Korach: The Reversed Gam

Here is another kind of boring Rashbam on Korach. It is a purely grammatical observation about the workings of the word gam. Still, it impacts how we read some pesukim, on a peshat vs. midrashic level. We usually think of gam meaning “also”. But, what about in Bemidbar 16:13:

הַמְעַ֗ט כִּ֤י הֶֽעֱלִיתָ֙נוּ֙ מֵאֶ֨רֶץ זָבַ֤ת חָלָב֙ וּדְבַ֔שׁ לַהֲמִיתֵ֖נוּ בַּמִּדְבָּ֑ר כִּֽי־תִשְׂתָּרֵ֥ר עָלֵ֖ינוּ גַּם־הִשְׂתָּרֵֽר׃

Is it not enough that you brought us from a land flowing with milk and honey to have us die in the wilderness, that you would also lord it over us?

Does this mean that you will lord it over us (tistarer) and also lord it over us? What is the word gam doing in the middle of that phrase?

Rashbam claims that we just need to mentally move the word gam earlier, and that is how gam often functions. Thus:

גם השתרר - גמים שבתורה הפוכין כי גם תשתרר עלינו גם השתרר. וכן: וברכתם גם אותי. גם תברכו אותו. וכן ויאהב גם את רחל. וגם אהב את רחל. גם אותך הרגתי. גם הרגתי אותך.

My own translation (but we’ll consider Eliyahu Munk’s later):

גם השתרר — the gams in the Torah [often] are inverted [in their order], so it isגם תשתרר עלינו גם השתרר, “also you have lorded it over us”. So too, [Pharaoh’s statement to Moshe in Shemot 12:32], “and you will bless also me” means “and also you will bless me”; So too [describing Yaakov in Bereishit 29:30], “and he loved also Rachel [more than Leah]” means “and he also loved Rachel [more than Leah]”. [The angel’s words to Bilaam in Bemidbar 22:33], “also you I would have killed” [seemingly implying ‘you as well would have been killed’] means “also, I would have killed you”.

Rashbam’s point in this is that we should not look as the word gam in its precise position and assume that it is modifying the immediately proximate word. Otherwise, we would think that Pharaoh is saying that not only should you bless X, but you should also bless me. Rather, its position moves around but it modifies the entire expression, that also, in addition to other actions mentioned, you’ll bless me.

Unfortunately, Eliyahu Munk misses the mark, in not realizing that הפוכין means that they are out of their expected order. Instead, he believes it means that it designates an antonym or else contrast with the preceding. This is not true, at all, but he thinks so, and goes through each example showing how this is so.

גם השתרר, the word גם in the Torah appears quite often as an introduction to something opposite or totally different from what had preceded it. Our verse is an example of such use, the line כי תשתרר ילינו גם השתרר meaning “do you now also want to lord it over us?” Another such example is found in Exodus 12,32 where Pharaoh begs Moses to bless him, using the word גם, although this word in that context certainly is not a continuation of any previously discussed thought. Genesis 29,30 as well as Numbers 22,33 where the angel said to Bileam גם הרגתי אותך “I would also have killed you,” is totally out of keeping with the standard meaning of the word גם when it is translated as “also.” [the angel had not killed the ass as yet. Ed.]

Thus:

1. Lording it over us is “different” from bringing them into the wilderness to die.

2. Pharaoh begs (?) for a blessing, which contrasts to the immediately preceding where he said that Moshe and his flocks and herds should go as requested.

3. Genesis 29:30, he merely gives the citation, implying that gam does not keep with the standard meaning. The preceding context was that Yaakov had cohabited with Rachel.

4. Bilaam saying “I would also have killed you” was the angel saying what he’d have done had the donkey not shied away, but gam does not make sense.

There does not seem to be a consistent explanation of what Rashbam means by gam. This is just thrashing about, trying to make it make sense.