חמאת בקר CURD OF KINE: According to the plain meaning of Scripture,1 [this means that they received] “a land flowing with milk”2 and with much meat for them to eat.3
חלב כרים WITH THE BEST OF
KARIM: [
Karim means] wild
4 rams,
5 that fatten themselves on grazing land.
6 [The rams are called
karim since they graze on a place called a
kar.]
7 So it is written
(Isaiah 30:23), “Your livestock shall graze in broad pastures (כר).”
So also the phrase
(Ps 65:14), “The meadows (כרים) are clothed with sheep,” should be understood on the same pattern as the end of that verse, “the valleys are mantled with grain.” [The first clause means that] the meadows
8 of grain clothe themselves with sheep; in other words they are full of sheep grazing.
So also the phrase
(Ps 37:20), “The enemies of the LORD, like meadow grass (כרים) consumed in smoke,” – i.e., like the way crops
9 are lost
10 when they become blighted all at once at night just before the harvest – “are consumed, consumed in smoke.” [In other words, they, the enemies of the LORD, are scorched] by fire, and they turn black [just like blighted crops].
11 (I have seen this [happen to the crops] at harvest time.)
12 So also the wicked at first succeed like the crops of a meadow,
13 but then
(Job 34:25) “the night passes and they are crushed.”
ואילים בני בשן RAMS OF BASHAN: [All those rams that come from Bashan] are generally fat.14 As for rams from other locations, the ones that graze on meadows are fatter than the domesticated ones.15
עם חלב כליות חטה: means ALONG WITH THE FAT OF THE COVETED, i.e., choice WHEAT. [The word כליות here is] related to the idea of “coveting” or “desiring,”
16 as in the verses (2 Sam 13:39) “King David was pining (ותכל) for,” or
(Ps 84:3), “My soul yearns (כלתה) for.” So also
(Ps 73:26) “My body yearns (כלה).”
[The noun כִּלְיָה is derived from the root כ-ל-ה, meaning “to covet” or “to desire,”] just as “שִׁבְיָה – captivity” (32:42) is derived from the root ש-ב-ה. The letter
yod replaces the
heh, as with all weak final-
heh verbs. So also from the root ב-נ-ה, [the noun formed is בִּנְיָה], as in the phrase (Ezek 41:13), “הַגִּזְרָה וְהַבִּנְיָה – the vacant space and the structure.”
17
חמר: [should be understood here the same way as in the verse]
(Ps 75:9), “with strong (חמר) wine fully mixed.”
18
1. As opposed to the allegorical interpretations of these phrases offered by Onq., and referred to by Rashi at the end of his comment: “the spoils of their kings and rulers, with the riches of their princes.”
2. Rashbam uses the common biblical phrase; see e.g. Exodus 3:8.
3. So also NJPSC: “the land’s rich pastures sustain cattle that produce dairy products and meat.”
4. Rashbam refers to these animals as מדבריות. See his commentary to Leviticus 16:10 and note 8 there.
5. Rashi writes that כרים are sheep and so he distinguishes between the meaning of כרים and אילים בני בשן. For Rashbam’s explanation, see his next comment, s.v. ואילים בני בשן.
6. In Rashbam’s next comment, s.v. ואילים בני בשן, he explains that wild rams that graze on meadows are fat.
7. Although there are a number of different meanings for the word כר in biblical Hebrew, in our verse there is really no doubt that כרים means “rams.” That is how it has invariably been interpreted.
Rashbam’s point here is that the meaning “ram” is actually a secondary meaning derived from the meaning “meadow.” A ram is called a כר because it commonly grazes in a meadow.
Rashbam makes this point here because he wishes to argue that in the two verses that he now quotes from Psalms, the original meaning, “meadow,” is more appropriate than the derived meaning, “ram.”
8. Rashbam is opposing the midrashic explanation of the verse found in RH 8a, according to which כרים in the verse in Psalms is a reference to an animal, not to a meadow. See Rashi in RH there, s.v. לבשו. See also Ibn Ezra’s comment there in Psalms.
9. Rashbam is opposing the interpretation of כרים as “rams” in the verse in Psalms
(37:20). That interpretation is found in a number of
midrashim (e.g. Esther Rabba 7) and is cited both by Ibn Ezra and by Rashi as one of the possible explanations of the verse. Rashbam says that כרים means meadows in this verse.
10. Rashbam uses the contextually strange word כמניעת here as a paraphrase of the difficult word כִיקַר in the verse. He may be (as Rosin suggests) alluding to Menaḥem’s explanation (Maḥberet, s.v קר, II) that this root should be connected to the idea of “withholding” (ענין מניעה). In any case, he is rejecting Rashi’s two explanations – that it is a reference either to sunshine or to honor.
11. A recent description of blight reads: “The fungus can spread rapidly through the foliage and is capable of causing complete blighting of foliage within a very short time... . The first symptoms of late blight in the field are small, light to dark green, circular to irregular-shaped water-soaked spots ... [which] expand rapidly into large, dark brown or black lesions.” (
http://www.ext.nodak.edu/extpubs/plantsci/hortcrop/pp1084w.htm)
12. Joseph Klausner (Leshonenu 21 [1957], p. 201) cites this text as proof that Rashbam was well aware of and very interested in everything happening around him in the material world.
13. Rashbam understands the image as conveying the idea of transitory success, the same idea that Rashi sees in the verse. Rashi says that the reference is either to the way that a meadow may look beautiful in bright morning sunshine that does not last, or to the way that sheep are “honored” by fattening them up, when it is only a preparation for leading them to the slaughter. Rashbam says that the reference is to crops that look like they are going to be successful and then suddenly succumb to blight.
14. So also Rashi.
15. Rashbam is explaining that both the word כרים and the phrase אילים בני בשן imply well-fattened rams. See note 46 above.
16. The standard meaning of the noun כִּלְיָה in Hebrew is “kidney,” a meaning that does not fit smoothly into our verse. Most exegetes still try to explain that the verse is making a comparison of sorts between kidneys and wheat, either because of the shape of the wheat or because the wheat is described as being as fat as the kidneys, a repository of fat. See e.g. Sifre 317, Rashi, Ibn Ezra and R. Joseph Bekhor Shor. Some moderns emend; see the discussion in NJPSC, p. 403, note 79.
Rashbam offers an original interpretation – that כִּלְיָה has nothing to do with “kidney,” but is a noun derived from the root כ-ל-ה, meaning “to covet” or “to desire.” So also Hizq.
17. The noun בִּנְיָה is a hapax legomenon.
18. Rashbam compares our verse to the verse in Psalms, but does not really tell us how he understands the word חמר. I translated it based on Rashi’s commentary in Psalms. NJPS translates “foaming.” In any case, Rashbam’s comment may be seen as opposing the midrashic understanding of חמר as a measurement (Ket. 111b).