nature
cheese
At a glance
In short
Gvinah, cheese, is the ordinary word and the one Chazal use. Charitz (charitzei hechalav, Shmuel I 17:18) and shfot (shfot bakar, Shmuel II 17:29) each occur once, and Targum Yonasan renders both as guvnin d'chalva, cheese. Each is disputed, though: charitz may mean young kids, shfot the udders themselves or butter, and either may be milk still in the udder. Rabbi Avraham Maskileison explains that the dispute over charitz is why Bechoros 6b cites its pasuk only as a possible proof.
Distinctions
Gvinah (גבינה)
Root ג-ב-ן. One occurrence in Tanach: "Did You not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese?" (Iyov 10:10), which Ralbag and others read of Hashem taking the liquid matter of conception and setting it into a formed human being. From the Mishnah on it is simply the word for cheese (Berachos 6:3, Shabbos 17:2, Nedarim 6:5, Eduyos 5:2, Avodah Zarah 2:4-5, Chullin 8:1-3). The word was popular enough in the ancient world to be borrowed into Akkadian as gubnatu, though Assyriologists argue that gvinah is originally Aramaic and not Hebrew. The same root yields giben (Vayikra 21:20), a blemish disqualifying a kohen: some commentators, Rav Saadia Gaon, Radak (Sefer HaShorashim), and Abarbanel among them, say a hunchback, which is the sense Modern Hebrew took; the Mishnah (Bechoros 7:2) says one whose eyebrows are abnormally long. Some explain the Midrash on Har Gavnunim as teaching that even a blemish like giben was healed at Har Sinai.
Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim reduces ג-ב-ן to the biliteral ג-ב, a bulge, something sticking out and plainly seen. Its plainest derivative is gav, the back or outside of a vessel or a hand, and also the eyebrow (Vayikra 14:9), conspicuous on the face. So giben is one whose gav (back) is humped or whose gav (brow) is misshapen; gavnunim are bulging mountains; gvinah is cheese because it too heaps up. Under the same biliteral he puts gavoah (high, visible from afar), negev (dry highland), geveh (surface pools, higher than an underground spring), govai (grasshoppers, which haunt the geveh), and yogvim (those who trap them).
- Rabbi Aharon Marcus works the same biliteral ג-ב, which he argues comes in turn from the monoliteral ג, but defines it as height: gavoah; gibor, who rises above his enemies; gabachas (Vayikra 13:41-42), the bald patch at the top of the forehead; givah, a hill; elgavish (Yechezkel 13:11, 13:13, 38:22), hail, falling from on high. He also brings in the Arabic jabal, "mountain," from which the Hebrew gvul, "border," possibly derives, that too being a feature that runs upward. He adds ג-ב-ן here as a hump, without saying whether he means the cheese or the blemish.
- Alexander Kohut, in his Aruch HaShalem, suggests connecting gavnunim itself with jabal/gvul on the interchange of nun and lamed, so that gavnunim simply means mountainous or hilly.
- Rabbi Avi Kobernick reads ג-ב-ן against its metatheses ג-נ-ב (stealing) and נ-ג-ב (drying): in each, something integral is removed from where it belongs, the object from its owner, the moisture from the substance, liquid from curds.
Derashos, and the question of why dairy is eaten on Shavuos:
- Rabbi Shimshon of Ostropoli connects it to Har Gavnunim, an alternate name for Sinai (Tehillim 68:16-17), from gvinah.
- Shemos Rabbah 2:4, which assumes the name relates somehow to gvinah and to cheese-making, expounds it on the model of cheese, which draws the purest curds off from the dross: of all the mountains Hashem chose the one clean and pure of avodah zarah, and Klal Yisrael stood there in their purest state, every dross-like blemish healed.
- Rabbi Yosef Nissim Ben-Adahan: gvinah has the gematria of seventy, for the seventy planes of interpretation in every part of Torah.
- Rabbi Klein adds two further answers: David HaMelech died on Shavuos by tradition (Yerushalmi Chagigah 2:3, Rus Rabbah 3:2), and since most of Tanach's cheese occurs in his story, perhaps the custom marks him; or, since the heter of dairy is derived from a story about him, we honor his memory on the day of his petirah by eating milk foods.
Charitz (חריץ)
Yishai sends David with ten charitzei hechalav to the officer (Shmuel I 17:18). Targum Yonasan, Rashi, and Machberes Menachem read cheese, and Bechoros 6b uses the pasuk as one of two proofs that milk and its products are permitted and are not eiver min hachai. On why the root ח-ר-ץ should mean cheese:
- Radak (Sefer HaShorashim) and Rabbi Avraham ben Shlomo, pieces of fresh cheese, whose making somehow involves a shaking that resembles threshing, and threshing is charutz (Yeshayahu 10:22, 28:27).
- Rabbi Yosef Kara (to Shmuel I 17:18), cheese was often gathered in charitzim, ditches dug in the ground (Daniel 9:25; Eruvin 7:3; Bava Kamma 5:5; Mikvaos 5:6).
- Metzudas Tzion (there) suggests that perhaps cheese was cut to fixed measures while still being processed, and charitz is cutting (Iyov 14:5).
- Rabbi Tedeschi-Ashkenazi (Hoil Moshe to Shmuel II 17:29), charitz as sharp, a cheese of fermented milk with a tangy flavor.
Against all of these, Midrash Shmuel 20:4 takes charitzei hechalav not as cheese but as young kids, either not yet weaned (Mahari Cohen, Eitz Yosef, Radal) or just weaned (Yefeh Nof), apparently a delicacy. Both further derivations are put conditionally: Radal writes that if the phrase means animals still nursing, then charitz comes from charutz, diligent, someone quick to take them from their mothers while still young and tender; and Rabbi Shmuel Yaffe-Ashkenazi that if it means animals recently weaned, then charitz is cutting, their being cut off from their mother's milk. Ibn Janach (Sefer HaShorashim) entertains a third possibility, thick coagulated milk found in the animal's udder. Rabbi Avraham Maskileison uses these to explain why Bechoros 6b treats the pasuk as a possible and not a conclusive proof. Halachic aside: Rema (Yoreh Deah 89:4) records marking the dairy knife; Pri Megadim (Mishbetzos Zahav 89:7) finds the hint in charitz (a groove) beside chalav, that dairy utensils carry a notch.
Shfot (שפות)
David in flight from Avshalom is brought shfot bakar (Shmuel II 17:29), which Targum Yonasan again renders guvnin d'chalav.
- Midrash Shocher Tov (to Tehillim 3): cow's cheese so slick flies slid off it; Rabbi Chaim Dov Rabinowitz (Daas Sofrim there) reads that as heavily preserved cheese fit for a long journey.
- Radak and Metzudas Tzion tie the word to ש-ף, rubbing and massaging (Iyov 33:21; Radak, Sefer HaShorashim).
- Rabbi Pappenheim defines the biliteral as movement by rubbing, shifting a thing without lifting it, and takes shfot bakar as soft, spreadable cheese.
- Rabbi Tedeschi-Ashkenazi (Hoil Moshe to Tehillim 127:5, Shmuel II 17:29, Yechezkel 40:43) ties it to the homonymous shfot, setting a pot by the fire (Melachim II 4:38), the shared sense being bringing things closer or joining them: pot to fire, the cheesy particles in the milk into one glob; he groups ashpah, the bin or container for arrows, and shifshuf with it, and alternatively makes shfot the wicker baskets used to filter fermenting milk, separating the curds from the whey. Josephus mentions a place in Yerushalayim called the Tyropoeon, the Valley of the Cheesemakers, which some scholars have identified with Shaar HaAshpah, on the strength of that link between ashpah and shfot.
Dissenting:
- Ibn Janach again offers milk in the udder.
- Radak the udders themselves.
- Rabbi Avraham ben Shlomo butter, which Rabbi Klein finds difficult, since chemah is already named in the pasuk.
See Chasam Sofer 6:22 on why Bechoros 6b did not bring this pasuk as its proof.
Also discussed in
- Mount Sinaiגבננים / גבינה gavnunim / gvinah (ג-ב-ן)
Radak on these roots
Sefer HaShorashim
ג-ב-ן
Cheese, גְּבִנָּה, whose sense he calls known; two words Rabbi Yonah brought under this root, Radak files under גב, holding that correct.
The whole entry
One pasuk, הֲלֹא כֶֽחָלָב תַּתִּיכֵנִי וְכַגְּבִנָּה תַּקְפִּיאֵֽנִי (Iyov 10:10), did You not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese, of which he says ידוע, its sense is known. Rabbi Yonah brought אֽוֹ־ גִבֵּן אוֹ־דַק (Vayikra 21:20), or a hunchback or a dwarf, and הָרִים גַּבְנֻנִּים (Tehillim 68:17), many-peaked mountains, under this root. Radak has already written them under the root גב, and that, he says, is correct.
הֲלֹא כֶֽחָלָב תַּתִּיכֵנִי וְכַגְּבִנָּה תַּקְפִּיאֵֽנִי (איוב י, י), ידוע. ורבי יונה הביא בזה השרש אֽוֹ־גִבֵּן אוֹ־דַק (ויקרא כא, כ), הָרִים גַּבְנֻנִּים (תהלים סח, יז). וכבר כתבנום בשרש גב והוא הנכון.
ח-ר-ץ
Moving, and the diligent, who move about for their food; decreeing and judgment; cutting, with the threshing sledge and a trench; cheeses; and gold.
Moving the tongue
לֹֽא־ חָרַץ לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לְאִישׁ אֶת־לְשֹׁנֽוֹ (Yehoshua 10:21) means: not one man of them moved his tongue at Yisrael, the lamed of לאיש being an extra one like the lamed of הַשְּׁלִשִׁי לְאַבְשָׁלוֹם (Divrei HaYamim I 3:2), the third, Avshalom; or it means to a man of Bnei Yisrael, that not one of them moved his tongue even at a single man of Bnei Yisrael, and all the less at all of them together. So too לֹא יֶֽחֱרַץ ־כֶּלֶב לְשֹׁנוֹ (Shemos 11:7), no dog shall move its tongue, and אָז תֶּחֱרָץ (Shmuel II 5:24), then you shall move. The sense of these is ענין התנועה, movement.
The diligent man
מַחְשְׁבוֹת חָרוּץ אַךְ־לְמוֹתָר (Mishlei 21:5), the thoughts of the diligent are only to profit. וְהֽוֹן־אָדָם יָקָר חָרֽוּץ (Mishlei 12:27) he reads as though turned about, והון אדם חרוץ יקר, the wealth of a diligent man is precious; and some take חרוץ there for a noun, so that the precious thing in a man's wealth is החריצות, diligence itself. In the plural, וְיַד חָרֽוּצִים תַּֽעֲשִֽׁיר (Mishlei 10:4), the hand of the diligent makes rich, and וְנֶפֶשׁ חָֽרֻצִים תְּדֻשָּֽׁן (Mishlei 13:4), the soul of the diligent shall be made fat; the sense of all of it is movement. They are men who move about for their food and do their work in uprightness and justice, diligent and quick to acquire this world and the next, the opposite of the lazy and the deceitful; for the sense of חרוץ is also that of decree and judgment.
Decreeing
כֵּן מִשְׁפָּטֶךָ אַתָּה חָרָֽצְתָּ (Melachim I 20:40), so is your judgment, you yourself have decreed it; בְּעֵמֶק הֶֽחָרוּץ (Yoel 4:14), in the valley of decree, which the Targum renders בְּמֵישַׁר פִּלוּג דִינָא, the plain where judgment is divided; כִּי כָלָה וְנֶחֱרָצָה (Yeshayahu 10:23), for destruction, and decreed, whose meaning is: and the destruction is decreed; and אִם חֲרוּצִים יָמָיו (Iyov 14:5), if his days are decreed, a passive participle, that is, גזורים, decreed.
The threshing sledge
כִּי לֹא בֶֽחָרוּץ יוּדַשׁ קֶצַח (Yeshayahu 28:27), for קֶצַח, black cumin, is not threshed with a חָרוּץ, means with a מורג חרוץ, which cuts and threshes the grain, as in הִנֵּה שַׂמְתִּיךְ לְמוֹרַג חָרוּץ חָדָשׁ (Yeshayahu 41:15), behold, I have made you a new threshing sledge that cuts. It is a board of wood with fine stones set under it, to cut the straw and bring the grain out of its husk; the tool's name is מורג, and it is called חרוץ for its work, cutting the husk from the grain. Though they are one tool, there may be some difference between מורג and חרוץ; or חרוץ describes the מורג as one that cuts well, and such a great heavy tool is not fit for threshing קצח and fine seed.
Cutting, and a trench
וּבַֽחֲרִצֵי הַבַּרְזֶל (Shmuel II 12:31), and with cutters of iron, and בַּֽחֲרֻצוֹת הַבַּרְזֶל (Amos 1:3), with cutters of iron, are like it, the sense of all of them being החתוך והכריתה, cutting and severing. So too אֽוֹ־ חָר֣וּץ אֽוֹ־יַבֶּ֗לֶת (Vayikra 22:22), or חָרוּץ or with a wart, where חָרוּץ has been explained as cut, and Chazal explain it (Bechoros 38a, 39a) as an eyelid split or nicked, or a lip split or nicked. And וְנִבְנְתָה רְחוֹב וְחָרוּץ (Daniel 9:25), and it shall be built, street and trench, is a digging cut into the ground, as the Mishnah's חריץ שבין שתי חצרות (Eruvin 7:3), a trench between two courtyards.
Cheeses, and gold
חֲרִצֵי הֶֽחָלָב (Shmuel I 17:18), which the Targum renders גוּבְנִין דַחֲלָבָא, cheeses of milk: it may be that they are so named because they are pressed in the making, and their making resembles the work of the חרוץ in threshing. מֵחָרוּץ וּמִפָּז (Mishlei 8:19), than gold and fine gold, בִּֽירַקְרַק חָרֽוּץ (Tehillim 68:14), with the greenish hue of gold, וְחָרוּץ כְּטִיט חוּצֽוֹת (Zecharyah 9:3), and gold like the mud of the streets, and יִרְפַּד חָרוּץ עֲלֵי־טִֽיט (Iyov 41:22), he spreads gold upon the mud, are all of them gold, though some explain precious stones. Rabbi Yonah wrote that וְיַד חָרֽוּצִים תַּֽעֲשִֽׁיר (Mishlei 10:4) and וְנֶפֶשׁ חָֽרֻצִים תְּדֻשָּֽׁן (Mishlei 13:4), the hand of the חָרוּצִים makes rich and the soul of the חָֽרֻצִים shall be made fat, may be from this too, and Radak takes his meaning to be the great merchants, the gold men, that is, those who hold the gold.
לֹֽא־חָרַץ לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לְאִישׁ אֶת־לְשֹׁנֽוֹ (יהושע י, כא), פירוש לא הניע איש מהם את לשונו לישראל. ולמ"ד לאיש נוספת כלמ"ד הַשְּׁלִשִׁי לְאַבְשָׁלוֹם (דברי הימים א' ג, ב) והדומים לו. או פירוש לאיש מבני ישראל כלומר אפילו לאיש אחד מבני ישראל לא חרץ אחד מהם לשונו ואין צריך לומר לכלם ביחד. לֹא יֶֽחֱרַץ־כֶּלֶב לְשֹׁנוֹ (שמות יא, ז), אָז תֶּחֱרָץ (שמואל ב' ה, כד), ענין התנועה. והתאר מַחְשְׁבוֹת חָרוּץ אַךְ־לְמוֹתָר (משלי כא, ה), וְהֽוֹן־אָדָם יָקָר חָרֽוּץ (משלי יב, כז), פירוש כמו הפוך והון אדם חרוץ יקר. ויש מפרשים חרוץ שם, ופירוש היקר שבהון האדם הוא החריצות. ולרבים וְיַד חָרֽוּצִים תַּֽעֲשִֽׁיר (משלי י, ד), וְנֶפֶשׁ חָֽרֻצִים תְּדֻשָּֽׁן (משלי יג, ד), בקמץ החי"ת לפי שהוא מן הדגושים לולי הרי"ש, ענין הכל התנועה. ופירוש חָרוּץ, חָרוּצִים אנשים המתנועעים על טרפם ועושין מלאכתן ביושר ובמשפט שהם חרוצים וזריזים לקנות העולם הזה והעולם הבא והם הפך העצלים הרמאים, כי ענין חרוץ גם כן ענין גזרה ומשפט כמו כֵּן מִשְׁפָּטֶךָ אַתָּה חָרָֽצְתָּ (מלכים א' כ, מ), פירוש גזרת. וכן בְּעֵמֶק הֶֽחָרוּץ (יואל ד, יד), ואמר בו התרגום בְּמֵישַׁר פִּלוּג דִינָא. ומזה עוד כִּי כָלָה וְנֶחֱרָצָה (ישעיה י, כג), ופירושו וְהַכָּלָה נחרצה. ודרך הנפעל בארנו בשרש חלה. אִם חֲרוּצִים יָמָיו (איוב יד, ה), החי"ת בשוא ופתח לפי שהם פעולים, כלומר גזורים. כִּלָּיוֹן חָרוּץ (ישעיה י, כב), כִּי לֹא בֶֽחָרוּץ יוּדַשׁ קֶצַח (ישעיה כח, כז), פירוש במורג חרוץ שהוא מחתך ודש התבואה כמו שאמר הִנֵּה שַׂמְתִּיךְ לְמוֹרַג חָרוּץ חָדָשׁ (ישעיה מא, טו). והוא כלי שדשין בו התבואה. והוא לוח עץ ואבנים דקות תחובות תחתיו לחתוך התבן ולהוציא התבואה מקליפתה. ושם הכלי מורג. ונקרא חָרוּץ על שם מלאכתו שחותך הקליפה מעל התבואה. ופירוש לַמוֹרַג חָרוּץ אף על פי שהם כלי אחד אפשר שיהיה שינוי בין מורג לחרוץ. או יהיה פירוש למורג חרוץ שיהיה חרוץ תאר למורג, כלומר המורג שהוא מחתך היטב והוא כלי גדול וכבד אין ראוי לדוש בו הקצח וזרע הדק, ולפיכך אמר כִּי לֹא בֶֽחָרוּץ יוּדַשׁ קֶצַח. וכמוהו וּבַֽחֲרִצֵי הַבַּרְזֶל (שמואל ב' יב, לא), בַּֽחֲרֻצוֹת הַבַּרְזֶל (עמוס א, ג) ענין הכל החתוך והכריתה. וכן אֽוֹ־חָר֣וּץ אֽוֹ־יַבֶּ֗לֶת (ויקרא כב, כב), פירשו חתוך. ופירשו רבותינו ז"ל (בכורות לח, עא. לט, ע"א) ריס של עין שנסדק או נפגם, או שפתו שנסדקה או נפגמה. וְנִבְנְתָה רְחוֹב וְחָרוּץ (דניאל ט, כה), חפירה חרוצה בארץ. וכן במשנה (עירובין פרק ז, משנה ג) חריץ שבין שתי חצרות. חריצים ונעיצים (בבא קמא נ, ע"ב), והרבה מזה דברו בו. חֲרִצֵי הֶֽחָלָב (שמואל א' יז, יח), אמר בו התרגום גוּבְנִין דַחֲלָבָא. ואפשר שנקראו כן לפי שמעשין אותן כשעושים אותם ודומה מלאכתן למלאכת החרוץ בדישה. מֵחָרוּץ וּמִפָּז (משלי ח, יט), בִּֽירַקְרַק חָרֽוּץ (תהלים סח, יד), וְחָרוּץ כְּטִיט חוּצֽוֹת (זכריה ט, ג), יִרְפַּד חָרוּץ עֲלֵי־טִֽיט (איוב מא, כב), ענין כלם זהב. ויש מפרשים אבנים טובות יקרות. וכתב רבי יונה ויתכן להיות מזה וְיַד חָרֽוּצִים תַּֽעֲשִֽׁיר (משלי י, ד), וְנֶפֶשׁ חָֽרֻצִים תְּדֻשָּֽׁן (משלי יג, ד), רוצה לומר הסוחרים הגדולים הזהביים כלומר בעלי הזהב, [בנקיר"י ד"י מוניד"ה].
Radak, Sefer HaShorashim, Berlin 1847. Public domain, digitised by Sefaria from the National Library of Israel.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "More Cheese Please," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 4 June 2022.
Cited in the essay: Iyov 10:10, 14:5, 33:21; Shmuel I 17:18 with Targum Yonasan, Rashi and Rabbi Yosef Kara; Shmuel II 17:29; Tehillim 3, 68:16-17, 127:5; Vayikra 13:41-42, 14:9, 21:20; Yeshayahu 10:22, 28:27; Yechezkel 13:11, 13:13, 38:22, 40:43; Melachim II 4:38; Daniel 9:25; Mishnah Berachos 6:3, Shabbos 17:2, Eruvin 7:3, Nedarim 6:5, Bava Kamma 5:5, Eduyos 5:2, Avodah Zarah 2:4-5, Chullin 8:1-3, Bechoros 7:2, Mikvaos 5:6; Bechoros 6b; Shemos Rabbah 2:4; Midrash Shmuel 20:4; Midrash Shocher Tov to Tehillim 3 with Daas Sofrim; Yerushalmi Chagigah 2:3 and Rus Rabbah 3:2 on David's petirah on Shavuos; Machberes Menachem; Sifrei HaShorashim of Ibn Janach and Radak; Metzudas Tzion; Hoil Moshe; Rema, Yoreh Deah 89:4 with Pri Megadim 89:7; Chasam Sofer 6:22; Alexander Kohut, Aruch HaShalem; Josephus on the Tyropoeon.