Origin of the Words "Tirosh" and "Yayin"

From RRW
Guest Blogger: Mitchell First

                                       The Origin of the Words “Tirosh” and “Yayin”

           The word “tirosh” appears thirty-eight times in Tanach. What exactly does it mean? In order to understand it, we must understand the winemaking process.  The first stage was crushing the grapes.  The resulting juice included the skins, seeds and stems. These were then separated out and the juice that remained was transferred to vessels which were placed in a cool place until the juice was completely fermented (by the action of the yeast in the juice). When the fermentation process was complete, the result was “yayin.” 

            In English, “must” is the term for wine before it has completely fermented. A mainstream view is that “tirosh” is something like the Biblical term for “must.” In this view, “tirosh” would include both unfermented must, and must that has only begun to ferment (=early wine). For example, the Soncino commentary defines “tirosh” as “grape juice in its fresh state which has not become completely fermented.” See their comm. to Mishlei 3:10.  Similar is  Y. Feliks, Olam Ha-Tzomeach Ha-Mikrai, p. 24.

           “Tirosh” is often mentioned in Tanach in connection with “dagan” and “yitzhar.” (Sometimes with “dagan” only but often with “yitzhar” as well, as in the second paragraph of Shema.) From the parallels to “dagan” (grain) and “yitzhar” (oil in its pre-processed state), it seems evident that the reference to “tirosh” is a reference to a product in a simple state, before its processing.  (It bears pointing out that the process of turning “yitzhar” into “shemen” was not a simple one and had several stages.)

         Michah 6:15 has the following: “ata tidroch zayit ve-lo tasuch shemen, ve-tirosh ve-lo tishteh yayin”= you will tread olives but shall not anoint with oil, [you shall tread] tirosh but not drink wine.” The import is that just like the treading of olives is the preparatory stage to producing oil, the treading of tirosh is the preparatory stage to producing wine. Here “tirosh” seems to mean “grapes,” prior to treading.

        On the other hand, at Hoshea 4:11, we have the following: “zenut ve-yayin ve-tirosh yikach lev” (=Harlotry, yayin and tirosh take away the heart). (The Soncino commentary explains here: “ ‘lev’ means more than heart; it is also the seat of the intellect.) Here “tirosh” is given the ability to take away the heart. This verse suggests that “tirosh” is substantially similar to wine, or perhaps an archaic or poetic term for wine. 

           In the Hittite language (which is not a Semitic one, and which is attested to from the 16^th-13^th centuries BCE), there is a word “tuwarsa” that means “vine.”  See C. Rabin, Orientalia 32 (1963), p. 137.     Accordingly, Rabin believes that both “yayin and “tirosh” mean wine in the Tanach. Also, the Jerusalem Talmud (Nedarim 7:1) takes the position that “yayin” and “tirosh” have the same meaning in “leshon Torah,” even though they did not mean the same thing in the “leshon bnei adam” of its time.

            But looking at all the Biblical verses, especially all those references to “tirosh” in the context of “dagan” and “yitzhar,” the verses overwhelmingly points to “tirosh” meaning something significantly less than completely fermented wine. Therefore, the statement in the Jerusalem Talmud that equates them in “leshon Torah” perhaps should not be taken so literally.  

         Both the ArtScroll Stone Chumash and the Hertz Chumash translate “tirosh” as “wine” in all 10 occasions that it appears in the Torah. (Finally, they agree on something!) But the ArtScroll work may have done this because of the passage in the Jerusalem Talmud.  As to the Hertz Chumash, it utilized the 1917 Jewish Publication Society translation as its translation. This translation was largely based on the King James translation of 300 years earlier.  

           Everyone agrees that the meaning of “tirosh” evolved by the time of the Sages. For example (as discussed in the above passage in the Jerusalem Talmud), if someone takes a neder forbidding “tirosh” on himself, there is a disagreement about whether we should interpret his “neder” as following “leshon Torah” or “leshon bnei adam.” In the former, wine would be prohibited. In the latter, it would not, as “tirosh” was not the equivalent of “yayin” in the period of the Sages. It developed a different meaning: “kol minei metikah.” See J. Talmud, Ned. 7:1. See also J. Talmud Nazir 2:1.

         As to the etymology of the Biblical “tirosh,” Rabin, who equates it with “yayin,” believes that it is not a Semitic word. He notes that “tuwarsa” means “vine” in Hittite.

        For those who believe that “tirosh” is a Semitic word and means something like “must,” the etymology is much discussed. The simplest view connects it to the Hebrew root Y-R-Sh. This root has meanings like “take possession of” and “inherit.” But in the hiphil (=”horish”), it many times seems to have the meaning “drive out,” since this is the first step in taking possession. See, e.g., Deut. 4:38. “Tirosh” is the juice that was driven out of the grapes.

           But there are those who think that “horish” never means “drive out.” Rather, it means “destroy someone so that someone else can possess his property.” See The Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, vol. 6, p. 374. (This word “horish” may be derived from a different root, Resh-Vav-Shin, or Resh-Yod-Shin. These roots mean something like “to be poor.”) If there was no “drive out” meaning, then one needs a new etymology for a Semitic “tirosh.” Many have been suggested and they are usually farfetched.

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               With regard to the word “yayin,” there is a Hebrew root Y-N-H which means “oppress.” (See, e.g., Ex.  22:20: “ve-ger lo toneh.”) Perhaps this derived from a more concrete root “press” and would be an explanation for “yayin.” But this is just speculation

               The Greek word for wine is “oinos.”  (One should ignore the “s” at the end which is just a suffix added in the Greek.) The Latin word for wine is “vinum.” (Similarly, one should ignore the “m” at the end.)  These Greek and Latin words bear a close similarity to the Hebrew “yayin” and to the similar word for wine in many of the other Semitic languages. Scholars have noticed these similarities.

                There are three main possibilities. One is that the Indo-European languages borrowed the word from the Semitic languages. Another is that the Semitic languages borrowed the word from the Indo-European languages. The third is argued by Rabin in the article cited above: Both borrowed it from the Hittite language, an early Indo-European language.  The Hittite word for wine is ”wa(i)ana.” (The Hittites were centered in a region of modern-day Turkey.)  

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                 Finally, it is important to point out that Neviim and Ketuvim are comprised of many books spread over about 1000 years and authored in different regions of ancient Israel. This helps explain why we cannot get a uniform picture of “tirosh” within Nach.                                                                                       

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Mitchell First can be reached at MFirstAtty@aol.com. Unfortunately, he is not a wine drinker but a grape juice drinker. For more of his articles, please visit his website at rootsandrituals.org. He would like to acknowledge Herb Edelman who asked about “tirosh” and inspired this column.