(According to Even Shoshan’s concordance, cognates of chafirah in the sense of “digging” appear in the Bible 23 times, while cognates of karah in the sense of “digging” appear 15 times.) This is implied by the Torah using the slightly less common verbiage karah to denote “digging” the pit, which implies even the most basic digging that does not penetrate as deep into the ground as the term chafirah implies. one that is less than ten handbreadths deep), he is still liable for any damages incurred (except for if an animal dies by falling into that pit, per Bava Kama 5:5). This is in order to teach that even if one digs “an incomplete pit” (i.e. This explanation of the wording regarding Isaac’s wells is also found in Ha’Ktav V’Ha’Kabbalah by Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg (1785-1865) and in Ha’Emek Davar by Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin (1816-1893).īased on this, the Malbim explains that when laying down the law that one who digs a pit is liable for all damages stemming from that pit, the Torah specifically uses the word karah. In the beginning, digging that well was expressed with the verb karah because they had only begun to dig the well, but in the end the digging is described with the word chafirah. 26:25), with a later verse talking about those same wells reporting, “On that day, Isaac's servants came, and they told him about the well that they dug ( chafirah), and they said, 'We found water' ” (Gen. The Malbim notes that this distinction can also be inferred from the verses concerning Isaac and his wells, as an earlier verse relates “and Isaac’s servants dug ( karah) there a well” (Gen. At first, he began to dig the pit, so the word karah is used to denote those first acts of digging, but subsequently the person in question dug deeper to the completion of the pit, so in that context a cognate of chafirah appears (see also Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ramoch, and Meiri to Ps. With this in mind, the Malbim accounts for the word order in the verse, "He dug ( karah) a pit, and he dug it ( chafirah)" (Ps. The Malbim explains that karah refers to the first stage in digging a pit, while chafirah refers to the completion of the dig. In this essay we will explore the possible differences between these apparent synonyms and help shed light on the exact meanings of these two terms. In fact, throughout the Mishna ( Shevi’it 3:10, Bava Kama 5:5, Bava Batra 2:12), the Rabbis consistently use the verb chofer - not karah - to denote the act of creating a bor. ![]() While this verse uses the relatively obscure verb karah to denote “digging,” the typical Biblical word for the verb of “digging” is chofer. The one who dug the pit is liable for all damages caused by the pit that he dug, as the Bible says, “When a man opens a pit, or when a man digs ( karah) a pit and he does not cover it, and an ox or donkey falls into it, then the master of the pit shall pay he shall recompense the owner…” (Ex. That term refers to a case in which somebody dug a pit that ended up causing damage to another. The first Mishna in Bava Kama (1:1) begins by listing four categories of damages for which a person might be responsible, with bor (“pit”) listed second.
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