁמְרוּ וַעֲשׂוּ כִּי אֵין עִם יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ עַוְלָה וּמַשֹּׂא פָנִים וּמִקַּח שֹׁחַד. I say that it is unnecessary to resort to the distinction between Biblical and Rabbinic Hebrew, for even though we never find the word makach itself with a patach, we do find words vocalized according to this paradigm, for example the word masa` in 1 Kings 6:7: אֶבֶן שְׁלֵמָה מַסָּע and the word matan in Proverbs 18:16: מַתָּן אָדָם יַרְחִיב לוֹ.190Since the paradigm ma-X-X exists in the Bible, we may consider the spelling makach an acceptable Biblical spelling, i.e. one that would have been considered grammatical in Biblical Hebrew, even though the word never appears spelled that way.
But we never find this word or any similar word vocalized with a segol. This is because the initial mem is a prefix and the first letter of the triliteral root has been ellided,191The root of makach being l.k.ch, of masa` being n.s.`, and of matan being n.t.n. so the second letter in the word has been geminated to compensate. One may therefore only vocalize the word with a patach, but not a segol.192Gemination refers to the doubling of a consonant. Mikach, properly, is mikkach. In order for the kuf to be doubled, it must become the end of a closed syllable, i.e. it must now close the syllable that precedes in—formerly just mi, now to be mik—in addition to being the first letter in the next syllable, kach. If the vowel of the first syllable were a long vowel such as tzeireh (making the word mekkach) the consonant following it would have to be vocalized with a shva na`, making the word mek’kach. Geminated consonants, however, are not pronounced as two separate consonants with a vowel inbetween but as one long one, as in Italian libretto. Of the five short vowels, three are acceptable for vocalizing the prefixed mem: patach, chirik, and segol (the other two only appear in pariticipial prefixes, while our mem is a noun (or verbal noun) prefix). It is unclear what rule Tosafot Yom Tov is referring to when he says that segol is unacceptable here, although it is true that segol almost never appears before a geminated consonant, coming only before suffixes like -nu.
He means that we find the word vocalized with a chirik in the Bible, in 2 Chronicles 19:7: וְעַתָּה יְהִי פַחַד יְהוָה עֲלֵיכֶם שִׁמְרוּ וַעֲשׂוּ כִּי אֵין עִם יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ עַוְלָה וּמַשֹּׂא פָנִים וּמִקַּח שֹׁחַד. I say that it is unnecessary to resort to the distinction between Biblical and Rabbinic Hebrew, for even though we never find the word makach itself with a patach, we do find words vocalized according to this paradigm, for example the word masa` in 1 Kings 6:7: אֶבֶן שְׁלֵמָה מַסָּע and the word matan in Proverbs 18:16: מַתָּן אָדָם יַרְחִיב לוֹ.190Since the paradigm ma-X-X exists in the Bible, we may consider the spelling makach an acceptable Biblical spelling, i.e. one that would have been considered grammatical in Biblical Hebrew, even though the word never appears spelled that way.
But we never find this word or any similar word vocalized with a segol. This is because the initial mem is a prefix and the first letter of the triliteral root has been ellided,191The root of makach being l.k.ch, of masa` being n.s.`, and of matan being n.t.n. so the second letter in the word has been geminated to compensate. One may therefore only vocalize the word with a patach, but not a segol.192Gemination refers to the doubling of a consonant. Mikach, properly, is mikkach. In order for the kuf to be doubled, it must become the end of a closed syllable, i.e. it must now close the syllable that precedes in—formerly just mi, now to be mik—in addition to being the first letter in the next syllable, kach. If the vowel of the first syllable were a long vowel such as tzeireh (making the word mekkach) the consonant following it would have to be vocalized with a shva na`, making the word mek’kach. Geminated consonants, however, are not pronounced as two separate consonants with a vowel inbetween but as one long one, as in Italian libretto. Of the five short vowels, three are acceptable for vocalizing the prefixed mem: patach, chirik, and segol (the other two only appear in pariticipial prefixes, while our mem is a noun (or verbal noun) prefix). It is unclear what rule Tosafot Yom Tov is referring to when he says that segol is unacceptable here, although it is true that segol almost never appears before a geminated consonant, coming only before suffixes like -nu.